blue circle and red circle CB's-IMPORTANT INFO

The red circles are made from Carom ball resin.
That is why they bounce more.
 
I dont have a 2-3" micrometer at the moment, but I would venture a guess and say the red circle is slightly smaller (the weigh difference has to come from somewhere), which is the main reason for livelier draw action on the ball. Maybe if someone has a mic that goes down to .0001 they would measure some. Calipers arent as accurate for this measurement.
Most times they are weighed the difference is usually 5-10 grams difference compared to other cue balls. This topic has been talked about for years, and lots of folks have weighed multiple samples. But I dont know if anyone has actually measured diameters. Or you could do an Archimedes water displacement test if you have a lab. :eek:
Chuck
 
RiverCity said:
I dont have a 2-3" micrometer at the moment, but I would venture a guess and say the red circle is slightly smaller (the weigh difference has to come from somewhere), which is the main reason for livelier draw action on the ball. Maybe if someone has a mic that goes down to .0001 they would measure some. Calipers arent as accurate for this measurement.
Most times they are weighed the difference is usually 5-10 grams difference compared to other cue balls. This topic has been talked about for years, and lots of folks have weighed multiple samples. But I dont know if anyone has actually measured diameters. Or you could do an Archimedes water displacement test if you have a lab. :eek:
Chuck
Click to expand...

I am glad you mentioned size as a factor because in my mind this is the main difference between different balls that people don't usually understand. I am a machinist by trade and have brought my calipers to the pool hall before and was VERY suprized in the differences in size between balls. Although there might be a difference in the weight of the materials which they are manufactured from-that only seems to be one part of it.

When I measured the balls they varied in size as much as .05" (almost a 1/16 of an inch.) The worst difference was between a red circle cue ball and centennial object balls. When cue balls and object balls are manufactured they are held to very tight tolerances (as tight as .002" I believe). The reason there is such a difference in size at the hall is simply that they wear out. I have noticed that red circle cue balls wear out much faster than others so this could explain the reason why they are typically lighter/smaller.

When ball cleaners are used every day on a set of balls they wear smaller just a little every time. Also, when people use a measle ball they are usually newer than the set of balls they are playing with, this could explain why they seem much heavier in the way they play.

I would think about age and how many times they have been through the ball cleaner before I generalize about the weight of one versus the other unless I was dealing with brand new balls.

Hope this makes sense.......:grin:

Dudley
 
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I believe the Quality Control departments in the Billiard Ball industry is nothing short of Crap. Tommy Kennedy posted here a cpl years ago and had wieghed dozens of CBs of all types... he came to the conclusion for the most part that the red circle was the smallest, the blue circle was slightly heavier and lastly the measle ball was the big boy of the three. All about 2 to 3 grams difference from eachother. In any case he got different numbers of weight over a massive amount of balls actually weighed. I believe he used 15 dozen boxes of CBs. I recall him saying almost every cueball weighed differently. This problem may have changed recently but was a problem imo.

That being said I truely believe the real problem lies in Pool room owners holding tours and other tournaments and having a blue circle on one table and a measle ball on another and having a red cicle on yet another table... going table to table playing different cueballs is quite frankly difficult to say the least. Other then that if there is one specific CB throughout a poolroom then I don't care which one I play with.... I just want some continuity.
 
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The blue circle that has come with the Centennial ball set has always in the past been heavier and follows better.
 
Maybe better questions are....


How much tolerance is acceptable to the typical pool player? In either gram weight or mm variance.

How much more are you willing to pay to keep new sets of balls in a pool room to have this level of ball consistency?

The players are inevitably going to pay for that.
 
Red circle cueballs are lighter because the color red weighs less than the color blue.
 
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