Aramith Ball Cleaning Machine

[DrCue'sProtege]

Has anyone tried this ball cleaner? If so just wondering what your opinions are and if its a worthwhile investment.

Mike


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aramith-Pow...279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337ed56c97

 

[Black-Balled]

waste of time and $, imo.

Spend 4x that and clean 16x as many balls at a time, not to mention Ballstar/ Diamond polishers are built for pool hall use.

 

[daimion]

If you dont mind being being crafty , you can spend about 50 bucks and make your own in no more than half an hour.

Orbital car buffer, 5 gallon paint bucket, knife (preferably dremmel tool), spare scrap of carpet, and a few tie wraps.

use knife or dremmel and cut holes in the side of the bucket. put buffer inside. secure with tie wraps. and viola you have a ball cleaner for 50 +/- a few bucks.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=2986941#post2986941

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

I took my balls to a store today and had them polished. It seems to have been a waste of $$$ since they pretty much still look dirty to me. Good thing it was free. I think it was the Star machine they were using.

I guess i'll use the Aramith Restorer and then the Aramith Cleaner and just scrub by hand.

Mike

 

[koolkatt58]

Ballstar Cleaner

Mike:

I bought the Ballstar some time ago worth every penny. I have 5 sets of balls that I polish about every 5 weeks or so I rotate them as I practice.
I use each set for 10 racks and polish every 140 racks. It works great you don't have to overdo it and also don't put too much cleaner a few drops to wet the sponge.

 

[MitchAlsup]

WHen my balls need a cleaning, I just wipe them down with a damp rag. You can do a set of 15 in about 3 minutes.

When my CB needs cleaned, I use a automotive sealer/glaze polishing compound on a rag. Takes less than 1 minute.

 

[AtLarge]

Has anyone tried this ball cleaner? If so just wondering what your opinions are and if its a worthwhile investment.

Mike...

Since you have to use it 16 times to clean a full set of balls, I wonder how long the cleaning pad lasts.

Aside from that, I think it looks interesting. I would not have any concern about the time required to do a set of balls for a home table.

 

[Shermanscs]

Has anyone tried this ball cleaner? If so just wondering what your opinions are and if its a worthwhile investment.

Mike


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aramith-Pow...279?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337ed56c97

About 2 years ago, I made the 5 gallon bucket polisher daimion referred to in his post and it works great! It has lasted the test of time and it really does a great job polishing the balls. I throw in about 5 balls at a time with some aramith ball cleaner and let it go for about 5 minutes. Admittedly, it's a little noisy and not too sexy to look at, but overall I can live with these characteristics as they are the only downside.

Cost me about $25 and took about 1/2 hour to make. Definately worth the small time & investment to see if it will work for you.

I got my bucket from home depot and the car polisher from pep boys.

- Steve

 

[Sealegs50]

Seems like a good cleaner if you are playing 3C. Otherwise I would get something that cleans more balls at a time. Mine is homemade and cleans 5 at a time. I am very happy with it. I use Porper's ball cleaner in a spray bottle. No evidence of residue. Hand washing was too tedious for me. I tended to skip the work and play with dirty pool balls.

 

[Black-Balled]

Seems like a good cleaner if you are playing 3C. Otherwise I would get something that cleans more balls at a time. Mine is homemade and cleans 5 at a time. I am very happy with it. I use Porper's ball cleaner in a spray bottle. No evidence of residue. Hand washing was too tedious for me. I tended to skip the work and play with dirty pool balls.

Can't fit no 3c ball in it!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aramith-Powe...item337ed56c97
Use with 2.25" phenolic balls

 

[ctyhntr]

Kinda reminds me of the face hugger pod from Aliens. On second thought looking at that on an empty stomach I now have an urge to fix myself a hard boiled egg.

I think you should save your money. For 1/3 of the price you can build the bucket polisher, or save for a nice Diamond, Ballstar or Bludworth ball polisher.

 

[the diesel]

Don't do it!! I would never pay $95 for a auto ball cleaner that cleans only 1 ball at the time! Save up and get a ballstar, diamond or make a homemade one with the bucket.

 

[JoeyA]

Haven't tried or ever seen that particular one ball cleaning machine but I imagine that you would have to purchase cleaning pads periodically.

I built one of those 5 gallon bucket ball cleaners with the orbital car polisher.
Got mine from Home Depot. Used two buckets so the polisher had room to breathe at the bottom. My buddy customized the polisher, putting in switches for on and off and plenty of air and only one bucket. Like his better.

On this subject though, I have a new set of Aramith tournament balls and was wondering about cleaning balls that have been waxed.

