Racked balls not tight after cleaning

muskyed

muskyed

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Could be my imagination, but I really don't think so. As mentioned in another thread, I had made a ball cleaner, similar I think, in function to how the Diamond works. Before this, I occasionally would bring a set of balls over to a friend that has a Ballstar to get polished, and quite honestly they came out fantastic, but as I like doing my own thing, and I like making things, I decided to try to make a polisher for myself, but different than your typical bucket ones. Wasn't hard to do as I have a full shop, hardest part to make the center floating star wheel, but came out great, and because of the independent star, the balls rotate randomly. Balls come out great with a very minimal time in polisher, but, they have a tremendous amount of static that I never noticed with my friends Ballstar. What I am noticing is that when racking the balls after cleaning, they don't want to stay anchored tightly together. Also after 3-4 hours of playing, everything seems to be ok again. I've only cleaned them a couple times this way, but it has been consistent ea time. Has anyone else noticed this with these style of polishers, or any suggestions on how to reduce the static. While the bucket style uses fabric also, I'm thinking right or wrong, that the banging of balls helps rid them of the static, I just didn't want the balls banging together so much.
 
muskyed said:
Could be my imagination, but I really don't think so. As mentioned in another thread, I had made a ball cleaner, similar I think, in function to how the Diamond works. Before this, I occasionally would bring a set of balls over to a friend that has a Ballstar to get polished, and quite honestly they came out fantastic, but as I like doing my own thing, and I like making things, I decided to try to make a polisher for myself, but different than your typical bucket ones. Wasn't hard to do as I have a full shop, hardest part to make the center floating star wheel, but came out great, and because of the independent star, the balls rotate randomly. Balls come out great with a very minimal time in polisher, but, they have a tremendous amount of static that I never noticed with my friends Ballstar. What I am noticing is that when racking the balls after cleaning, they don't want to stay anchored tightly together. Also after 3-4 hours of playing, everything seems to be ok again. I've only cleaned them a couple times this way, but it has been consistent ea time. Has anyone else noticed this with these style of polishers, or any suggestions on how to reduce the static. While the bucket style uses fabric also, I'm thinking right or wrong, that the banging of balls helps rid them of the static, I just didn't want the balls banging together so much.
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Try dryer sheets and/or this stuff: https://www.amazon.com/PSD-955-Anti-Static-Spray/dp/B01D220OLW
 
muskyed said:
Could be my imagination, but I really don't think so. As mentioned in another thread, I had made a ball cleaner, similar I think, in function to how the Diamond works. Before this, I occasionally would bring a set of balls over to a friend that has a Ballstar to get polished, and quite honestly they came out fantastic, but as I like doing my own thing, and I like making things, I decided to try to make a polisher for myself, but different than your typical bucket ones. Wasn't hard to do as I have a full shop, hardest part to make the center floating star wheel, but came out great, and because of the independent star, the balls rotate randomly. Balls come out great with a very minimal time in polisher, but, they have a tremendous amount of static that I never noticed with my friends Ballstar. What I am noticing is that when racking the balls after cleaning, they don't want to stay anchored tightly together. Also after 3-4 hours of playing, everything seems to be ok again. I've only cleaned them a couple times this way, but it has been consistent ea time. Has anyone else noticed this with these style of polishers, or any suggestions on how to reduce the static. While the bucket style uses fabric also, I'm thinking right or wrong, that the banging of balls helps rid them of the static, I just didn't want the balls banging together so much.
Click to expand...
I have a bucket polisher that is sectioned off so the balls don't touch each other and I've never experience any sort of static buildup. What type of cleaner are you using? Is the the unit grounded? Here's a pic of my unit for reference.

42811142982_730847f970_b.jpg


I plan to make my own "Diamond" ball cleaner that will mimic the design of my Gold Crown I. From what I can surmise from closely inspecting a Diamond unit, these are the parts I will need; not listed is the half inch shaft. Is this the route you went?

51669031242_148b0d3760_c.jpg
 
Good catch on the grounding. No it is not grounded, the cord on the polisher I used does not have a ground. I'm going to cut the plug off to see if by chance there is a 3rd wire not used, I doubt it, but worth a look see. While I am quite comfortable with electric work having wired multiple shops and garages and home additions, any idea on how to add a ground wire to a buffer that doesn't have one, or possibly to the box?
 

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I built basically a bucket cleaner but out of wood, lined holes with strips of micro clothe. Works great and fairly cheap to build
 

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muskyed said:
Good catch on the grounding. No it is not grounded, the cord on the polisher I used does not have a ground. I'm going to cut the plug off to see if by chance there is a 3rd wire not used, I doubt it, but worth a look see. While I am quite comfortable with electric work having wired multiple shops and garages and home additions, any idea on how to add a ground wire to a buffer that doesn't have one, or possibly to the box?
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It all depends on how you have it built and wired. Did you happen to use a metal junction box? Do you have an on/off switch? The motor should have a ground lead. I'd get a new cord with a three prong plug and maybe use a ground pigtail wired into the plug, motor and switch then attaching the pig tail to metal. You can get a low profile junction box that should fit in the box.

What type of motor is driving the unit?
 
If you are using a car polisher, it isn't the ground. I'm using one in my setup and I don't have any static buildup. What type of product are you using to clean the balls?
 
