I've noticed that even new balls have small imperfections in, does tumbling them make them have a perfect finish? I think it would be worth doing to avoid marring the playfield any more than necessary from the English the ball can pick up.
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Tumbling your balls worth it?
- Thread starter Carl Spiby
- Start date
If its the new balls that Stern supply with their machines then you need to angle grind them down first before tumbling them 
On a serious note, yes the tumbler can make new (or even very lightly worn) balls like new or better than new BUT it takes many many hours to do so (12 hours for near perfect balls to 5+days for used balls)
On a serious note, yes the tumbler can make new (or even very lightly worn) balls like new or better than new BUT it takes many many hours to do so (12 hours for near perfect balls to 5+days for used balls)
I stuck an old ball in a tumbler as a test and it did come out nice and shiny. Still had very minor scratches but on the microscopic level they were probably nicely rounded off so unlikely to cause damage. To get them out would take spin on the buffing wheel but a small shiny ball is ruddy hard to either hold or clamp! And for the effort involved not worth it when new balls only cost a quid. Or if you really want to push the boat out, £1.60 for Premium Super Shiny Carbon Steel 
OP
OP
This is the thing though, even brand new balls sometimes have very tiny nicks in (struggle to see them but if you run your nail around you can just about feel them), is it worth worrying about or just play on?
I wouldn't expect a new ball to be like that. It should be perfect. If you can feel them with your nail then maybe they're worth worrying about and not use it. Any scratches are going to be a potential source of wear but I suppose it's all relative. How clean is the playfield? Minute abouts of grot, even dust, will act as a very fine grinding compound even if rolled over by a perfectly mirror shiny pinball. Over time it all adds up. Get that glass off, hoover up the sh*t and polish everything including the balls 
Life is way too short to be worrying about **** like this guys.
Play on.
Play on.
I only "worry" about stuff like this at work whilst I'm stuck on a 3-hour international conference call where I only get asked one question half way through. If I could get away with playing pinball at the same time I would (the nearest pin is about 6 inches behind me) but I have to half follow the conversation
And for the effort involved not worth it when new balls only cost a quid. Or if you really want to push the boat out, £1.60 for Premium Super Shiny Carbon Steel
£1 is cheap when you don't need to replace the balls in 24 machines (with an average of 4 balls per machine) each year
So when I take balls out of machines, scratched or damaged ones go in the bin and ones that are just lightly scuffed sit in the tumbler until it's half full, then I'll run it for a couple of days
I only "worry" about stuff like this at work whilst I'm stuck on a 3-hour international conference call where I only get asked one question half way through. If I could get away with playing pinball at the same time I would (the nearest pin is about 6 inches behind me) but I have to half follow the conversation
Welcome to my world at the moment!!
minus the pinball however 
Seems like an eminently economic plan£1 is cheap when you don't need to replace the balls in 24 machines (with an average of 4 balls per machine) each year
So when I take balls out of machines, scratched or damaged ones go in the bin and ones that are just lightly scuffed sit in the tumbler until it's half full, then I'll run it for a couple of days
Waste not, want not and all that. But really, 24 machines? Is that not just slightly over-doing it?(Pauses and thinks for a moment...)
Seems perfectly reasonable actually. But maybe you need to shift your collection to a more old-school single-ball variety and then you'd quarter your annual ball costs.
P
Pinballdoctor
Give those old ball to me, I like playing with them...before I bite somebody in the.....
Woef !!
Woef !!