Phonetek
02-24-2018, 06:34 PM
For the first time I spent a full night in the back with the mechanic. Keep in mind I don't know all the technical lingo just yet and there is a ton of it. I have only retained a small bit so far so bare with me.
We had someone knock a sweep off one side so I ended up replacing both of the shock bushings, easy fix, only 8 nuts on each side. One side was completely broke and the other was slightly damaged from the sweep hanging down so we replaced both. We did keep the other as an emergency spare even though we have extras.
I'm not a guy who likes sitting around waiting for things to break, I'm rather high energy and can't sit still. So for busy work I cleaned all the large circular things I can't remember the name that brings the pins out of the pit to the distributor arm. Wiped down the distributor assemblies, bladders and all the supports. Amazing on all the little bits of belt from the distributor that pile up from them getting hard from being soaked with lane oil. He does this weekly and I couldn't believe how dirty they get in a week. I had to get a new rag for each machine, that's how bad they get.
Then I got under all the machines and scraped out all the crud that builds up underneath from the pin deck all the way back. Amazing the things people chuck down the lanes and gutters that collects back there. Coins, lots of candy, marbles, cigarette lighters among other things. People are disrespectful jerks and slobs.
I even found a pin that came out of a ball, it was orange and it matched perfectly. I didn't think those came out. Plus, various nuts and bolts that either the mechanic dropped or that had broken off the machines. I also found a pin cup that was broken and mangled from a jam in addition to chunks of a bowling pin that the plastic had cracked off of. It's something he does every 2 months and it was time. Enough crud was under 12 lanes to heap the dust pan three times.
After that I replaced something that is similar to a coil over shock absorber on a car that attaches to the backboard in the pit because it leaked. I took another one off that came loose and we had to re-compress the spring on because it had come loose. Basically it keeps the ball from blasting through the back board and coming out the back of the machine.
The last thing we did was we had to adjust the tension on the pin sweep on the ball return door. It was too tight so we kept getting ball calls on someone who was using a 6 lb ball because it wasn't able to push the flap for the ball to get through.
It was a great learning experience doing all this stuff. There is sooooo much to learn. Although I don't think anything I did was anything major but I left with a good sense of accomplishment last night. I feel very comfortable working on the machines. He tells me to go do something I just grab what I need and go to it. He supervises as I do it of course but he seems pretty confident in my abilities as well.
All these things I'm fixing I'm putting together a maintenance schedule to periodically inspect these things. He seems to know how long everything lasts. I also suggested putting dates on each part we replace with a black or silver Sharpie to help aid in keeping track of how old the parts are in addition to our work log. In a couple months I should have a nice organized preventative maintenance schedule to keep them oiled, cleaned and wear inspection. It's best to know ahead of time when you see signs of wear to order stuff prior to it breaking.
We had someone knock a sweep off one side so I ended up replacing both of the shock bushings, easy fix, only 8 nuts on each side. One side was completely broke and the other was slightly damaged from the sweep hanging down so we replaced both. We did keep the other as an emergency spare even though we have extras.
I'm not a guy who likes sitting around waiting for things to break, I'm rather high energy and can't sit still. So for busy work I cleaned all the large circular things I can't remember the name that brings the pins out of the pit to the distributor arm. Wiped down the distributor assemblies, bladders and all the supports. Amazing on all the little bits of belt from the distributor that pile up from them getting hard from being soaked with lane oil. He does this weekly and I couldn't believe how dirty they get in a week. I had to get a new rag for each machine, that's how bad they get.
Then I got under all the machines and scraped out all the crud that builds up underneath from the pin deck all the way back. Amazing the things people chuck down the lanes and gutters that collects back there. Coins, lots of candy, marbles, cigarette lighters among other things. People are disrespectful jerks and slobs.
I even found a pin that came out of a ball, it was orange and it matched perfectly. I didn't think those came out. Plus, various nuts and bolts that either the mechanic dropped or that had broken off the machines. I also found a pin cup that was broken and mangled from a jam in addition to chunks of a bowling pin that the plastic had cracked off of. It's something he does every 2 months and it was time. Enough crud was under 12 lanes to heap the dust pan three times.
After that I replaced something that is similar to a coil over shock absorber on a car that attaches to the backboard in the pit because it leaked. I took another one off that came loose and we had to re-compress the spring on because it had come loose. Basically it keeps the ball from blasting through the back board and coming out the back of the machine.
The last thing we did was we had to adjust the tension on the pin sweep on the ball return door. It was too tight so we kept getting ball calls on someone who was using a 6 lb ball because it wasn't able to push the flap for the ball to get through.
It was a great learning experience doing all this stuff. There is sooooo much to learn. Although I don't think anything I did was anything major but I left with a good sense of accomplishment last night. I feel very comfortable working on the machines. He tells me to go do something I just grab what I need and go to it. He supervises as I do it of course but he seems pretty confident in my abilities as well.
All these things I'm fixing I'm putting together a maintenance schedule to periodically inspect these things. He seems to know how long everything lasts. I also suggested putting dates on each part we replace with a black or silver Sharpie to help aid in keeping track of how old the parts are in addition to our work log. In a couple months I should have a nice organized preventative maintenance schedule to keep them oiled, cleaned and wear inspection. It's best to know ahead of time when you see signs of wear to order stuff prior to it breaking.