Expert: Chip Aki - 4/13/2004

Question
Hi Chip, I need some help.  Not just a little help, but a lot.  I made the mistake of going out on e-bay and bid on a ball, and won.  The ball is a Ebonite Pedator Pursuit X-out.  Which when I bid on it, I didn't do my homework.  I was aware that the X-out meant they were balls with defects.  Of course on the e-bay site they said they were all new balls, with no performance flaws.  Well after I won the bid, I e-mailed a Ebonite Tech and asked him about the X-outs, (a little too late).  He said some of these balls have a pin out farther than 5".  Well I received the ball today and measuring the distance between the circle and white dot, it is 8" from the center of the circle to the white dot.  From what I am being told, that is very bad.  Can this ball even be drilled, or did I just mess up big time?   

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!


Answer
HOw much top weight does the ball have?

I doubt if you have a ball that cant be drilled.  Your options may not be numerous though.  Usually balls like this dont have a lot of top wieght so you can move the CG around quite a bit.

You can also draw a line from the pin through the CG to a spot directly opposite of the pin and use that spot as the new pin.

I would also suggest having the ball weighed out to make sure the CG is where it is marked.

Let me know what top weight is has if everything else checks out and we can discuss some options.

Good luck,
Chip