Graaille

A Bowling Ball Rack how to.

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I've seen many posts about how to build a bowling ball rack, and there are some decent plans out there. Some quick and dirty (like my first one), and some more elegant (like the one I'm planning when I get money and time together). In the interim, I built my current one over the span of 5 weeks, buying parts $40 at a time. Why so expensive you ask? It's made out of 1" pvc pipe, and is modular, so I can expand as I need to. The 10' spans of pipe were only $3 apiece, but it was the connectors and the # of them that got expensive.... literally 80% of the cost was taken up in $0.65 T-connectors and $1.80 X-connectors. But when you need 9 T connectors and 7 X connectors per 6 ball section, it adds up quickly.

In it's current configuration, it will hold 60 balls in a space of 5 feet long, 4 feet high (with balls), and 22" deep. Unloaded it weighs in at about 15-20 pounds, and is easy enough to move around by one person. But it sucessfully holds at this moment 42 15# balls with no bowing or buckling for a period of 6 months. It was inspired by a BallReviews member called leftyinsnellsville who built one out of 1-1/2" pvc, but his wasn't braced the same as mine since he went for longer spans between braces (10 balls if I remember correctly). Mine has a 6 ball span, but the bracing is every 3 balls.

Anyway, pictures of the construction process can be found at http://s393.photobucket.com/albums/p...lrack%20build/
I'll be glad to provide details to anyone who wants them for exact measurements of the various elements. Believe it or not, the rack does come apart, the end pieces are cemented together top to bottom, the middle pieces are cemented together top to bottom, but the rails are cemented only to the end pieces, and the two sides were just force-clamped together, which makes the rack completely disassembleable (if that's a word). The balls on the bottom do not sit on the floor, but just barely. And yes, balls load up on both sides, so my current configuration cannot sit directly up against a wall long-ways, but that's the joy of being modular - changing the build process into a V shape can give you a rack that comfortably sits in a corner and still holds a decent # of balls.

When I finished and loaded it up, I didn't take pictures right then, and honestly haven't thought about taking a final set of pictures to show it in it's current form until now. So when my father-in-law returns our camera, I'll get some pics and post them to show the (current) finished look of it.
(edit) The pictures of the ballrack has been posted to my photobucket site, you can see it - along with my collection of equipment.

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Updated 08-31-2009 at 06:36 PM by Graaille

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  1. Graaille's Avatar
    The pictures of the ballrack has been posted to my photobucket site, you can see it - along with my collection of equipment.