Three weeks ago I purchased a set of Aramith Tournament Pro Cup balls along with a slew of other items for a recent table purchase. The set comes with a bottle of Aramith ball cleaner (smells like wax to me). I have read all about the bucket ball polisher and the variants. I plan on building one once I get a bucket on the next HomeDepot trip as I already have the buffer and some spare carpet.
cleaning process*
So up to this point at least once a week I have spent about 5 minutes a ball polishing by hand. First I rub all the balls with a couple drops of the cleaner and set aside on a micro-fiber wash cloth. By the time I get 16 done, the first ones start to dry and glaze over (you know, like wax dries). I then grab a clean micro-fiber rag and polish each ball to a nice luster while watching TV or a match stream.
Idiot discovery or idiot move period:
I'm in the pool room goofing about doing a cleaning of the cue ball at the sink and there's a stubborn chalk mark, by chance the wife left a new clean Magic Eraser at the sink. so my brain puts two and two together. I got it wet and rung it out, to my amazement with little to no pressure it took the chalk mark right off. Being overly anal, I immediately inspect the ball finish with a magnifying glass looking for signs on the surface that this was a dumb idea. To my amazement I saw zero ill affects, in fact it did indeed appear to "polish/shine" the surface of the ball to a luster just as if I had done a full cleaning.
A few days later A buddy shows up to play and the balls were a tad marked up (leather pockets & impact spots). So I thought why not just hit the whole set quickly with the Magic Eraser.
The Magic Eraser cleaning.
So this is what I did, get the magic eraser wet and wring it out and proceed to polish each ball, with the motion you would use to polish a shoe while spinning the ball with each stroke for about 20-30 seconds. I then put the ball in a micro-fiber wash cloth and spin it in the cloth to both dry and semi-polish/shine it. It only takes me about 10 minutes to do the whole set verse the other method that can take 60-90 minutes of manual labor. I have also noticed since this cleaning the impact marks are not as visually obvious on the balls after the Magic Eraser cleaning like I would get with the Aramith cleaner.
Main question/concern of the post:
Primarily, am I doing any damage to the balls? I understand the Magic Eraser is a micro-abrasive but I see no signs of any ball material removal or scratching of the surface. In fact just the opposite, it appears to be "polishing/shining" the surface, at least to me. So, have I made some sort of grand discovery or have I proven myself a complete idiot?
Thanks for your time and feedback is well appreciated.
Dopc.
cleaning process*
So up to this point at least once a week I have spent about 5 minutes a ball polishing by hand. First I rub all the balls with a couple drops of the cleaner and set aside on a micro-fiber wash cloth. By the time I get 16 done, the first ones start to dry and glaze over (you know, like wax dries). I then grab a clean micro-fiber rag and polish each ball to a nice luster while watching TV or a match stream.
Idiot discovery or idiot move period:
I'm in the pool room goofing about doing a cleaning of the cue ball at the sink and there's a stubborn chalk mark, by chance the wife left a new clean Magic Eraser at the sink. so my brain puts two and two together. I got it wet and rung it out, to my amazement with little to no pressure it took the chalk mark right off. Being overly anal, I immediately inspect the ball finish with a magnifying glass looking for signs on the surface that this was a dumb idea. To my amazement I saw zero ill affects, in fact it did indeed appear to "polish/shine" the surface of the ball to a luster just as if I had done a full cleaning.
A few days later A buddy shows up to play and the balls were a tad marked up (leather pockets & impact spots). So I thought why not just hit the whole set quickly with the Magic Eraser.
The Magic Eraser cleaning.
So this is what I did, get the magic eraser wet and wring it out and proceed to polish each ball, with the motion you would use to polish a shoe while spinning the ball with each stroke for about 20-30 seconds. I then put the ball in a micro-fiber wash cloth and spin it in the cloth to both dry and semi-polish/shine it. It only takes me about 10 minutes to do the whole set verse the other method that can take 60-90 minutes of manual labor. I have also noticed since this cleaning the impact marks are not as visually obvious on the balls after the Magic Eraser cleaning like I would get with the Aramith cleaner.
Main question/concern of the post:
Primarily, am I doing any damage to the balls? I understand the Magic Eraser is a micro-abrasive but I see no signs of any ball material removal or scratching of the surface. In fact just the opposite, it appears to be "polishing/shining" the surface, at least to me. So, have I made some sort of grand discovery or have I proven myself a complete idiot?
Thanks for your time and feedback is well appreciated.
Dopc.
