It was 50 years ago when I was the Jr. mechanic for a 32 lane bowling alley in St. Pete, FLA. It was a great job when in high school. Blackouts can be dangerous if cleared without opening at least two power switched or unplugging the pinsetter. I got my job because the Sr. mechanic crawled under the deck and pulled out a stuck pin without turning off "any" switches..... the pinsetter started up and broke his leg. Because I was under age to work on the pinsetter the Sr. mechanic said if I ever got hurt they would say I was not allowed to work on the pinsetters. Never got hurt but I did get a shop rag pulled out of my back pocket just once...! We use to run 21 pins in the pinsetter during leagues to decrease the time for a league to complete bowling. Leagues bowlers had a lot of back to back strikes and the 21st pin reduced the 180 waiting for pins.
I simply enjoy your videos. Entertaining, and I 👍 the assortment of different pin brands. Like Holiday Lanes. They would do that a lot. Brings back good childhood memories.
There are so many things that can cause deck jams black outs. The best way is just sit on the machine while the machine is being used and watch. Parts can break. parts can come loose. parts come out of adjustment, worn parts can cause problems. Its very tough thing to deal with.
I have a pinsetter currently blacked out, it will not lower all the way to a 270 spotting position and the forward bolt for the deck slide on the front 7 pin side has broke off and fallen down. I cant for the life of me figure out how to get the bolt out to clear the jam
Another Brunswick pinsetter mechanic here, there could be all sorts of things. Check the long link and latch, pin gate, pit conveyor, and magnetic clutch rollers. It could take some serious digging. On lane 1, we had a spring that was apparently too powerful on the right blocking finger, and that kept the long link from fully latching. It could be anything!
What causes a 180 ? Simply this. The machine is waiting on 10 pins. Something happened to the feed. Turn pan jam, ball spinning and blocking pins from the pinwheel, pin gate locked up, or turret indexing pins properly. It sits in 180 til the 5 pin goes thru the chute which causes the other pins to drop then the clutch is engaged and the cycle continues to set pins.
It was 50 years ago when I was the Jr. mechanic for a 32 lane bowling alley in St. Pete, FLA. It was a great job when in high school. Blackouts can be dangerous if cleared without opening at least two power switched or unplugging the pinsetter. I got my job because the Sr. mechanic crawled under the deck and pulled out a stuck pin without turning off "any" switches..... the pinsetter started up and broke his leg. Because I was under age to work on the pinsetter the Sr. mechanic said if I ever got hurt they would say I was not allowed to work on the pinsetters. Never got hurt but I did get a shop rag pulled out of my back pocket just once...! We use to run 21 pins in the pinsetter during leagues to decrease the time for a league to complete bowling. Leagues bowlers had a lot of back to back strikes and the 21st pin reduced the 180 waiting for pins.
I simply enjoy your videos. Entertaining, and I 👍 the assortment of different pin brands. Like Holiday Lanes. They would do that a lot. Brings back good childhood memories.
We’ve got lots of pin types and lots of masking units too that we rotate in and out regularly.
A great video Rob! It's both entertaining and informative. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the complex, and amazing , Brunswick A2 pinsetter.
There are so many things that can cause deck jams black outs. The best way is just sit on the machine while the machine is being used and watch. Parts can break. parts can come loose. parts come out of adjustment, worn parts can cause problems. Its very tough thing to deal with.
Never can you say you’ve seen everything nor “It’s always this”
I have a pinsetter currently blacked out, it will not lower all the way to a 270 spotting position and the forward bolt for the deck slide on the front 7 pin side has broke off and fallen down. I cant for the life of me figure out how to get the bolt out to clear the jam
Send us a note on our Facebook Page or email us garagebowlingalley@gmail.com and I will get Rob to reach out with some help. ~Aaron
Crank the machine backwards. Don't try to override anything. Crank it backwards. It'll take pressure off the bolt.
I got a question Rob, what causes frequent 180’s to happen?
I'm not Rob, but usually it's caused by bad shaker board/carpet or too few pins
Another Brunswick pinsetter mechanic here, there could be all sorts of things. Check the long link and latch, pin gate, pit conveyor, and magnetic clutch rollers. It could take some serious digging. On lane 1, we had a spring that was apparently too powerful on the right blocking finger, and that kept the long link from fully latching. It could be anything!
What causes a 180 ? Simply this. The machine is waiting on 10 pins. Something happened to the feed. Turn pan jam, ball spinning and blocking pins from the pinwheel, pin gate locked up, or turret indexing pins properly. It sits in 180 til the 5 pin goes thru the chute which causes the other pins to drop then the clutch is engaged and the cycle continues to set pins.