More pinsetter mechanic stuff (if your interested)

[Phonetek]

If you don't like long posts, hit the "Back" button now! If you don't care then by all means keep reading. Yesterday I got called in for an early shift working the counter, someone called off. It was only for 4 hours so no biggie. Wifey dropped me off since my truck is still down. I had to work last night too so I figured instead of going back and forth having wifey come and get me I just stayed. I was off the clock but I decided to use the time to do some stuff on my own with the mechanic. He was excited he had the time with me so he made use of it.

First thing he did was had me change a spotting cell because it was broke. Spotting cells are a scissors like mechanism that picks the pins up off the deck and sets them back down. I will say it's so easy when your laying on your back to lose track of where your at. The spotting cell was for pin 5 and each pin has it's own. I kept going for screws in other pin cells without realizing it. The mechanic was under there with me and quickly pointed out my error and he agreed it is a little disorientating at that angle but experience will cure that. After replacing the one I adjusted the other 9. There was only 2 out of 10 that didn't require any adjustment. The others were either too tight or too loose which would cause them to drop pins or not release them. They weren't that far enough out of spec to cause either YET but he was showing me the proper way of doing things.

After that I was watching the operation of another machine and noticed the distributor belt was curled and no longer flat. The distributor kept jumping where the belt was joined together. It was old and oil soaked which caused it. It was incredibly easy to change it, took only a few minutes. When we turned it on the distributor no longer jumped but I noticed it shook slightly side to side. The cause for that was the drive shaft for the distributor was bottomed out on the motor. We changed the shaft which just snaps on easily. Less than a minute repair. However, that didn't fix it.

We had two choices to repair it from there. One was to removed the motor and put in shims to give the proper clearance or cut a 1/2" off the shaft and drill a new hole in the shaft. We chose to trim the shaft, a much faster repair than the other. Now the distributor sits nice and still both horizontally and vertically. Then looking at the ball return drive belt I noticed that they were riding on the center pulley off center both from the top and the bottom causing it to get frayed. Turns out the pulleys weren't properly lined up. He got out a fresh belt for it and moving the pulleys was just a matter of loosening set screws and tapping them over. Very tight in there to move with your hands though.

The last thing I did was on one of the lanes the table was very herky jerky and went it got to the top it would drop and jerk down slightly. I knew the fix because I did this a few weeks ago. That was a sign that the brushes in the table motor were worn and they had less than a week of life left. That's another very quick repair, just popping out what's left of the old brushes and securing in new ones. Takes about 7 minutes. Now it's nice and smooth and should go another 2yrs or so before it needs it again.

My counter co-workers think I'm crazy doing this on my own time. To me it's time well spent, I really felt a sense of completion even though it was minor stuff and I learned something worth learning. The mechanic loved it, all he was gonna have me do was the spotting cell. He was impressed that all the rest was things that I noticed and was eager to repair. He is already compiling a list of some much more major stuff that he has planned for up and coming lessons. I my own list too! I hope he warns me ahead of time though, since we wear dress pants and very nice clothes normally I might invest in a mechanics jump suit for the occasion. There is a reason this work was on "Dirty Jobs"

[bdpeters]

Phonetek, I really find these posts interesting and feel I have learned at least a little about what goes on behind the scenes. my 11 year old son would probably find it very interesting to learn all of this but is unfortunately to young to be working this kind of job. OSHA would probably frown on it too. he also thought the work of one of our local PSO's was neat too. he expressed interest in working there when he gets older.

keep up the interesting information.

[Phonetek]

If you've never seen how these things work and you're at all interested I'd be willing to bet if you know the manager at your house they'd be more than happy to take you in the back to take a peek. I find it quite fascinating myself and I'm sure I'm not alone. I don't know about OSHA's requirements but I know the mechanic lets my kids and wife come back there whenever they want. I've already given them the lecture about what NOT to do. If someone asks I'd bring them back to take a look and nobody would care.

There are a couple isles between some of the pinsetters where you can safely walk all the way up to the graphic boards to the front of the pinsetters. Unless your an idiot poking your hands in things your 100% safe there. The sides of those machines are closed up with metal and wood.

Otherwise their are ladder rungs and handle on the machines for us to gain access to the top. Plus there are boards on top made for us to stand, walk or sit on safely. As long as you aren't standing by the rake, under the table that drops the pins or on the belt in the back called the carpet or sticking your hands in by the ball lift your pretty safe. Even then there are guards in place to prevent accidental injury. Other than that you just have to watch out for bowling balls coming down the lanes LOL That's at least where I work how it's set up, I can't speak for other centers or ones with Brunswick machines. I was told Brunswick's are monsters that want to kill you and WAY more that can mechanically go wrong.

What I really need to do is take a video and post it here. I keep meaning to do it but I keep forgetting. I always go in an hour early, I'll try to remember and see if I can put something good together. At least I know you'd appreciate it. Too bad your at least 1,000 miles away, I'd love nothing less than to give you the full tour. I'm glad you enjoy the posts.

