Spots on Aramith Tournament balls

ATM

ATM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Any suggestions on how to prevent these spots from coming back? I’ve cleaned them with Armamith Restorer and ball cleaner, but they keep coming back. I have tried by hand and with a machine. The marks are cloudy white
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- I only strike the cue ball with the cue tip (Taom green)
- Valley with new 860HR and new felt lined pocket liners. Ball track is lined with thin EVA foam. Had marks before lining tracks.

Can the marks be caused by collision with the other balls or friction burns on the cloth?

Please let me know if there is a better forum for this question
 
It honestly l looks like abrasions from hitting an OB directly with your tip. I understand you said you don't do this, and I 100% believe you, but that's what this looks like.

Are the balls relatively clean, IE could there be chalk dust getting smashed between balls on contact? With Taom I don't see this as a reasonable thing, it's clean.

Did you ever wash the balls with soap and water, or anything other than Aramith cleaner?

Do they set in the sunlight (UV damage)?

If none of this is the case I'd wonder if the ball coating has something wrong with it or is defective.

One last idea, if the cleaner/wax is building up maybe that is the problem? For an entire set of balls you only need maybe 6 drops of cleaner at most.
 
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boogieman said:
It honestly l looks like abrasions from hitting an OB directly with your tip. I understand you said you don't do this, and I 100% believe you, but that's what this looks like.

Are the balls relatively clean, IE could there be chalk dust getting smashed between balls on contact? With Taom I don't see this as a reasonable thing, it's clean.

Did you ever wash the balls with soap and water, or anything other than Aramith cleaner?

Do they set in the sunlight (UV damage)?

If none of this is the case I'd wonder if the ball coating has something wrong with it or is defective.

One last idea, if the cleaner/wax is building up maybe that is the problem? For an entire set of balls you only need maybe 6 drops of cleaner at most.
Click to expand...

I bought the set used and don’t know their history unfortunately. It does seem like dried compound. I have cleaned and removed the restorer by hand. When I used my chineseium ball cleaner, I used the recommended ratio of cleaner to alcohol I’ve seen recommended here. I mist the set and run em twice. After cleaning by hand the spots were gone. They reappear after running a few racks.
My OCD is about to cost be $350 LOL
 
ATM said:
I bought the set used and don’t know their history unfortunately. It does seem like dried compound. I have cleaned and removed the restorer by hand. When I used my chineseium ball cleaner, I used the recommended ratio of cleaner to alcohol I’ve seen recommended here. I mist the set and run em twice. After cleaning by hand the spots were gone. They reappear after running a few racks.
My OCD is about to cost be $350 LOL
Click to expand...
I'm not an expert on the matter but seeing as they were used balls, you might just be seeing the spots from where the previous owner hit them with the tip or even a phenolic break or jump cue. Once polished you don't really see the spots as much... until the polish wears off.

I highly doubt it causes any play issues, but I'm with you, I hate looking at scuffed balls. When I was at work, my buddy who knows better was teaching my nephew to jump... they set up OBs instead of chasing the CB so yeah my set looks like crap now. They also did not use the break pad so now my cloth looks worse. I explained why to not use OB for such practice and using a break cloth so now he knows. He felt bad/sorry about the situation but if you don't know, you don't know. It wasn't intentional or anything, no use crying over spilled milk. :)
 
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They look to be too much cleaner to me. When blowing up your pictures the balls appear to be coated. That comes from trying to clean them multiple times in a row with full strength solution, especially when trying to make old balls shine like new. Not only will you get marks like that when doing this, the balls will not play right.
When I built my Diamond clone ball polisher and first started using it, I got marks like that. I really got those marks when I offered to do a set of well used balls on one of the bars I go to tables for them. Polished them once and didn't see much difference, so I polished them multiple times. Went back a couple days later and the balls looked terrible. Just full of those collision marks. Did the same thing On my good set of balls at home, polished them a couple times in a row and got collision marks like that.
While the balls will look shinny, if you look close they will have a somewhat ripple look to them. That is polish build up. I quickly learned to only polish once, and dilute the Aramith polish about 20% with alcohol, then only use about 2 drops per 8 balls per cycle. I polish the balls I use at home about every two weeks, they look like new, play like new, have no wax build up, and have no collision marks now.
Others on here use a much more diluted solution of Aramith, but spray it on and have good results, so are probably ending up with the same amount of solution on the balls.
So to summarize, by what I see in your pictures, it looks like collision marks, and or cue tip marks from using too much cleaner. You need to get that buildup off, manually or by playing a lot without cleaning them again. Then go to regular Aramith cleaner in small quantities. Do not ever put a drop of cleaner on ea ball.
Two drops per 8 balls is plenty. The balls in your picture have a very coated look.
 
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muskyed said:
They look to be too much cleaner to me. When blowing up your pictures the balls appear to be coated. That comes from trying to clean them multiple times in a row with full strength solution, especially when trying to make old balls shine like new. Not only will you get marks like that when doing this, the balls will not play right.
When I built my Diamond clone ball polisher and first started using it, I got marks like that. I really got those marks when I offered to do a set of well used balls on one of the bars I go to tables for them. Polished them once and didn't see much difference, so I polished them multiple times. Went back a couple days later and the balls looked terrible. Just full of those collision marks. Did the same thing On my good set of balls at home, polished them a couple times in a row and got collision marks like that.
While the balls will look shinny, if you look close they will have a somewhat ripple look to them. That is polish build up. I quickly learned to only polish once, and dilute the Aramith polish about 20% with alcohol, then only use about 2 drops per 8 balls per cycle. I polish the balls I use at home about every two weeks, they look like new, play like new, have no wax build up, and have no collision marks now.
Others on here use a much more diluted solution of Aramith, but spray it on and have good results, so are probably ending up with the same amount of solution on the balls.
So to summarize, by what I see in your pictures, it looks like collision marks, and or cue tip marks from using too much cleaner. You need to get that buildup off, manually or by playing a lot without cleaning them again. Then go to regular Aramith cleaner in small quantities. Do not ever put a drop of cleaner on ea ball.
Two drops per 8 balls is plenty. The balls in your picture have a very coated look.
Click to expand...
Would alcohol be the safest option to remove all remaining polish? I tried using alcohol on a paper towel briefly and that didnt remove the spots. I dont want to use anything too abrasive.
 
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Not sure what the best way is to remove it. Others gave talked about ways in the past but I don't remember.
Not sure if you have a polisher or not, if so, I I just put mine in my polisher for awhile with out any cleaning solution to somewhat wear it off, then just played with them without cleaning them. It will eventually wear it off.
It may have been on Dr Dave's youtubes where he talked about getting it all off.
Maybe Rexus remembers where they talked about how to do it.
 
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