arguement about balls

[itsnoteasy]

Just stumbled on these Catch ,not the same but signed by Steve Davis and have the Riley's name on them . These say made in Belgium so they could well be Aramith.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aristocrat...oAAOSwuYVWm~5j

[itsnoteasy]

Sorry for the delay on the balls, but I used them as soon as I got them and I was getting bad contacts with them( they looked immaculate in the box) so gave them a good clean and the cloth turned yellow, they must have had a coating of nicotine on them.
The sound of the balls is totally different a much more solid contact . You can move the balls around just the same , I didn't notice any more or less reaction but it did feel better, I don't know what it is maybe just the noise but it just felt better , cut shots seemed to go in more often and my long potting was in my upper range, but maybe I was just playing well for me.I did get a couple of bad contacts one straightened the shot up and I missed ,the other the white just jumped a bit but the shot ran true and I just lost a bit of follow through. I waited until I had three sessions with them, two after I cleaned them and I only got those two bad contacts and that was on tables that were messy before I went on, on a clean table who knows. I wouldn't pay £180 for a set of 1gs, when you can get a set of these for under twenty pound off eBay ,they weigh the same play the same, sound better, and less bad contacts( from my limited time with them) they are within most people's price range so if 1gs or TCs are out your price bracket, you won't go wrong with these.

[garysnooker]

my mate brought his sc balls around tonight and they did seem more lighter and easier to move the white ball around the table than the tc balls

[DeanH]

my mate brought his sc balls around tonight and they did seem more lighter and easier to move the white ball around the table than the tc balls

bad contacts or kicks?

[itsnoteasy]

my mate brought his sc balls around tonight and they did seem more lighter and easier to move the white ball around the table than the tc balls

I found them much the same Gary, ask him to weigh the cue ball, it should be 141/2 g , I bet a few have had replacement whites through the years, he might have a light white.

[Neil2726]

Regarding the story told by a BCE Rep - BCE took over The Composition Billiard Ball Co around 1982 - they wanted to vastly increase production and demolished parts of the old factory, and installing more labour saving machinery. Many of the experienced and skilled older workers were made redundant and younger people brought in just to load the machines. BCE were distributors and not manufacturers at this time. The factory management and chemists all left, being replaced by BCE management and new chemists.
Manufacturing of all types of balls, Super Crystalate, billiards and pool continued to be manufactured there until in the early 90s when staff were informed of the closure and were all made redundant. It was not until then that the machinery was removed by staff from Aramith and shipped to Belgium.

[vmax]

Regarding the story told by a BCE Rep - BCE took over The Composition Billiard Ball Co around 1982 - they wanted to vastly increase production and demolished parts of the old factory, and installing more labour saving machinery. Many of the experienced and skilled older workers were made redundant and younger people brought in just to load the machines. BCE were distributors and not manufacturers at this time. The factory management and chemists all left, being replaced by BCE management and new chemists.
Manufacturing of all types of balls, Super Crystalate, billiards and pool continued to be manufactured there until in the early 90s when staff were informed of the closure and were all made redundant. It was not until then that the machinery was removed by staff from Aramith and shipped to Belgium.

Thank you Neil, can you confirm if the super crystalate was a cold poured resin that set because of a chemical reaction or whether they were made using injection moulding machines using heated plastic pellets. I once saw the process on BBC tv back in the eighties and the resin was poured into empty glass light bulbs, that were a similar size, and the bulbs were broken when the resin set and then the balls were turned round on a lathe before being polished.

edit : I see you'ved answered this question on another thread, thanks again.

[Neil2726]

SCs and all other types of balls were a HOT resin poured into flasks direct from the stills into glass flasks - these were transferred to ovens and baked for around 24 hours until solid. The glass was then broken off, the neck part sawn off and then turned in lathes. They were then ground to approx size and then baked again for 42 hours. There followed a further grinding to finished size and polished, mainly by hand.re were no injection moulding or plastic pellets used The original company had installed a couple of grinding machines that cut out .the lathe work and could accom 3 or 4 balls at one time although not as accurate as the old machines. BCE went down this route and scrapped the old lathes and grinders and bought all new machinery, to obviously increase production and cut down on labour!

[vmax]

SCs and all other types of balls were a HOT resin poured into flasks direct from the stills into glass flasks - these were transferred to ovens and baked for around 24 hours until solid. The glass was then broken off, the neck part sawn off and then turned in lathes. They were then ground to approx size and then baked again for 42 hours. There followed a further grinding to finished size and polished, mainly by hand.re were no injection moulding or plastic pellets used The original company had installed a couple of grinding machines that cut out .the lathe work and could accom 3 or 4 balls at one time although not as accurate as the old machines. BCE went down this route and scrapped the old lathes and grinders and bought all new machinery, to obviously increase production and cut down on labour!

Can you remember what was placed into the stills to make the resin ?

[Neil2726]

I didn't actually work in that area of the factory but can recall Barium and Hydrochloric Acids were involved in the process. Only the Chemists would have known the full ingredients as they controlled the process and gave to go ahead for the transferring the syrup into flasks. I will update if anything else comes to mind

[Neil2726]

Brain fade! Phenol and Formaldehyde!

[vmax]

Brain fade! Phenol and Formaldehyde!

Copied from the Britannica website

Phenolic resins account for a large portion of phenol production.
Under the trade name Bakeltie, a phenol - formaldehyde resin was one of the first plastics invented by american industrialist chemist Leo Baekeland and patented in 1909.
Phenol - fromaldehyde resins are inexpensive, heat resistant and waterproof, though somewhat brittle.
The polymerization of phenol with formaldehyde involves electrophilic aromatic substitution at the ortho and para positions (molecular level) of phenol (probably somewhat randomly) , followed by cross linking of the polymeric chains.



Now I know the original Crystalate balls (1920 - 1973) had powdered cows shinbone added to give strength, the Super Crystalate balls that replaced them had something else added as the powdered bone was no longer available thus the new resin was needed and what they came up with was lighter and more elastic, but what ? probably a secret that we'll never know and not understand anyway.

[Neil2726]

Crystalate were of course still in production when I started to work at CBBC in 1964. As I recall there was an area where the bones were crushed, and another where the materials were made into a powder. This was pressed individually into rough ball shaped castings. They were then placed in two part rubber moulds and baked in boiling water in metal cages. They were then transported on a hand cart - often by me _ to the lathes. Only one lathe was used for the production of Crystalate balls and they were hand turned to shape before being ground, polished and finished. If the Crystalate were not turned quickly enough the waste could catch fire! As has been said animal bones were in short supply and the process was too slow and involved to meet demand. I apologise for any errors but this is how I recall things back in those days. There were many different areas in the production processes and you tended to stick to one area of production.

[Neil2726]

Another ingredient of Crystalate balls was celluloid - I still recall the smell and the ability of the waste turnings to catch fire if not turned quicky enough! Memories coming back to me!

[Cue crafty]

Great information Neil, love hearing the process and history. Thanks very much. 🙏