[boatman37]

I remember being in back at our old center when my dad worked there but I was only a couple years old. I barely remember it but can still remember what the setup looked like.

[vdubtx]

Cool. I haven't had much chance to go behind the scenes of a center to see the inner workings and just watch it. I have seen them in a quick walk through, but to stand there and watch the machine at work, I haven't been able to. Only thing I have done is looked at Youtube videos that are available that describe the inner workings and "How Things Work"

[Phonetek]

Cool. I haven't had much chance to go behind the scenes of a center to see the inner workings and just watch it. I have seen them in a quick walk through, but to stand there and watch the machine at work, I haven't been able to. Only thing I have done is looked at Youtube videos that are available that describe the inner workings and "How Things Work"

Like I said, I'll try to put something together for you guys. I've seen the youtube videos doing my "homework" but I think I can come up with a pretty good show. As I mentioned above. If you're really interested in seeing them in action live....just ask the proprietor of your local center you go to. See if they will take you back or better yet their mechanic. That way you can get a little understanding on what your looking at. If you're a regular or league bowler I see no reason why they wouldn't take you for a look, it's not like it's top secret or anything. The worst they can say is no. My bet they'd be happy about the inquiry.

[Phonetek]

I noticed Sat night before I got hurt that the lanes were very dry even though I oiled at 5pm and came back at 10pm. Only thing on my lane was one league but I could barely keep it off the nose no matter what line I played. Same thing was mentioned to me by a couple other folks. I couldn't understand why but I suspected maybe an issue with the oiler. Talked to the mechanic today and after my shift ended I went out there with him to the oiler. He brought a little mini shop vac. We vacuumed all the brushes, had to wipe some stuff down.

Flipped it down on the floor and opened the one compartment and had to vacuum that out and wipe more stuff down. Flipped it back up and had to spin and vacuum the main brush again. He opened the shop vac at the end and there was a wad of stuff in there I couldn't believe. You could have made a ball about half the size of a bowling ball of the crud that came off it. He said it has to be done once a month. He said now it should work perfectly again. I would have never thought it got dirty like that. I figured all the stuff that came off the lane got sucked up and put in the dirty water, boy was I wrong. Learn something new once again.

[Blacksox1]

I noticed Sat night before I got hurt that the lanes were very dry even though I oiled at 5pm and came back at 10pm. Only thing on my lane was one league but I could barely keep it off the nose no matter what line I played. Same thing was mentioned to me by a couple other folks. I couldn't understand why but I suspected maybe an issue with the oiler. Talked to the mechanic today and after my shift ended I went out there with him to the oiler. He brought a little mini shop vac. We vacuumed all the brushes, had to wipe some stuff down.

Flipped it down on the floor and opened the one compartment and had to vacuum that out and wipe more stuff down. Flipped it back up and had to spin and vacuum the main brush again. He opened the shop vac at the end and there was a wad of stuff in there I couldn't believe. You could have made a ball about half the size of a bowling ball of the crud that came off it. He said it has to be done once a month. He said now it should work perfectly again. I would have never thought it got dirty like that. I figured all the stuff that came off the lane got sucked up and put in the dirty water, boy was I wrong. Learn something new once again.

This should keep the league bowlers happy. How long did it take to clean? What machine type and model does your center use? Enjoying your insightful posting.

[Phonetek]

This should keep the league bowlers happy. How long did it take to clean? What machine type and model does your center use? Enjoying your insightful posting.

Thank you BlackSox, appreciate it. It only took maybe a half hour to clean it. It's a "Kegel Kustodian Plus"

[Phonetek]

As an update tonight I did some more stuff worth noting. The mechanic was off ill again. Well I took it upon myself to do some machine inspection. I found a cracked sweep bushing, it wasn't broke but in a week the sweep probably would have broken on one side and hung down. 8 bolts easy fix so I did it. Then I continued cleaning up the cable mess cutting out hundreds of useless and sharp cable ties and nicely formed in the wires.

Before I knew it I had 4 lanes done and about 20 feet of cabling above the graphic boards that turned out beautiful. After that lane 4 has had a broken gutter bumper for a couple days. The mechanic showed me how to do it once a few weeks ago so I figured I'd take a whack at it myself. The counter guy was really reluctant to let me do it but I said, it's not like I could break it worse can I?

The biggest challenge was trying to find the parts and tools. When he showed me he just came out of the tool room with everything we needed I didn't know where he got it from. After a bit of searching I managed to find everything I needed. It took me a bit of time but I did it exactly right and it works perfectly. I was very proud of myself tonight. The counter guy was rather impressed. He said no way he'd have been able to fix it. It's a good feeling I gotta say. Nothing I did was exactly earth shattering but gratifying nonetheless.