Dryer sheets will de-static a lot of stuff. Cheap too. I must say i've never heard of this issue til today.
 
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No junction box, 7" car polisher as that is what I had laying around. 10 1/2" board with carpet attached velcroed to the polisher plater. No on off switch, just the switch on the buffer that locks on. No luck on the ground wire in cord, just 2 wires. I have tried Meguiars cleaner wax, and Plastx. Willing to try Aramith polish, but after looking at the ingredients, it just appears to be another form of polishing wax. I had the Meguiars at home so that is what I tried. I may try attaching a ground wire to the outer bucket rim to see if that does anything. I gotta say that if I have to buy motors, pulleys and diamond parts to make this work, I'm going to just buy a commercial unit. I did this as most of the stuff I had laying around, and only spent about $10 for additional parts. Appreciate all the suggestions. Maybe it's just the carpet that I used, it's a closed tight loop.
 
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muskyed said:
No junction box, 7" car polisher as that is what I had laying around. 10 1/2" board with carpet attached velcroed to the polisher plater. No on off switch, just the switch on the buffer that locks on. No luck on the ground wire in cord, just 2 wires. I have tried Meguiars cleaner wax, and Plastx. Willing to try Aramith polish, but after looking at the ingredients, it just appears to be another form of polishing wax. I had the Meguiars at home so that is what I tried. I may try attaching a ground wire to the outer bucket rim to see if that does anything. I gotta say that if I have to buy motors, pulleys and diamond parts to make this work, I'm going to just buy a commercial unit. I did this as most of the stuff I had laying around, and only spent about $10 for additional parts. Appreciate all the suggestions. Maybe it's just the carpet that I used, it's a closed tight loop.
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I hear you. I'm wanting to get away from the car polisher route so I plan to make a custom "Diamond" unit. I can make it for about half the cost of buying one and it will be a "Gold Crown" unit. I don't think your issue is electrical being as you are using the car buffer. What type of pad are you using on the buffing wheel? I'd also recommend trying the Tiger Ball Cleaning Solution in a spray bottle. A single squirt of fine mist while the machine is operating is all you need. Car wax and the Plastix can dry while the unit is operating which may be the cause of the static.
 
Not using a buffing pad. Have a 10 1/2" wood platter with some carpet from a carpet square mounted to the platter. Seems to pretty much be a clone of what I see on a Diamond unit, although I have never seen one apart. Might just be the carpet that I used. Well thanks all, I have a few things to try. We'll see how it goes. May just buy a Ballstar unit, or just not clean them so often. They would go about 4 months between cleanings before this. Static might also be coming from the pvc pieces I used to make the star wheel. May make a new star wheel with out the pvc pieces.
 

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muskyed said:
Not using a buffing pad. Have a 10 1/2" wood platter with some carpet from a carpet square mounted to the platter. Seems to pretty much be a clone of what I see on a Diamond unit, although I have never seen one apart. Might just be the carpet that I used. Well thanks all, I have a few things to try. We'll see how it goes. May just buy a Ballstar unit, or just not clean them so often. They would go about 4 months between cleanings before this. Static might also be coming from the pvc pieces I used to make the star wheel. May make a new star wheel with out the pvc pieces.
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The Diamond unit uses a 1/3 horsepower motor and a pulley drive system to reduce the RPM's. Much different than a bucket polisher. It could be the PVC but I would try the Tiger product first to see if that helps.
 
Success, for now at least. Even though the polisher had a speed dial selector, it still was quite fast on the 1 setting, so I added a outlet box and wired in a rehostat to further dial speed down. Also cut off the stock two wire plug, added a 3wire plug, and added two ground wires to the outer plastic rim, and added a ground wire to the metal head of the buffer. Attached all in the outlet box and started it up. Nicely polished balls, and no static. Works great. Also might add that the way I had it before, the balls were starting to get warm when polishing, now at a slightly slower speed there is no noticeable warmth build up.
 
rexus31 said:
I have a bucket polisher that is sectioned off so the balls don't touch each other and I've never experience any sort of static buildup. What type of cleaner are you using? Is the the unit grounded? Here's a pic of my unit for reference.

42811142982_730847f970_b.jpg


I plan to make my own "Diamond" ball cleaner that will mimic the design of my Gold Crown I. From what I can surmise from closely inspecting a Diamond unit, these are the parts I will need; not listed is the half inch shaft. Is this the route you went?

51669031242_148b0d3760_c.jpg
Click to expand...


Think you have something there you could make & sell easy.
 
I regularly wipe down balls with a wet rag. Even this affects the rack. I think it's the friction. Balls can no longer brace each other and simply roll to the gravity.
 
straightline said:
Why would a coated ball (special cleaner) rack any better than a dry low friction water cleaned ball?
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Balls cleaned with only water will be more tacky than balls cleaned with a ball cleaning solution resulting in poorer separation of the balls when broken. People will say the rack wasn't tight but that's not it.
 
rexus31 said:
Balls cleaned with only water will be more tacky than balls cleaned with a ball cleaning solution resulting in poorer separation of the balls when broken. People will say the rack wasn't tight but that's not it.
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OK. Possible but the the problem I'm experiencing is the balls not freezing. I think that was the OPs point too.
 
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