Another way to tell your lanes need to be oiled

[Phonetek]

Of course we all know when our lanes are too dry for obvious reasons. Ever been on dry lanes and notice you have to call the counter because you keep getting "out of range" pinsetters? What happens is the oil gets carried down to the pin deck, when too much gets down there you will notice pins will slide off spot instead of falling over. Then when the pinsetter comes down it will hit the top of the pin and stop. The pin chasers or mechanic have to go in back and make it go up and cycle to the next ball and remove any dead wood.

The more oil that builds up on that pin deck the more this will happen. So if you notice a lot of pins sliding around off spot instead of falling then this is a great indicator that your lanes haven't been oiled recently. When the oiling machine goes down the lane it goes all the way down 64' (the entire lane + pin deck) and stops before the pit. As it's doing that on the way down it's cleaning and stripping the old oil, dust and debris off the lane including the pin deck. At the same time it's also placing some fresh oil down to the desired length. The front of the machine does the cleaning, the back does the oiling. Then on the way back to the approach it will start off going fast then slow down. When it's slowing down it's again placing oil down. It only cleans on the trip down, all the through the pin deck.

Now there are many different oiling machines that may work differently than ours. There are some out there that don't even require anyone to operate, they are completely automatic and move lane to lane by themselves. Kinda like a giant Roomba. They still need someone to fill and empty them of course.

[bowl1820]

The more oil that builds up on that pin deck the more this will happen. So if you notice a lot of pins sliding around off spot instead of falling then this is a great indicator that your lanes haven't been oiled recently.

Excessive out of ranges are more a indicator that your pattern might not be quite right (not that they havent been oiled recently) might need a different lane conditioner or your not using the right cleaner or mix ratio, residue.

And of course you might need lane machine maintenance.

Pin deck not being cleaned properly, they also have deck sprays to help with it. Such as Kegels spot on pin deck spray.

[Phonetek]

Excessive out of ranges are more a indicator that your pattern might not be quite right (not that they havent been oiled recently) might need a different lane conditioner or your not using the right cleaner or mix ratio, residue.

And of course you might need lane machine maintenance.

Pin deck not being cleaned properly, they also have deck sprays to help with it. Such as Kegels spot on pin deck spray.

Hmmm....the mechanic specifically told me a rash of out of ranges are because of excessive carry down on the pin deck. However I could have misunderstood but I will be happy to confirm this as I don't like giving out mis-information.

[djp1080]

Phoney, Many posts here have indicated that there is a minimum of carry down these days. The reactive resin balls absorb the oil rather than move it around in the plastic and urethane days. Many of the articles on Bowling This Month seem to mention this as well...

[RobLV1]

Phonetek: While your sharing of information is appreciated, please be careful about jumping to conclusions. Many of us who have never worked in a bowling center have had the opportunity to spend considerable amounts of time down the lanes, inspecting the pindecks, and behind the lanes. As I said, your sharing is appreciated, but I really don't think that a week of experience in a bowling center qualifies you as an expert. Keep at it, and keep sharing your observations. We'll all learn something, as will you.

[bowl1820]

Phoney, Many posts here have indicated that there is a minimum of carry down these days. The reactive resin balls absorb the oil rather than move it around in the plastic and urethane days. Many of the articles on Bowling This Month seem to mention this as well...

djp1080 your thinking about when the lanes/pins are behaving "normally".

When your having excessive out of range calls, it's a abnormal situation that's causing it and It's typically is do to oil getting on the pindeck from abnormal "Carrydown". , Like if the lane machine doesn't clean properly . The balls will push oil all down the lane on to the deck because they haven't been stripped properly and the oil doesn't adhere to the lane right

[bowl1820]

Hmmm....the mechanic specifically told me a rash of out of ranges are because of excessive carry down on the pin deck. However I could have misunderstood but I will be happy to confirm this as I don't like giving out mis-information.

Yes excessive oil getting on the pin deck causes pin out of ranges, BUT what I'm saying is that doesn't mean the lanes need to be oiled. Like the title of your post says.

It means the pin deck and/or lanes need to be stripped/cleaned properly. Plus it's a symptom of a possible problem with the lane machine, Cleaner, Conditioner etc.

[Phonetek]

Phonetek: While your sharing of information is appreciated, please be careful about jumping to conclusions. Many of us who have never worked in a bowling center have had the opportunity to spend considerable amounts of time down the lanes, inspecting the pindecks, and behind the lanes. As I said, your sharing is appreciated, but I really don't think that a week of experience in a bowling center qualifies you as an expert. Keep at it, and keep sharing your observations. We'll all learn something, as will you.

Whoa, I never claimed to be an expert so lets back up here and please relax. I was simply sharing info that was given to me by an a guy who has done this his whole life who IS an expert. In this house most of what is thrown there is plastic balls (house balls mainly) which causes excessive carry down onto the pin deck. Reactive and Urethane are very few and far between here.

The oiling process does in fact strip the oil off the lanes including the pin deck in order to put new oil on the lanes. They wouldn't run the oiler to only remove oil even just to do the pin deck, hence they would also need to be oiled as well. The mechanic whom I spoke to tonight did say that if too much oil got onto the pin deck that pins would slide more which normally had fallen if that oil wasn't there. So given that the pins would slide out of range instead of falling it would cause the pinsetters to be out of range. He said that was a big problem when he got to that alley because they didn't do it near often enough. That's why he mandated that it be done daily to alleviate the problem. So all I was really saying, if you notice this when you are bowling it could be another sign that the stripping / oiling process is needed to be done aside from the normal obvious symptoms. I'm sorry RobLV1 if I caused any confusion here, I certainly wasn't trying to nor pass myself off as anything more than a trainee I apologize if you took it that way. When the mechanic told me this I thought it was kinda cool to know so I figured I'd share. I should only hope when this man finally retires I can retain at least a fraction of what he knows.
And Yes Bowl1820, it could also indicate an issue with the cleaner / oiler machine. I've been told some guys forget to check the fluids and have in fact stripped all the oil off and added none or vise versa, they ran it without cleaning solution but oiled over the top of the existing oil. Both would be quickly evident one would think but it does happen. Hopefully that never happens to me and I always take the time to check the fluids prior to running it, I'm pretty good about that stuff but mistakes happen like they did the other night when I shut down all the pinsetters thinking it was the light switch.

[fordman1]

I never get confused by those long post because over a short paragraph I just skip. You should be able to get your point across with out running on and on.

Does your machine strip the back ends every day?

[boatman37]

Well I find it interesting learning about how things work. Don't know that I NEED to know when a lane needs re-oiled since I have no control over when it gets done but interesting to learn these little things. When somebody comes on here and jumps down your throat for being wrong it makes you not want to post here anymore. I was told by Rob a few weeks ago that I don't know anything about bowling balls, which I have alluded to here already. The whole reason I came here was to learn about them. I don't come here to be blasted for posting a question. I specifically started a thread asking about bowling balls and drilling and this was your response Rob "Yes, it indicates the weight block or something. Hopefully you have a good PSO, cause you seriously need lots of help... and someone to explain bowling balls to you. "

This was just a few days after I joined here but I blew it off. Not a very good way to welcome new members to the site but hey, I'm a new member here so what do I know. I do know I came here to share my joy of the game and to learn, not be berated for not knowing everything. Maybe this is the wrong site for me?