Ball Cleaners and other Home Accessories

Gerry said:
I'm in the same boat as you Erik. I just put my table in a few weeks ago, and I had no luck finding an affordable ball polisher. I made an impromtu cleaner out of an orbital car buffer upsidedown in a 5 gallon bucket with carpeting lining the bucket to protect the balls. It actually works pretty well, but I'd still like to find a "real" machine.

The junky brush I got with the table is ok, and I vacuum the table every few sessions along with wiping it down daily with a damp cloth.

Here's a few pics of my invention........cost........about $20
I just built your contraption. I used a low nap rug. It works great!!!. I was bound and determined to buy a ball polisher. You just saved me 300+ dollars. It's a stroke of genius. THANKS!!!

TommyT
 
TommyT said:
I just built your contraption. I used a low nap rug. It works great!!!. I was bound and determined to buy a ball polisher. You just saved me 300+ dollars. It's a stroke of genius. THANKS!!!

TommyT


No probs dude!....glad to help....

G.
 
Ballstar

I have bought and used the Ballstar (get the automatic one), and it is great.
It cleans and polishes 8 balls in 1 minute and 50 seconds, so a whole rack is done in 5 minutes. Try comparing that with other Ball cleaners. Not a big deal to the home owner, but does become a factor when doing several sets of balls. I started a ball cleaning service with a bar room owner, and we cleaned sets of balls for other bars, and small Pool rooms (6-7 bar tables) that did not have a way to do so. The Ballstar is heavy, I believe 38 lbs, and it is very sturdy. In my case, the Ballstar paid for itself with the service.
(Home owners could pick up on this idea, and perhaps pay for theirs the same way). We would schedule our customers for the same day, which allowed us to service them using only 1 or 2 days out of the week. We gave price breaks the more tables there were.

We purchased the Ballstar through Gates Billiards in Dallas, and had excellent service from them.

Q-Claw is a quick way to provide cue holders by your table, and I know a Pool room owner that took some 5 holder Q-Claws and just screwed them to tables for a permanent feature by his tables. You can also make wall mounted tables in a D shape with cut out cue holders in it, and line them with felt to avoid scratching the cue. Should not be a problem for someone that likes to work with wood. A couple of barstools beside the wall mounted table works just fine.
 
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Run the Century said:
The only tough problem is going to the pool room where you have dirty balls that skid.

The pool hall I frequent clean and polish their Aramith balls every day. They skid alot. Playing there you'll have the object ball skid about once every 100 shots or so. Playing 14.1 it might happen more often as there are many close slow shots playing straight pool, ie. the chalk is staying on the cue ball more.

At home I have a set of Centenials that skid much less, even when they are cleaned at the same pool hall. My conclusion is that the Aramith balls retain more chalk than the Centenials, clean or not.

Paul Mon
 
Paul Mon said:
The pool hall I frequent clean and polish their Aramith balls every day. They skid alot. Playing there you'll have the object ball skid about once every 100 shots or so. Playing 14.1 it might happen more often as there are many close slow shots playing straight pool, ie. the chalk is staying on the cue ball more.

At home I have a set of Centenials that skid much less, even when they are cleaned at the same pool hall. My conclusion is that the Aramith balls retain more chalk than the Centenials, clean or not.

Paul Mon
I think it's the chalk's fault. It is very soft and applies more than is neccessary. That extra chalk transfers to the cueball then to the object ball, and voila, a missed shot. I've seen it first hand, and on my hand. The aramith cueball is a chalk magnet.

TommyT
 
skins said:
the best ball cleaner by far is the one leonard bludworth makes. it has a hole for each ball and it holds all balls including the cue ball and works unbelievable. i think they're around $450 ? or so. he builds them and they're worth every penny.

I have one of Blud's ball cleaners and it kicks azz. The balls do not touch one another and are polished top to bottom and 360 deg. around.
Bad mo fo guys.
I believe he sell the polishing and cleaning fluid.
Purdman:eek:
 
Purdman said:
I have one of Blud's ball cleaners and it kicks azz. The balls do not touch one another and are polished top to bottom and 360 deg. around.
Bad mo fo guys.
I believe he sell the polishing and cleaning fluid.
Purdman:eek:
I thought you bought the company?:eek:
 


I did not know about this thread. Here is my design. I have a few left for sale if anyone is interested. The plans are also sold but actually I email for free to anyone who PMs me

Here is a link to the store. It sells for $194.00 includes shipping. Currently there are several users who seem to be satisfied. It has been used commercially and for home use.

http://www.sunburstselect.com/PBReview/PaStore.htm
 
You all should seriously take a look at the new Diamond home ball polisher, it's running $450.00 and is untouchable by any other ball polisher on the market today, but don't take my word for it, ask those that have already bought them:grin: And just for your information, the Blud polisher does not polish the balls 100% round, they spin in the same circle all the time, unlike the Diamond polisher which in fact, rotates the balls as they're spinning:smile:

Glen
 
Ballstar is widely spread in the clubs around here in Germany. I have to take a closer look and ask the people at one club about their machine. It's a 16 ball cleaner they bought for 800 US$
http://www.cuesports.de/product_inf...-95&xploidID=096f82a2cc10167ed79dabbbe435aba0

At our club we have a machine probably older than me, it does 6 balls at a time, so that's 3 stints. We leave the white in for the 3 stints of colored balls.

Our tables are vacuumed very regulary, since we lost quite a number of players we've dropped the weekly service which was done month by month from a different team. Now every player going at the table has to clean the balls and vacuum the table. Had a pretty standard one before, now we have an 1800 watts machine with a rotating brush which can be set to 4 diffrent levels. Hell that intensive care position makes the table cleaner than new. Didn't notice any damage to the table. Our president sometimes brought his private vacuum cleaner with a rotating brush over the past years and the tables were always fine.

Our tables are tapped since the start of this season, so the triangles are locked away. The tapping rack costs 35€/50US$ and you hammer little dents into the cloth which are a little closer together than the contact points of the balls, so they always roll together perfectly.
Making runouts in 9-Ball easier is a little downside of it, but it's always fair racking...

Our 3 cheap tables are cleaned with a moist cloth, furniture polish is used to our 2 GC III as well as a special cleaner for the brass pocket covers, but I don't know what that is
 
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