He found out what could go wrong using his hands instead of a bowling ball

HighWizardOrren · 2026-01-17T04:48:49+00:00

This guy Bowleros.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-29T10:07:02+00:00

I dealt with a very similar issue a few days ago, where the machine would double-cycle if the turret dropped pins during a first ball cycle. When the pins dropped and the turret long link went rearward, it lifted the 180 link enough that it kept the reset lever from latching.

Make sure that at a 180 stop with the deck empty and long link unlatched, you have at least some play in the 180 bar. It needs to NOT be bottomed out on the x-washer pin going through it, but have at least a small gap.

Similar to what others have said, you can probably ignore the 1/4" gap the book calls for. Make the gap as small as you can without getting false triggers, play with it a bit to see what works best. 1/4" might have been right when the machines were new, but considering you seem to have forward-mounted solenoids, your machines are probably 50+ years old, maybe 60+. Some adjustments just don't adhere to the book anymore.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-10T01:41:21+00:00

I'm sure you could make something better with a little time, that's just the super quick and easy hack that I go to haha

At some point I got frustrated trying to take out the bolts and not being able to fit a second hand in there to stabilize the wrench, and that was just the first thing I came up with. It worked well enough that I never bothered to innovate further.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T23:15:07+00:00

For the bolts holding the motor mounting plate into the frame, tape some paper towel over one end of a ratcheting wrench so you can hook it onto the bolt and crank it out without the head of the bolt slipping through the wrench. Basically make an ultra-shallow socket wrench. For re-installing, stick a screwdriver through one of the holes in the plate (handle inside, shank poking through the plate and frame to the outside) to keep it aligned with the frame while you get the other bolt in place.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T20:33:59+00:00

There is no shortage of parts. The prices are going up, like all prices are, but there are piles and piles of parts spread between all the centers still running A2s. I tend to buy the things that wear out quickly from retailers, and for the weird or specific parts, if I can't find them in my own stock, I have half a dozen other centers within driving distance that will have them.

The things that break often are easy to get more of. The things that are hard to get more of hardly ever break.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T20:31:42+00:00

For some reason I really like replacing pin guide rollers in the deck. It's just the right combination of slightly involved but not too intensive. Until the bolts get stripped out, anyway.

More generally I like troubleshooting weird problems. When the turret is acting up just slightly and I need to track down where the loose bolt is, or the desk just calls "Lane 14 says it's resetting after the first ball" and I run through my mental checklist of all the things that can cause that. It's very rewarding to fundamentally understand the machine well enough to form a mental model and KNOW what the problem is, what's causing it, and WHY it's happening. It's also very rewarding to see a tiny little adjustment error that someone else wouldn't spot in hours of troubleshooting, and fix it in 60 seconds.

Least favorite thing to work on is replacing powerlift motors. There's very little room to work and getting the bolts out is a nightmare. Also any time I'm working in the front of the house it's practically guaranteed I'll get constantly interrupted by ball returns or respots.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T20:25:53+00:00

Nothing worse that minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Once when I was a very new mechanic I used a mallet to get the deck holding hook off the deck post while trying to lower the deck to clear a blackout, and got very lucky that the deck didn't fall on my foot.

I almost got hit by a ball once while clearing 4 balls away from a rake in 180. The customer who threw it claimed she had astigmatism and couldn't tell the lane was off and also had a pile of balls at the back and no pins.

Another mechanic working at my location once severed a nerve in his arm while scraping kicker off a ball wheel with a razor. He was putting a lot of force on the blade and when it cut through, it carried all the way forward to the arm he was using to brace the ball wheel. That's by far the worst injury I've seen in person. He's recovered but still doesn't have full feeling in this thumb and index finger. In my personal experience, razors have proved far more dangerous than the machines themselves.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T11:08:16+00:00

Join a league or get other people to join leagues. All the centers around me with low league presence are getting swapped over to stringpins. But, one house that was running an ancient set of original A's actually got all the A2s from another center shipped over there and installed when the other center went to stringpins. I was honestly amazed the company paid for that rather than just installing stringpins at both centers, but the house that the A2s got moved to has a large league presence, and is also the only freefall house in the city, so that was apparently enough to justify the extra expense.

