Machine frames

[Mark_S]

on one of our even lanes the machine frame in the pit, (ball door side)has moved. This has caused a front roller to sit in the bracket incorrectly and fall out. Having never had to realign a machine frame before, has anybody got any helpful hints. Or can they point me in the direction of any previous posts on this topic. If not I'll muddle through and sort it as always. 82-70's

[old-school-mechanic]

Re: Machine frames

get out the crowbar. [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img] Might want to tack that machine to the floor. All mine are, None of them will be walking or moving around

[craigchandler]

Re: Machine frames

has it moved up, down, backwards or forwards ???

if its dropped or for some stupid reason moved upwards (highly doubtfull) use a spirit level accross the odd and even machine and adjust the leg until they are even in height

if its backwards or forwards i align my pairs at the ball exit.

i can give you the measurements, but if your odd lane is out of alignment, i could be only making your problem worse

its pretty hard to get the machine in itselfs out of square, so i think you should be investigating other reasons to why your front roller has been falling out, like the front roller being put together incorrectly or maybe a broken linkage in the front roller or maybe a faulty hinge or last of all a stretched carpet

[TheGMan143]

Re: Machine frames

If you're not sure of the alignment, the easiest way to "ballpark" it (even with slightly misaligned machines), is to pull the ball exit saddle (if you have kickers) and align the horns of the aluminum mountings so they're directly across from each other, and the gap in the center is equal end to end. 9 out of 10 times, it'll be close enough so everything will run without problems.

Checking the back corners of the machine frame with a square is the next step... as long as the backends aren't pitched too far either way, the rollers will run true.

Without kickers, I'm kind of fuzzy... never had to align "unkickered" machines.

[pulse-tech]

Re: Machine frames

Gman i find that method scary as there are to many types of filler plate brackets
Amf ones dont match vantage one's so if he has a mix of the two he could very well move the machine into the wrong place

[Mark_S]

Re: Machine frames

I'm not sure why it has moved yet. the lower part on both sides has moved down (towards the floor) and out. SO it's as if both front screws have lowered themselves.

[TheGMan143]

Re: Machine frames

Originally posted by pulse-tech:
Gman i find that method scary as there are to many types of filler plate brackets
Amf ones dont match vantage one's so if he has a mix of the two he could very well move the machine into the wrong place

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">True... there are different mountings (also let me draw a distinction... the filler pad and the 'saddle' aren't the same part. The filler is on the back side of the exit, next to the kickers... the saddle contains the rubber "ramp" and sits in the bottom of the exit)

One thing is the same, though... the mounting holes in the saddle aren't in different spots... the 4 fluted mounting bolts are still in the same locations. As long as you're lining it up by them, you should be OK. Sorry about that... I should have been a bit clearer on it.

[TheGMan143]

Re: Machine frames

Originally posted by hmmmm:
I'm not sure why it has moved yet. the lower part on both sides has moved down (towards the floor) and out. SO it's as if both front screws have lowered themselves.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If your machines are on a concrete floor, this won't help...

But if your machine are like ours (mounted on a plywood floor), I can tell you that we had a couple machines that vibrated the legs through the flooring and fell into the gap between the flooring and the subfloor.

We wound up making steel footplates for them to distribute the weight more evenly, and to take the strain better than placing it on a little 1" jackscrew (which, with a little vibration, basically drills it's way through wood easily). The plates were easy... 5"x5" pieces of 3/16 flat steel with a washer welded flat to the center of them. The center hole of the washer is large enough that the jackscrew can sit in it and not move off of the plate. No problems with machines going through the floor since.

[TheLegend]

Re: Machine frames

Originally posted by hmmmm:
I'm not sure why it has moved yet. the lower part on both sides has moved down (towards the floor) and out. SO it's as if both front screws have lowered themselves.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Are the bolts that connect each pit frame to the machine side frame tight? It they're loose, broken or even missing, the pit frame will dance around.

[Mark_S]

Re: Machine frames

The bolts were not loose, the machines are actually on a carpet !, which is on top of a form of lino !!. This is from the previous facility that the building was used for before our company started to rent the space. I guess they thought it would save some time and money, leaving the flooring down. Now we've been open around 10 years, guess what ? some of the lanes are on the same material. Well were all working now, but I feel a bit of hard work coming on.