Bowling Ball Rack

[Aslan]

BACKSTORY:

So, as many of you know..I have about 15 bowling balls, undrilled, in my closest waiting their 'turn' to eventually get utilized. I got kinda tired of them taking up my entire walk-in closet so as I was doing some spring cleaning I decided to get them out of the closet and put them in a rack of some kind.

OPTIONS:

Now, I saw a video (here) of a guy that made a rack for around $10. BUT…it doesn't look very nice and I wanted something that I could put in my living room that would be at least a little decorative.

I also saw a couple options on sale on Ebay…ranging in price from $40 + $30 shipping to $120 + $50 shipping...and in retrospect…maybe I should have went that route and just done the staining myself…but I like to do woodworking projects from time to time so I figured I'd build my own.

RESULTS:

I ended up designing a rack that would have more stability than the 2x4 ripped to be 2x2s design from the YouTube video by using 4x4s as the main vertical posts but keeping the 2x2s for the rails (because they looked better). I added in the 4" horizontal supports to help with horizontal stability and I reluctantly added vertical supports to the middle to slow the sagging effect from the ball weight on those 2x2 rails.

PARTS LIST:
37" 4x4s (x4)
4" 4x4 horizontal supports (x6)
40.5" 2x2 rails (x6)
4" 2x2 horizonta; supports (x6)
10.5" vertical 2x2 supports (x4)
2x4" brackets (x4)
4 7/8" - 6" lag screws (x24)
4 7/8" - 5" lag screws (x12)
3/8" wood dowels cut to 2 1/2" (x8)
2 1/2" screws (x12)
2" drywall screws (x8)
9/16" screws (x8)
sandpaper
wood stain

ISSUES:

1) Wasn't sure if I wanted to do a 12-ball rack or 15-ball rack. A 15-ball rack would hold every ball in my closet. But…I decided to stick with 12-ball simply because of where I wanted to put it in the living room. You can see some of the balls still in boxes in the corner of the picture.

2) The 4x4s presented a problem because I only had a powered circular saw which made cutting the 4x4s nearly impossible.

3) Initially I was going to use 6" nail spikes on the the 4x4s but this proved too difficult and too noisy given my apartment environment. So I switched to lag screws which was better, but I didn't have a socket big enough for my powered drill so I had to screw this in by hand with a small ratchet which was tough on the hands.

4) The stain came out too dark. I was going for a lighter reddish brown and I ended up with a very dark reddish brown.

5) The top rail doesn't have horizontal supports. I made the gap between rails a bit too big on the top rail and rather than move it in or recut longer 2x2s…I figured it was stable enough horizontally that it would be okay.

6) The top rail also seems to be tilted slightly to the right. The rack itself is level and the two bottom rails aren't tilted but the top is a little off.



As for cost/time…it cost right around $100 total. So, cheaper than had I bought a decent/nice one on Ebay…but more expensive than a cheap online version or the garage version seen on the YouTube video.

For me, it took about 8 days of occasional work. But half of those days were staining, drying, staining, drying…and really you could take the other 4 days and easily make them 2 if you have larger time blocks per day to work on it and a better stocked garage/workshop.

[Blomer]

Looks good! Nice job! Wish I was that handy!

[RobLV1]

When my wife and I first moved to Vegas, we bought a two-story house, and I kept my bowling balls in the closet under the stair case. This did not make my wife happy. Three years later, we moved to a one-story house, and my wife suggested that the third bedroom should be my "bowling room." The first thing that I did was to have shelves built to store, bowling balls, dvd's, books, and cd's.

If anyone can tell me how to add the picture, I would greatly appreciate it.

[NewToBowling]

Looks nice. Great job

[jab5325]

Nice job Aslan.

What Ebonite ball is that on the middle shelf? It's the last one on the right.

[Aslan]

If anyone can tell me how to add the picture, I would greatly appreciate it.

The "best" way is to register for an account at photobucket or imageshack. That way you can post pictures there and link directly from the thread. You just go there, sign up (photobucket I think is still free), download pics from your computer into your album on the site, then just click on one of the links that have the HTML code...then use the "insert image" button above and when it asks for a http address, you paste the link...and picture should magically appear!

What Ebonite ball is that on the middle shelf? It's the last one on the right.

Thats an Ebonite Warning Sign. Not sure if thats gonna be the first ball out of the bag for arsenal #3 (2016 debut) or if I'm gonna add a more aggressive ball or two and use it as a ball down option.



I like the idea of having a couple pearls, a hybrid, and a solid. OR...a couple solids, a hybrid, and a pearl. My current arsenal has a hybrid, solid, and 2 pearls. Arsenal #2 (late 2015 debut) has 2 solids, a hybrid, and a pearl. Arsenal #3 so far only has the Warning Sign and the Track300A...a hybrid and a pearl respectively...and both are quite weak overall. I'd like to add some less aggressive ball down options to the Warning Sign like a Rotogrip Rumble and a Lane #1 Stealth Bomber or Columbia300 Smackdown...but both the Bomber and Smackdown are discontinued...so I'll have to find another option there. If I can't find a suitable hybrid by the time I'm ready for this arsenal...I may just use the Warning Sign as the hybrid and use one of my pearls, probably the Defiant Edge, as my 4th ball.

However, the next arsenal I'll be experimenting with 15lbs...so if I "fall in love" with 15lbs...then I might just wholesale the Warning Sign, 300A, and the other 4 16lb pearls I have and stick with 15lbs. Or, flip side, I hate 15lbs and get rid of that entire bottom shelf. But I doubt I'll hate 15lbs since I used to throw 15lbs just fine. Most likely I'll see no real difference and continue to switch back and forth with no noticeable difference.

[vdubtx]

If anyone can tell me how to add the picture, I would greatly appreciate it.

Easiest way and not have to sign up for an account, is to go to imgur.com. You can upload a file from your PC using button at top of screen that says "Upload" and after you tell it what picture you want it will give you a url that looks like "[img] url [/img]" without quotes to be directly pasted into a post on pretty much any forums.

[vdubtx]

Duplicate

[bowl1820]

If anyone can tell me how to add the picture, I would greatly appreciate it.

See thread:How-to-insert-a-image-into-your-post:

http://www.bowlingboards.com/threads...into-your-post

[bowl1820]

A suggestion:

The edges indicated here:



if not already should be beveled or rounded over, if not they can produce dents in a ball left there over time.