Straight versus Bent Ball Lift Tracks

[8270tom]

Wondered if there was a difference in the ball tracks for PBL lifts [Straight] and kicker leifts with single bend?

[8270king]

My guess would be they are bent

[70/70]

I have PBLs. Rails are bent

[dothan]

only straight ones I know of is the 30's old style ball lift.

[Pin_Head]

My guess would be they are bent

GOLD... pure GOLD!!!

[Tablejam]

My guess would be they are bent

...... well played.

I have never seen straight ones for either, there has to be a bend or I would imagine there would be problems, if it would fit in there at all.

Kicker and PBL lifts both use rails with a bend. In fact when converting a kicker to a PBL lift you use the same rails.

Like said, the 82/30 vertical ball lift is the only one I can think of that had straight rails.

But I wonder, what exactly do you mean by straight rails? Can you provide pics of what you are talking about?

[mechanic8230]

Actually the lift rails that I have in Ft Worth and pretty much straight and I have 70s. Totally different from the bends in the kicker and pbl lifts elsewhere. This was the first time I had ever seen them. Down sweep consists of two wooden pieces with a leading heavy rubber piece where the ball comes off the lift. Very interesting system and I asked an installer about them and he told me they were made for some sort of accelerator. Now my machines are in the 90k serial number range so they are pretty darn old. I have pbls in there and have to run oversize rail covers to stop the yo-yos. They actually work pretty well but have not been able to find any for spares anywhere.

[Tablejam]

Wow that sounds interesting. Id love to see pics of this.

[8270tom]

Can't get picks due to center closing. Was on only one pair where mechanic tried straightening rails. Lift worked pretty good no yoyos.

[Jan-Willem]

I know a center who got these down sweeps, If I'am there I will check for straight rails, I also found the mystery cam there, now serial nummbers on the machines.

[Tablejam]

What is the mystery cam?

[Coors]

Those particular 70's Had "accelerators" at the top of the lift. the serials of the machines i worked on that had them was #100675 ish. If they still have the Cages on the top of the ball lifts, bet they are almost Rectangular.

[Tablejam]

An accelerator for a 70? I've never heard of that. Do pics exist somewhere?

[scotto7]

An accelerator for a 70? I've never heard of that. Do pics exist somewhere?

Same hear I would love to see pics it would be cool if we could have pics of all the different upgrades they have made over the years.

[Stoctster]

^^ I'd be really interested in some pics of this too. I can't see why a 70 would need an accelerator though, unless the downsweep is vastly different to the usual type. (Actually, have been slowing down some of my ball elevators because I felt they were sending balls over with too much speed...)