Burn marks

[yanks2212]

I bowl in a Monday night league, and occasionally will go bowl practice one night also. I bought a black widow solid the third week of my league back in middle October. Now my ball has several "burn" marks according to a proshop guy I asked. He said it is from the belt of the ball return. Is this true? And also is there anyway to get rid of these. You can feel that they are indentations in the ball, and a couple are pretty big. I know that these must have some kind of impact on the performance of the ball. I didn't know if I could get the ball refinished to get rid of these or something?
And why does this happen? No one else on my team has this happen to there balls. My ball is 15 lbs. and a buddy on my team has a new 15 lbs. Twisted Fury, and his doesn't have a mark on it. Please help.

[Fatboy8]

If a ball gets stuck in the return coming back, the belt can burn/melt the ball, if it's too extreme. My daughters ball was caught once, and it burnt a 2" diameter spot on the ball, but it was plastic also. My pro shop guy took care of it for me though.

Most belt marks can come off with alcohol/finger nail polish remover (my cleaner of choice mixed). The usually look like black smudges though when I get them. If you have indentations in the ball, then that's a different matter.

I'd ask the center to take a look at it, and see if they will remedy the problem for you.

[yanks2212]

I already have asked the lane, and they said I can't be certain that it happened at there lanes. Although I very rarely bowl anywhere else.

[Stampy79]

Another hard lesson learned, you have to make sure you take it up there right away when it happens. Just remember, most centers will try to avoid fixing anything that happens to a ball

[Rowdy]

I bowl in a Monday night league, and occasionally will go bowl practice one night also. I bought a black widow solid the third week of my league back in middle October. Now my ball has several "burn" marks according to a proshop guy I asked. He said it is from the belt of the ball return. Is this true? And also is there anyway to get rid of these. You can feel that they are indentations in the ball, and a couple are pretty big. I know that these must have some kind of impact on the performance of the ball. I didn't know if I could get the ball refinished to get rid of these or something?
And why does this happen? No one else on my team has this happen to there balls. My ball is 15 lbs. and a buddy on my team has a new 15 lbs. Twisted Fury, and his doesn't have a mark on it. Please help.

Um,you don't look at the ball at all? How on Earth do you miss something like this? Belt marks come right off,if this ball has "indentations",that thing should be bouncing down the lane. First,clean the ball and see what you've got as far as damage. Since you didn't bring it to the attention of the management of the house,when it happened,it's on your wallet to fix it. Now you know why we ALWAYS look at the ball and run our hands over it before we make a shot. It ain't because we're in love with the thing. Next time DO NOT deal with the snot noses at the front desk. Go straight to the manager of the lanes. He's the one who will make the decision and you don't want to have to explain everything twice. DO NOT be a pain in the ass!!! Show him the ball and explain that the ball was fine until you rolled it in whichever frame it was that did the deed. This is where it's in your interest to find out who the manager is and get to know him. Enough to say "Hi" to. The management will be more inclined to help you if they have an idea of who you are. The phrase "They can't be certain it happened at their lanes" tells me they have no idea that you roll there at all. They think you're just practicing and looking to mooch off the pro shop. Are you know as a guy who is meticulous about his gear? Never leave until everything is clean? Or are you a "trunk slammer"? Throw the gear in the trunk and leave it there until next week? They know at the lanes which one you are. They know,trust me. If that ball looked like crap before the belt marks,they're not gonna lift a finger to help you.

[yanks2212]

No, I'm not a "trunk slammer". I live in upstate NY, so if I left my ball in the trunk it would crack. I wipe the oil off my ball every shot since it's right near my fingers, and at the end of the night I wipe it off really good. I'm not really too concerned about the alley paying for a new ball or whatever, I just want to get it fixed, because the marks are right near my track on the ball. So I don't want this to affect my shot.

[dw800seeker]

My Black Widow Pearl got stuck in the machine on my second or third night using it and a chunk came out of it. I was bowling with one of the managers at the lanes and he filled it up and smoothed it out really nice. He matched the color pretty close but the patch is still visible.

Bowling balls get smacked around pretty good in the course of a lifetime. Every once in a while it is necessary to get a finger hole filled up and redrilled, or, a bridge patched, or the ball resurfaced.

My experience is the pearl balls have more problems:

My Total NV had a nail mark about 2 inches on it; My Toxic and BWP got some cracking around the finger holes.

Non-pearl but still problem with cracking in bridge on Hawg.

[Alucious]

My maxim is currently at the pro-shop having a large gouge being plugged, it looks like a screw hit my thumbhole, and took out a 1/4 inch deep, 2inch diameter oval shape. The house owner tried to shrug it off as a "ball defect" but I took it to the pro-shop owner and he took care of it.