Greetings and happy holidays to all. It has been extremely busy on all fronts these past few months with very little time available to work on the pinsetter. But I finally have made some progress on the sweep mechanism and with some focused hard work, I may be able to finish and get some more videos uploaded in the next 3-5 days.

My goal here is to build this semi-automatic machine in a couple phases. Once I get the sweep working, I want to build some kind of pin elevator that will move the pins into a tray for easy access. No distributor, just place the pins into a try where they can be loaded into the deck to be lowered to the lane surface.

After that I'll be forced to do some redesign on the deck mechanism so that I can incorporate spotting tongs/scissors.

What I will then have is the ability to handle spare pins, sweep the lane and get the pins into a tray for easy access. I want this prototype to be easy and practical to use. If two people can bowl a complete game easily I think this prototype part of the project will be successful.

Well, it is rather amazing how 3-5 days quickly turns into 3-5 weeks. But I think it's been worth the effort. I finished the sweep prototype. I posted the following four videos on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8HFL_tFEUo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQyMZEHsLsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al0hY-8mmJU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_xOn8MVTtU

At this point I am going to pause, step back, purchase some better equipment, do some shop cleanup and organizing, do some redesigning to make things more accurate, stronger and save some space by improving the frame structure. It's time to turn the prototype, proof of concept machine into something that I can actually use.

It has been an effort but it's kind of a thrill climbing around in the back putting things together. It has been an unbelievable learning experience.

Dave,

Outstanding job so far! Everything looks great! Very well thought out and executed. I bought my Linds pins about 6 months ago and built a mini-lane of my own (nothing as good as yours) and hope to tweak some stuff and improve the functionality and speed. Here's a video of mine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z2QbyXZOLc

Great vids guys, I always love seeing home scale bowling projects! Nice work!

Very nice guys. I hope to work on mine this summer, when I build my new barn.

I added two more videos today of the pit and pindeck area. Still a lot of work to be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gkX9RNkXzk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8j3lyVE-eA

Nice videos and good work. And thanks all for the kind comments. I'm just about finished doing some work area clean up and organizing. The break is good. And next before I add more mechanisms, I need to replace some of the wood frame with metal to eliminate a lot of the bulkiness, give me some more room. Then I'll rebuild the sweep mechanism to take out the play. What I have is functional and satisfies the 'proof of concept' approach, but it's not really usable yet. I'm also going to make sure I allow for ways to connect these mechanisms together.

Great job guys! Please keep on keepin' on and keep us updated.

I have begun some disassembly and deconstruction of the pinsetter. The plan is to replace large pieces of wood in the frame with metal. As designed it should be as strong and will free up a LOT of space and ultimately make things more exact and lead to a more permanent design prototype. To that end I spent some time reorganizing my shop area and purchased a few new tools, nothing elaborate or expensive; just the basics to make things go a little smoother.

Part one of this phase will be the table lift mechanism and supporting pieces. I am about 70% finished and when it is done I'll post some pictures and/or videos.

After that I'm going to redesign and build the sweep.

Thanks,
Dave

So Dave,
Any news on your re build?

I found this pdf file and thought you guys building a mini machine/lane might find this 82/70 look alike help full.
Here is the link to the site. web site If you look to the left side of the wondow there is a link to the PDF of the pinspotter. Just in case the link to the PDF done wotk.

Here is the link to the pdf http://www.ximabowling.com/xima%20pinsetter%20and%20ball%20accelerator%20parts%20manual.pdf

Interesting info.

Sorry about the delay in responding. I have made some progress. I've installed a couple metal frame pieces, eliminating the space hogging wooden ones. And spring lawn care and other projects are taking priority. But I plan to resume work on the pinsetter in the coming weeks. The nice thing now is that I have something to work with and to a certain degree re-design is easier now - especially since I can see how and where to make improvements.

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave,

Awesome job by the way!!! I've been looking at your videos since I discovered them in March.....Would you be able to take a video of it in operation like you did from the front, but this time from the back so we can see how the sweep and controls work? Thanks!!

Steve,

Thanks for the kind comments. At this point the pinsetter is not functional. I started deconstruction in the spring. When the summer outdoor projects are over I will start working on the pinsetter again. I've used the time away from the project to give some thought how I want to proceed.

The current pin release mechanism does not easily allow for re-spotting scissors/tongs. So one of the first things after rebuilding the framework is to begin work on the table and pin holders/release. I have some ideas how I'm going to do this. I don't want to copy directly the existing mechanisms, but they are important. I'm hopeful the final design will be a reflection of my design ideas and what already works.

I also need to rebuild the sweep. I found it difficult to obtain the pieces I needed to guide the sweep along the track. Thus the tracks and guides were a bit cumbersome and had too much play. I have definite ideas how to improve the work I did.

All in all, my goal is to have a working semi-automatic pinsetter by spring. It should do the following: Set new pins, re-spot for 2nd frame, sweep. That would be the minimum. Depending how things go, I would like to tackle a pin elevator that at this point doesn't necessarily have to distribute the pins. If it can move the pins to the top and deposit them into a tray, that would be a great start. And if I'm that far along, a ball return would be icing on the cake !!!

Thanks for writing,
Dave

Hi Dave,
Sounds great!! I'm looking forward to the enhancements! If you could mass produce what your pinsetter will be like after it works the way you want it to, that would be great!! LOL....some food for thought. Thanks for responding!!