Trimming Deck Chutes

Just curious, what are all your opinions on trimming the "skirt" off the bottom of the deck chutes? For those of you who do, do you trim all positions and all types (plastic, rubber, urethane, etc)? I've talked to a few people regarding this (no 2 answers the same yet) but am curious what all of you think.

Happy Holidays
Jason

[GRAMBO]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

Hey Jason
I trimmed all my deck chutes and eliminated almost ALL blackouts.
I trimmed all different chutes.
I took the time and removed the chutes to trim them.
This way I made sure that each hole had a spacer and each bolt had a flat washer and a lockwasher.
You also will find many other problems while you are down on the deck for awhile.
Loose or missing spotting finger bolts, bad deck rollers,loose deck shields etc.
It was well worth the time I put in it.
Grambo

[KL Kevin]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

FWIW, I trim all of them, too. Down side to trimming them is that it gets rid of some of the support for the bottom of the chute, reducing its life somewhat.

I've seen all different types of chutes have pins stick in them when they were not trimmed... Yes, even vantage!!! (was told that pins would NOT stick in them ... but had a machine that the 5 would just hang up enough that the spider would not ALWAYS re-lock ... we know that 95% is not an acceptable performance rate for the turret)

Roscoe quoted the engineering phrase for it, but you can only stress aluminum (moving deck) so many times before it will fail, and preventing deck jams is more important than an extra month or two of chute life, In my opinion.

Kevin

[masternut]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

We also trimmed all our chutes,it helped deck jams so much that we made it a project and did all lanes.As stated above it was a good time to check hardware and do inspection.We also removed all "pinfinder"parts from top deck.
Now when a new deck chute comes in we trim the bottom before it is put on wall.

Peanut

[BT-Jerrid]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

I agree, trimming your deck chutes eliminates lots of problems with pins sticking. My pinsetter school instructor (Frank M.) told us NEVER to trim our deck chutes, said that rubber was there for a reason. But then, he is not the one running up and down my back isle clearing blackouts. The other guy that taught me said trim all of the skirt but 1/4 of an inch. This is what I've been doing for about 5 years now, and it works great. Now I trim every chute the minute it comes out of the box. (Sorry Frank but I have to agree with Mike

Merry Christmas to all!
Jerrid

[Roscoe]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

Jason:
Only problem with trimming deck chutes, is in the ten pin and sometimes the seven pin position. Sometimes the corner pins have enough clearance, between the roller and the moving deck, to allow the pin base to lock between the two, thus allowing a cocked pin upon setting.
Roscoe

[Ritzmech]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

When we were using evap coolers in our center, the high humidity would cause the pins to stick in the chutes. The rubber chutes had the worst problems. Seems that the cleaner and better shape, the more problems with sticking. Trimming the skirts solved this problem. When trimming, I would leave about 1/2 inch of the skirt to keep the chute mounted firmly in the deck.

[masternut]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

I agree with Midwest Pinsetter Service about the 7 & 10 pins clearence which allows for pins to be off spot and even sometimes fall over when deck is shifting to set pins,this is really a problem in centers with scotch yoke machines that have been slowed down to A speed.
What we did was install a longer x-washer pin on the 7 & 10 pin deck rollers and added a deck roller to the outside (double rollers)this eliminates to 7 or 10 from hanging on the scissor deck when shifting.

Peanut

[Roscoe]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

Peanut:
Great idea, good post, tried your idea on the bungee cord below pin guide, works well. Keep the good ideas coming
Roscoe

[Mike F]

Re: Trimming Deck Chutes

Hey guys I too have begun everytime we install a new deck chute trimming the skirt. I usually trim the back side not the whole skirt. Have found that when we trim the deck chutes the black outs and POD's quit. I too think it would be a very worthwhile project to go thru the house and trim the buckets. I think by doing that we could find other things that need attention as well.