I have started using Turtle Wax at the suggestion of two TOP PLAYERS for polishing purposes. After a while wouldn't wax build up on these balls and if so, how do you remove the wax and put new wax on them? Or do you just keep adding wax and just buff the heck out of the balls?

Are there any household cleaners that can be used to properly clean the balls or is Aramith Ball Cleaner the only thing to use? (Wonder if ABC takes off old wax).

 

[AtLarge]

... I have started using Turtle Wax at the suggestion of two TOP PLAYERS for polishing purposes. ...

From the WPA Equipment Specs:

Balls should be unpolished, and should also not be waxed. Balls should be cleaned with a towel or cloth free of dirt and dust, and may also be washed with soap and water. Balls contaminated with any slippery substance - treated with a polishing or rubbing compound and/or waxed - must be cleansed and dewaxed with a clean cloth moistened with diluted alcohol before play.​

Obviously, WPA specs need not be used in all circumstances.

 

[wiredconcepts]

I am going to go with the others that suggested you build a ball polisher out of a 5 gallon bucket and a random orbital buffer. They really do work the team I play on built one a few months ago for everyone to share. I use a cleaner then just a touch of polisher after. I can fit all but two balls in this one.

Here are some pics of mine and the job it does. These balls are 40 years + old and were dingy yellow and very dull. 10 minutes in the polisher and they look this good.

Let me know if you need any help figuring out how to assemble one but there are a lot of youtubes videos showing the process.

 

[JoeyA]

From the WPA Equipment Specs:

Balls should be unpolished, and should also not be waxed. Balls should be cleaned with a towel or cloth free of dirt and dust, and may also be washed with soap and water. Balls contaminated with any slippery substance - treated with a polishing or rubbing compound and/or waxed - must be cleansed and dewaxed with a clean cloth moistened with diluted alcohol before play.​

Obviously, WPA specs need not be used in all circumstances.

That's interesting.

I wonder if that includes Aramith Ball Cleaner. Saluc maintains that it is a "Fine polish".

Thanks.

 

[DrCue'sProtege]

I just took my balls and cleaned them with soap and warm water. Dried them with a white towel.

Then i put some Aramith Ball Polish on them and wiped it off with a white towel.

Then i used a microfiber cloth and rubbed them down again.

They look fine now. Sure do shine. Have a little slickness to them like new balls do right out of the box.

Mike

 

[AtLarge]

That's interesting.

I wonder if that includes Aramith Ball Cleaner. Saluc maintains that it is a "Fine polish".

Thanks.

I don't know, Joey. I just got out my bottle of Aramith Billiard Ball Cleaner, and the only mention of polishing is this sentence: "Regular cleaning ... with this agent will keep your Aramith phenolic balls polished, lustrous and antistatic throughout their exceptionally long service life."

I see that the Saluc website has the words you quoted, "Fine polish," under a picture of the cleaner bottle to distinguish its function from the function "Power clean" under a picture of a bottle of Aramith Billiard Ball Restorer.

So I don't know whether the cleaner is a type of "slippery substance" that the specs forbid. But it does sound like the drafters wanted nothing more than soap and water and a clean towel or cloth. If that's true, the cleaner could be used to clean the balls, but then alcohol would need to be used to remove any trace of the cleaner!

 

[JoeW]

Some place on this forum or the Billiards Digest Forum there is a post by a chemist (or someone with similar training) who looked into the contents of Aramith ball cleaner. It was found that at least one of the chemicals is wax or something chemically similar. From his comments I concluded that it is wax and that the balls play much better when "cleaned" with Aramith "ball cleaner."

I thought it worth while to run a comparison study and removed all the substances from one set of balls and compared them (through play) with a set cleaned with Aramith ball cleaner.

Incidentally, I did this a few years ago and used floor wax remover on one set of balls and ruined a perfectly good set of balls by turning them an ugly shade of yellow (cost me a hundred odd dollars for that mistake). Bought another set and compared the results and found that balls "cleaned" with Aramith play much better than balls cleaned with only soap and water which were thoroughly rinsed of all soap.

Call it what you will Aramith is a "better" ball cleaner and the balls do not throw as much.

BTW when you use Aramith cleaner you have to wait for them to dry and a haze forms, just like waxing a car. Then you have to wait for an hour or so after polishing for the balls to harden or the balls spot where they collide. It is just like wax drying, polishing and then hardening. A rose by any other name ...

 

[jalapus logan]

That's interesting.

I wonder if that includes Aramith Ball Cleaner. Saluc maintains that it is a "Fine polish".

Thanks.

Joey, novus 1 is whacha want. Avoid numbers 1 & 2 though' as these have abrasives for removing scratches. Best stuff I've ever used. I still have half a bottle of the aramith stuff from a couple of years ago when I made the switch.

http://www.novuspolish.com/plastic_clean_shine.html