Greetings all ! Could use some helpfull tips

[Swedish Mikael]

Hello !

My name is Mikael, and since around 4½ years, i have now been working at a hotel that has a bowling place also with 8 machines. It took me around 2½ years to learn how most of it works. Nope, there is no personal that is trained or a head mechanic of some sort here. And there was not before i started here also, yes i know what we all are thinking.

why .. just ... why

So trail by fire so to say the first years and there is still a million things i don´t know, BUT ! ill save that story for the next time


I am the only person taking care of this as a "valunteer side work" for my regulare work. Or it all goes to hell, but i am sure you know better then mewhat happens with 8 machines that are un-suprevised for a looooong time on allot of parts


So here is my problem now, the bowling has always opend 15:00 on weekdays, since there is no activity before that. But now i have gotten some ppl to give it a go at our place in the mornings. Now this is great yes ! .. well yes and no.

This place is a Party / Disco bowling place, and sadly against my voice, has been treated like that, so tha standard of the place has not been better then to handle mostly late night party´s and alike.

So now i am rushing to get the place ready for the standard level that the new ppl require/askes of us (or should i say me). All machines work to play on, just a pin now and then that drops, minor things atm but it works.

But the issue atm is with the cleaning.

I trow a clean ball in, a ball with dark / black marks comes back.


Serius bowlers don´t like this, and this is what i have done so far on the dirt hunt, i will try and make it as understandable as possible, since i don´t know the english words (or correct swedsih words haha) for all this, but here goes



1#The Ball lift / elevator at the players i have cleaned the rubber wheels that send the ball up & also the metal bars under & above them.

2#The sides on the bowling coart, gutters ?

3#The Ball lift / elevator behind the pins where the ball goes up.
a:I have taken the red / orange plastic in the hole & around the little peddel that sends the ball up.
b:I have taken the long rubber band that sends the ball up to the top, that makes it go all the way back.
c:I have taken the metal bars that the ball rolls on when it goes up the elevator with the band.
d:I have removed for now the dirty piece of cloth that forms a little tunnel for the ball to roll into when it is at the top of the elevator so it does not fall off.


Now after doing this it is allot better then before, but i still get 2-5 marks of dirt / dried lane oil ? on the balls. And they varry in size and shape.

#So now i wonder, must you take away the huge "ball/pin cloth" behind the pins that sends them to the "pin elevator" and clean that also maybe ?

#Do you need to take away all the lidds? over the rail that the balls roll back on to the players under the floor and clean there also ?



I feel like i am missing somehing here that keeps giving dirt on the balls, and if i can only find the last areas where the dirt i coming from, my problems for now will be ok atleast



Thankful for any advice or pointers !


And hopefully you can understand my cryptic bowling words





Kind Regards



Mikael

[pinfeed]

Check the cushion facing...(covers the wooden plank that the balls hit after they are thrown). It can develope holes over time, so the balls are hitting the bare rubber. This will leave black splotches on the balls.

Also grease on the lane under the front end of the machine...This is also a sure sign of something is about to fail above the grease marks...Table drive, cam follower bearings, etc.

[Swedish Mikael]

Thank you kindly!

I did not think about that,ill be sure to see it over on my next work day

[Popeye]

What kind of maintenance are you doing on the lanes themselves? (Example: stripping and oiling) Do you have an oiling machine? And by the way welcome to Bowl Tech from Saline Michigan USA.

Jerry

[rivmike]

Pinfeed is right, my guess is the cushion rivots. Older ones soaked with lane oil will smear on a ball alot.

[Tablejam]

I would also guess worn cushion facing or exposed and gummy rubber or gummy rivets. But wouldn't this also show up on the pins as well?

[rivmike]

I would also guess worn cushion facing or exposed and gummy rubber or gummy rivets. But wouldn't this also show up on the pins as well?

It takes the new tacky/soft cover balls and them turning into the rivot.

[Jan-Willem]

#Do you need to take away all the lidds? over the rail that the balls roll back on to the players under the floor and clean there also ?

Do that every year.

[lovetobowl]

I would start with the cushion as stated above, I've had that problem. Also recently had a problem with the lift upfront leaving marks on the ball as it comes up. Although my upfront ball lifts are the old brunswick ones. Still you might want to check it out where the ball comes back up front.

[Swedish Mikael]

Hello again all !

Thank you for all the tips and the welcome



So the quest to rid the bowling halls of Dalhall from dust, oil monsters and other demons of annoyens has been going on long long days. And i now have 6days untill D day when the group will start there first season at us. And this is what i have done since the last talk.

BTW ! 82-90 XL is written on the back of the machines if this helpes.


I checked the:

#Lane again.

#Gutters again.

#Cleaned off half the "rugg ?" behind the pins, on the side to where the ball goes into the elevator to see if that did something. - Minor resultes of improvement.

#The hole that the ball goes into at the bottem of the elevator i looked over again. - Ball goes up even faster now, good to know.

#The long leather band that send up the ball i looked over again. - Minor resultes of improvement.

