Cleaning billiard balls? On the cheap?

[Killbat]

I have a set of billiard balls I borrowed from my grandparents (story unimportant), and I want to clean them. They're old, all marked up and scuffed, and a bit yellow. How much of that can I fix with household chemicals? I don't want to spend any money on actual billiard ball cleaner, and certainly not A billiard ball cleaner. I have chemicals. Oh boy do I have chemicals.

I guess my real question is, what is NOT safe to use. What, if anything, will damage the balls/ruin the polish/etc.?

 

[ElFenix]

windex!

 

[Killbat]

Like launching a bottle rocket at an Abrams tank.

 

[Ns1]

rub the balls until they're shiny again

 

[edro]

CLR?

 

[Cyberian]

Killbat - I think that perhaps you may have way too much free time on your hands.

If not, have you considered those "ball washing" machines that they have at most golf courses?

 

[Killbat]

I have not considered the ball washing machines they have at golf courses, no.

I know this so far. Windex is worthless. Clorox spray cleaner with bleach turns the cue ball brown. CLR makes it yellow again.

 

[Killbat]

OK, CLR does a good job removing the spots that were all over the balls, but it does nothing about the yellowing.
Maybe I won't be able to do anything about that?

 

[DJFuji]

dip em in paint and draw the numbers back in with colored sharpie's. Watch the stripes. They'll never notice.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Swallow it and retrieve it on the way out. Rinse.

 

[EvilYoda]

The yellow stain is probably just a natural change in the balls, as it tends to happen to all pool balls...if you have a local pool hall, they should have a machine where you put all the balls in a big circle and it just spins it up and they come out pretty clean and polished. (Technical explanation, I know )