Expert: Russ King - 9/26/2006

Question
my black widow drill pattern now is about 1" above the bridge and cg and mb kicked about 2 ".
way to much skid flip. I want to have it plugged and redrilled, with pin below bridge and kicked to 60-65 degree to pap. looking for early revs and heavy arc at back end. my ball spead is 16.5 ro 17, with med to high revs. do you think this sounds like a good plan?

Thanks

Bob T

Answer
Plugging a ball should be the last resort to fix a ball.
Try messing with the surface first.Different grit sandpaper will give you a new ball & reaction each time.The grits are, 600,800,1000,1200,1500,2000,2500 on up to 5000 then Fines-it to 10,000.If the ball is 1500 & you want more hook,go to 1200 then 100 on down till you get what you want.This is best done on a ball spinner.Your pro Shop will have one.It is a very rare thing when you drill one ball
& it suits you.This is where you get into the "FINE TUNE" stage of the game.Throw the ball 5 or so frames . Then go in & sand with a different grit then throw 5 more.You will see the difference & you can tell right away what grit to go to next.
You can also drill the fingers a little deeper to lessen the finger weight. This will make the ball turn in sooner more arch than snap.
Also you can drill an axis hole to lessen the side weights.Less pos. side means less hook & snap.
Once you plug a ball,you start running out of options. You don't want to roll over the pluggings.Also you change the shape of the weight block & loose around 10% of weight block function.
As you can see,there are many ways to fine tune "TWEAK" the ball into doing what you want it to do.
EXOTIC weights are for special lane conditions about 10% of the 100%.EXOTIC works if you allready have most of the 100% covered by other balls. Simple weights cover more ground around 40%-60%.