#The bars on etch side under the elevator leatherband, that has the rubber/hard plastic protections on them, that the ball gets scueezed up between. (Hope you could follow me)

Does protection rubber/plastic thigs on the bars. They where black, they are suppose to be red . -Huge resultes with less crap on ball.

#At the top of the elevator when the ball goes over the top and rolls down the hill and back. On the way down just at the top is a "Cloth tunnel". guessing it´s there to stop ball from flying off maybe, and collect dust. Massive dust on it. Cleaned that off - Now it collects , more dust i guess

#The bars going down from the top i cleaned, down till the area the ball goes under the floor (ball tunnel to front) - Minor resultes

#Ball lift at front. (At players)

Now here i found massive amounts of crap.

#Cleaned the 2 rubber wheels that send up the ball - Huge resultes on less big , "scueeze marks"

#Cleaned the bars over / under the rubber wheels that the ball rolls on - Huge resultes on less loooong dark markes






Now here is the thing that puzzle me atm.

So i get tiny "bright" brown or dark long marks on the ball, tiny random dark marks. All this i guess are things you can not get ridd of fully.

BUT !


And here is the kicker..

IF , i sitt at the ball lift at the front (at players) and just keep putting in the ball there, redoing it continuesly to see how my cleaning has worked.

I only get minor marks now and then, BUT, if i trow down the ball and it comes back with the great speed as it goes into the ball lift. There will always be 1-3 bigger long marks or just one massive mark, kinda like a square-burn-mark.



This here now seems at-least to be the last bastion of crap left on the Lane, so if i can figure this out. I know how to at-least get the Lanes to a acceptable level before they start playing. And i can improve on it as times goes on.


So if you think i have missed something, or if it´s just impossible to get it all perfect, just point it out

I have worked with handeling the bowling here since i started working on this hotel since 4 years + now. But it has always just been a "Party / Disco" level of a bowling place. So there are allot of maintenence things i know jack-donkey about when it comes to having the place on a standard level of a competition place.



And hope you live to tell the tale about my spelling, this comp will not activate the spell-checker for some reasone.




Hope i was understandable !

Kind Regards



Mikael

[Swedish Mikael]

Oh and here Jerry !

Lane MachineAMF MagnumSilver Bulliet
Made with pride in US


Currently dead since the part that holds the big green oil roller at the end is broken. Should show up on the mail soon i hope.



Kind Regards


Mikael

[pinfeed]

Still sounds like the cushion to me...Didn't see that on your list. But you're headed in the right direction...Clean everything that touches the ball or the pins.

[Swedish Mikael]

The cushion, was that the thing i hit after going past the pins ?

I found the major cause of the dirt and big stains on the balls now at-least.

In the ball lifts at the players , the bars that the ball goes allong, the once that have rubber/plastic protection. 2 on the bottom 2 at the top.
On this one that i am fixing now first, there are some parts of it that is worn-out allot. So the ball gets marks from the "bumps" on the way up. But it seems like i can just switch the left bar to the right bar and same way on bottem, so i can make use of the other side that is ok on the bars.

But when i now looked at the other Ball lifts, there is more of a cataclysmic problem there. They are so worn-out that balls can get stuck in these huge holes for a long time, making the rubber/plastic melt from the fast friction.

They have melted away at somepoints all the way to the metal bars themselfs.

I can order new once on Monday, just pray to the bowliing gods that i can get them before wednesday morning when they will start.

[AMFsupt]

Replace all of the worn out tracks on the ball return. Got a question for you. At the front ball return (bowlers side) there is a Transition Bar when the ball exits the return. As from your other posts that you were getting black marks by just running the ball from the approach area, then when you threw the ball you got a longer mark correct? I had a centre that is making the same thing as you described, the Transition Bars are wearing down you need to replace them, you can see it very obviously on the return.

On the back as you say where the ball starts to go downhill with the cloth that is called the "Ball Wipe" that just cleans the ball from the oil of the ball and dirt that is picked up. The Ball Wipes should be cleaned when they start to get a little black or depending on you lineage most centre's do that once a week.

As to what you said the "LIDDS" that is the capping in the double division. As to what you have explained on this post that you want to learn more on maintaining the place and not let it go under. When we talk about the "Cushion" that is the part the ball hits and stops and send it to the "Ball Exit" or Ball Door. The band that lifts the ball up is call the BALL LIFT, I'm just giving you some lingo on what we call it here. I'm glad you joined this site and EVERYONE will help you out.

One other question? Do you have a pinsetter Manual there? You can go to this site in which most of it is for the 82/70 but it's will help you out

http://www.qubicaamf.com/QubicaAMF/files/e3/e323be5e-a638-42a9-bf92-a39040c02b21.pdf

Hope I helped you out on this.

Thank you for your info.

[AMFsupt]

Forgot one thing from your last post on the track. The covering! of the front ball return. Does it have a leather strap and a black rubber underneath? If so you need to replace the worn out ones. On the market now they make a urethane one just a ONE piece that you use, and they grip the ball better coming up the return.