If your on the fence on buying a ball polisher, buy it

J

judochoke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Old judo is a senior citizen, on a small fixed pension, and social security. So when i saw the price of the diamond ball polisher, there was no way judo could buy that, way to expensive. Did a little research, and found DR BILLIARDS BALL POLISHER. Did a little research on it, and found it on eBay for sale. Had a lot of polishers sold, so i ordered one for about 270 with free delivery. This machine comes from china, and is simple to set up. When you power it up, a sexy Chinese lady’s voice says something in Chinese, very sexy.

It is so simple to use. Put the 16 balls in each cup, put one drop of polisher on each ball, and hit the button. It spins one minute going clockwise, and slows down and stops and spins 1 minute counter clockwise. That’s it. My Aramith balls are coming out brand new!!!!!!!

I polish once a week, when i clean my table. (How long this machine will last i don’t know, but im already thinking about a electronic repair store in case down the road it does malfunction)

It takes a lot to get old judo smiling, and this machine does it for me.😀
 
I built one based on this design. I think the or it polisher was around $25, the bucket around $5, and I scoured construction site dumpsters for carpet remnants.

The video above doesn’t show and compound, but I put a small drop of Aramith ball cleaner/polisher on the CB and a couple of others each batch of eight. Monitor it while running to ensure the balls don’t end up spinning on only one axis. It’s safe to agitate the balls by hand while it’s running t.
 
mrpiper said:
And rubs the balls against each other resulting in significantly reduced life of the finish
Click to expand...
Using Taom V10 I am polishing the balls every three months or so, 2-4 minutes each batch. I average about 1/2 hour per day. Balls don’t seem any worse for wear.

EDIT: If it’s a concern can run the balls one at a time.
 
dendweller said:
kinda late to be giving the guy that advice, let him be happy with his purchase. Full disclosure, I do have a home depot bucket with a harbor freight polisher in it.
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For others who come here. There have been multiple threads here on AZB re: diy polishers.

OP provided good advice on a polisher. I offered not to denigrate the OP but as an alternative. You are free to weigh pros and cons of each option.
 
dquarasr said:
For others who come here. There have been multiple threads here on AZB re: diy polishers.

OP provided good advice on a polisher. I offered not to denigrate the OP but as an alternative. You are free to weigh pros and cons of each option.
Click to expand...
I have the same one as the OP. The balls spin so fast they go on one plane only. You can see this clearly when a stripe happens to be rotating on that axis. Then when they reverse they go on another one plane only. Observation tells a person a couple rings on the balls are taking a tremendous beating while the rest not so much. This worries me when cleaning the surface is not uniform. I tried shimming one side to unlevel the machine to try to induce random rotation but the centrifugal force is just too great they just spin like a wheel. Overall I'm not impressed but it was worth a look for $300. My revolutionary five gallon bucket twin orbital polisher design is superior for cleaning and even contact. The top polisher keeps the balls from banging around together violently. https://rumble.com/v1tyi1o-dual-buffer-bucket-pool-ball-cleaner.html
 
mrpiper said:
And rubs the balls against each other resulting in significantly reduced life of the finish
Click to expand...
This is untrue if you only put in half the set (8). Centrifugal force spreads them out so that they do not touch.
 
dquarasr said:
$35 for a DIY bucket/orbit polisher from Harbor Freight.

Does 8 balls at a time. Works great.
Click to expand...
As well as the Diamond ball polisher is built and as quiet as it is, I am extremely disappointed with the pads they installed on the machine.

Even when using an identical spray or polish, they simply do not put a luster shine on the balls anywhere close to what my 27 year old Bludworth polisher with felt pads does.
 
Sheldon said:
This is untrue if you only put in half the set (8). Centrifugal force spreads them out so that they do not touch.
Click to expand...
Do you say this from actually making and using one? Both the bucket polishers AND the centrifugal polishers that use a pad and a drill cause the balls to rub and hit against each other. I have never seen an bucket, or non separating polisher of ANY kind, where the balls do not abrade each other. The centrifugal force DOES keep the balls against the sides of the bucket, but they do definately touch, rub and click against each other throughout the process. If you don't believe this, then turn it on and film it with your phone and watch it in slow motion. It drastically shortens the life of a set of balls IMHO. 1 person here made a bucket polisher with a separator. It was very impressive and would work well. Maybe he will post it here with his plans.
 
