Waxed balls?

K

KMRUNOUT

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Does anyone play anywhere where they wax the balls? The poolroom where I play frequently waxes the balls. This causes them to play QUITE differently from regular balls. The cueball slides like crazy, behaves a little wierd off the rails. In general, I don't like it at all.

I was just curious if any pros would want to play with waxed balls. Curious what the opinions are out there.

Anyone?
 
Tried it once, didn't work for me. My balls kept slipping out of my Jockies.:eek:

Jim
 
waxing the cue ball, or polishing it, is a common practice. Aramith makes a ball polish for this very purpose. you have to clean the object balls every so often too. freshly polished balls will find the pockets slightly better than dirty ones.

i've polished and waxed my balls, all of them, havent ever really noticed any strange behavior. the cue ball is slicker of course, but that gives you the feeling of having new cloth.

just dont over do it with the wax/polish i guess is the best advice i could give.

DCP
 
Clean quality balls are a must have, Meuller sells ball cleaning systems where you use a drill, works pretty well, use this if you cant afford the bigger ball cleaners, Aramith also makes some great ball cleaner.. Wax whatever you want, but that's useually better for your paint, not your pool balls.


SPINDOKTOR
 
The other question is what do the pros do. I'm certainly not a pro but I have to assume that in professional tournaments the games are played on new cloth and new balls with both being cleaned between matches. That's at least how 3Cushion tournaments are conducted.

The balls simply need to be cleaned and the burn marks removed. The problem with wax is the balls start to change after about 30 minutes of play as the wax starts to wear. I prefer no wax unless I want to have some fun playing shots that require lots of slide and spin.
 
3kushn said:
The other question is what do the pros do. I'm certainly not a pro but I have to assume that in professional tournaments the games are played on new cloth and new balls with both being cleaned between matches. That's at least how 3Cushion tournaments are conducted.
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Normally, from my experience in hosting several "live" pro tournaments, before the start of a regulated professional tournament, the cloths and the balls are replaced brand new (courtesy of the cloths & ball sponsors). However, during the tournament, the tables and balls are sometimes no longer cleaned in between matches especially in the elimination rounds as games can run continuously due to limited number of tables & for time consideration as well. Moreover, the players rarely soil the tables so cleaning the table is not really needed and brand new balls are not really prone to dirt (of course the dirt are cleaned when they are obvious)... but they are cleaned nevertheless at the end of the day for the next day's matches. Vacuuming & brushing are done on the cloth while the balls are polished if dirt is noticeable and/or if they'd be used for the "tv table"

In (automotive) DETAILING point of view, POLISHING is different from WAXING: Polishing is the 1st step of the process that brings back the luster of the paint by removing the oxidation on the paint & reconditions it to bring back the wet-look shine. WAXING is the last step in which its sole purpose is to PROTECT the newly polished, glazed, & sealed surface by providing a sacrificial layer (like the skin) that can withstand pollutants... Going back, I prefer POLISHING the balls with a recommended ball cleaner like the ARAMITH BALL CLEANER to bring back that out-of-the-box luster & ball reaction rather than WAXING them as balls tend to skid a little with waxes because of their inherent characteristic of being a "slippery" layer against pollutants.

Whether your pool halls polish, wax, or don't even apply anything on their balls, you better learn to adjust to the playing field as conditions are rarely ideal... That's why the real action of the Pro's is OUTSIDE the arena
 
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KMRUNOUT said:
Does anyone play anywhere where they wax the balls? The poolroom where I play frequently waxes the balls. This causes them to play QUITE differently from regular balls. The cueball slides like crazy, behaves a little wierd off the rails. In general, I don't like it at all.

I was just curious if any pros would want to play with waxed balls. Curious what the opinions are out there.

Anyone?
Click to expand...
I think the quickest way to start a riot at the Derby City banks tournament would be to wax the object balls. If you want the balls to do goofy things off the cushions, wax them. Well, the action will seem goofy if you are used to normal, broken-in cloth.

At carom billiards, where consistent rail action is essential to good play, it is forbidden to wax the balls.
 
The sign I never posted

I managed a fairly large pool hall a while back and made the following sign up and was going to plaster it to the counter but knew the security cameras would give me up and cost me my job. I forgot to leave it on my wau out of town, when I moved. Next time.......

Notice to All Pool Players


Please check your balls before leaving the pool counter.

If you think your balls are too dirty to play with, please have the counter person clean your balls before proceeding to your table.

If after your balls have been cleaned by the counter person, you feel that your balls are still not clean enough, the Manager on duty will clean your balls a second time.

On the rare occasion that one's balls are still not clean enough to play with, you may request that the owner inspect them and hand polish them to your satisfaction.

The owner is an expert at polishing balls and has satisfied many players. Those with balls that he cannot polish to their satisfaction will receive a new set of balls.

Thank you,

The Management
 
ceebee said:
Can they be cleaned? How Often? If so, what do you recommend?
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Try the P-22 or maybe nothing at all.
http://www.formaxmfg.com/compounds/compounds.html?id=PL

Here's the type of machine that can be used. This one is too fast but you get the picture. Also would need to stack the cotton wheels to about 2-1/2" thick.
http://www.hobbytool.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=665

There's obvious drawbacks to this method. One is the time it takes. The other is the rouge is slightly abrasive and will in time change the size of the balls. But dirty tables will wear balls down too.

I ran a small room many years ago and we had a similar system. We did not use rouge and about 30 - 60 seconds per ball is all it took. If you get the technique down the ball will spin in your cupped hand.
 
I use a cleaner/wax and hand polish the balls for the bar I play at about once a month. The cleaner/wax I use (Mothers California Gold) seems to work great, not too abrasive and not too waxy, I make sure I get all the residue completely off of the balls and don't seem to notice any excessive slide that way, but the balls really look nice afterwards and I always hear comments about the balls looking better at this bar than anywhere else. The balls seem to react much better when they are clean/shiny. Just vacuuming the table and getting all the excess chalk dust off of the cloth really helps maintain the balls luster that much longer too. All the excess hand and cue chalk dust is pretty abrasive on the balls.

I just vacuumed/cleaned the 3 tables this morning since we had league just last night and we had a couple guys from other bars that were there playing and they seemed to think they needed a TON of the hand chalk and left substantial chalk all over the table, you could literally see white dusty handprints on some places on the table. :mad: That just drives me nuts!
 
our_auctionguy said:
I managed a fairly large pool hall a while back and made the following sign up ...The owner is an expert at polishing balls and has satisfied many players. Those with balls that he cannot polish to their satisfaction will receive a new set of balls.

Thank you,

The Management[/B]
Click to expand...

Awesome...
 
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