ChrisinNC said:
As well as the Diamond ball polisher is built and as quiet as it is, I am extremely disappointed with the pads they installed on the machine.

Even when using an identical spray or polish, they simply do not put a luster shine on the balls anywhere close to what my 27 year old Bludworth polisher with felt pads does.
Click to expand...
Careful, according to some on here you're gonna end up getting sued for giving a "bad" review 🤣
 
jasonlaus said:
Careful, according to some on here you're gonna end up getting sued for giving a "bad" review 🤣
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If I knew how to post photos on my cell phone here. I could prove to you the difference and it’s not even close.

Understand that it’s not a problem with the unit itself which is awesome, but only with the pads they choose to use on it.

I can’t imagine that they would fail to experiment with various buffing materials before choosing the current one that came on my unit one year ago.
 
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mrpiper said:
Do you say this from actually making and using one?
I have never seen an bucket, or non separating polisher of ANY kind, where the balls do not abrade each other.
Click to expand...
Now you have!
streamable.com

PXL_20230127_002742486

Watch "PXL_20230127_002742486" on Streamable.
streamable.com streamable.com
I've tried them with paracord as a separator too, but I think the carpet was a little too thick and the balls didn't spin or tumble as well.
I'm not too worried about it now that I got the Ballstar machine. ;)
I know many people that have used the buckets for years, and their ball sets are still fine.
 
mrpiper said:
drastically shortens the life of a set of balls
Click to expand...
So I can do a test of this, how long using it should wear the ball down. I mostly shoot 9 ball, pretty sure I never put the 10 - 15 in there. If I put calipers on say the 9 ball and the 10 ball at what point would I see a difference. 100 runs, 500 runs?
 
dendweller said:
So I can do a test of this, how long using it should wear the ball down. I mostly shoot 9 ball, pretty sure I never put the 10 - 15 in there. If I put calipers on say the 9 ball and the 10 ball at what point would I see a difference. 100 runs, 500 runs?
Click to expand...
Could you measure this with calipers? I don't know. It would take a very sensitive caliper. Can you tell it in the finish and how quickly the balls get covered with contact marks and need to be cleaned again? Absolutely.

I didn't keep a time on it, but using a cleaner I purchased that uses a cordless drill and a cleaning pad in a tub to clean 3 balls at a time at a relatively low speed resulted in my Brunswick Centennial set beginning to show contact marks and be covered with them in a few hours of playing time in about 2 years. During that time, I probably cleaned them every 10 days to 2 weeks. The contact marks became frustrating enough that I replaced the Centennials AND the cleaner with one that does separate the balls during the cycle.
Sheldon said:
Now you have!
streamable.com

PXL_20230127_002742486

Watch "PXL_20230127_002742486" on Streamable.
streamable.com streamable.com
I've tried them with paracord as a separator too, but I think the carpet was a little too thick and the balls didn't spin or tumble as well.
I'm not too worried about it now that I got the Ballstar machine. ;)
I know many people that have used the buckets for years, and their ball sets are still fine.
Click to expand...

The BallStar is a GREAT design and product. Those who have had a bucket cleaner for years may be doing something I don't know about, but based on my experience, even a top tier set of balls, after a couple of years or so, begins to need cleaning more and more frequently as the result of the finish wearing. There are little white marks that develop everywhere there is any contact above just a very slow speed. Also, I have NEVER put anything in a cleaner except Aramith cleaner so that is consistent.
 
mrpiper said:
Do you say this from actually making and using one? Both the bucket polishers AND the centrifugal polishers that use a pad and a drill cause the balls to rub and hit against each other. I have never seen an bucket, or non separating polisher of ANY kind, where the balls do not abrade each other. The centrifugal force DOES keep the balls against the sides of the bucket, but they do definately touch, rub and click against each other throughout the process. If you don't believe this, then turn it on and film it with your phone and watch it in slow motion. It drastically shortens the life of a set of balls IMHO. 1 person here made a bucket polisher with a separator. It was very impressive and would work well. Maybe he will post it here with his plans.
Click to expand...
Not me but: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/cool-new-insert-for-bucket-polisher.548012/
 
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