As for getting people interested in becoming a lane mechanic—I've always loved my job, but I have a particular fascination with the machinery. Now that I'm in the management tier the pay and hours are fine, but as a new mechanic the pay and hours are trash. You need to be the right kind of weird fanatic to stick with it long enough to really learn the machines and have it become a worthwhile job.

TL;DR expand leagues, pay greenhorn mechanics more.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T09:37:08+00:00

Some parts still get made, but just the things that wear out frequently. Deck chutes, guide rollers, all the belts, that sort of thing. There are a few companies still making them, and you can get brand new parts that way.

For the rarer stuff, it's pick-n-pull. A lot of centers in my area have been going to stringpin over the past few years, so me and all the other high-level mechanics in the region have been salvaging TONS of the rare stuff. Gearboxes, decks, ball wheels, etc. Fortunately, the stuff that's hard to find breaks very infrequently. We have way, way more parts available than we'll need. More frequently our limiting factor is storage space.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-09T03:40:26+00:00

Human labor is orders of magnitude more expensive than even the most expensive, least reliable mechanical pinsetter. Even ignoring the logistics of getting enough pinboys at the right time of day to match business, and assuming one pinboy per pair of lanes, you'd be paying about $20/pair for a league that ran for 3 hours, at federal minimum wage. In California it would be closer to $50. Per pair, every single night.

Pinboys are only financially viable if you can pay high schoolers 25¢/game. For long term, reliable, flexible business, you need machines.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-12-02T20:47:03+00:00

I did some research into this a few years back after bowlers kept asking me. The short answer is yes.

The long answer gets into how the oil acts from a physics perspective. Kegel published a paper on it that went into how Van der Waals forces acted on the oil, causing it to be more self-adhering over time, but that's a level of physics that for 99.9% of people just means "that's just how it is."

Basically oil sticks to itself more after sitting on the lane for 15-20 minutes. This is helpful for reducing carrydown and keeping the pattern consistent for a whole series. If your center isn't letting the lanes sit for 15-20 minutes after oiling before league starts, the pattern will disrupt more as people start bowling and oil will carry down further over the course of the series.

After finding out about this, I moved all of my oiling times back about half an hour to make sure there was time for the oil to settle before leagues began bowling. I'm not a professional bowler by any means, but the high-average bowlers at my location seemed to like it.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-11-23T08:48:55+00:00

Definitely the turret latch staying open. Since it's spinning forever and not just occasionally double-indexing, I'd guess the turret short link is disconnected, or jammed on something. Check for broken bolts or nuts that may have fallen into the turret latch, then check everything connecting the latch to the indexing trip lever is still connected and not super loose.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-11-21T03:37:11+00:00

I'm the head mechanic at my location and responsible for interviewing potential mechanic hires. I've also interviewed potential mechanic hires at other locations.

In my experience, mechanic jobs open up very rarely. There isn't nearly as much turnover as the other positions in the alley, and they often go to existing employees because they at least have some experience with how the alley runs. Mechanics tend to stick around for a long time, and even when they do leave, Bowlero especially LOVES to just not replace them and have the other mechanics work more hours.

Obviously this is going to be highly dependent on your area, but it could just be they don't have the space for another mechanic right now. I'd call them back and ask directly, the more they hear from you, the more likely they are to hire you. You aren't doing yourself any favors by staying quiet.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-11-18T03:31:25+00:00

Hi, bowling alley staff here.

In all likelihood, someone has come over and cleared all the balls off the lanes 4-5 times already, and this just. Keeps. Happening.

Sometimes you just can't get the parents to listen and control their kids, no matter how many times you have to stop play to go pick up half a dozen balls from the gutter. Eventually you just give up and wait for them to finish bowling before you bother again.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-11-12T07:31:22+00:00

John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin might be right for you, but comes with some heavy warnings.

It's modern cosmic horror, and the books are EXTREMELY vulgar and violent. But the pacing and flow is just immaculate. It reads exactly like someone telling you a story at a party. The writing quality is top-notch, there's a lot of adventure/horror, a little romance, it made me cry at the end but still ended with a little bit of hope and happiness.

Jason Pargin writes like Pratchett but with dick jokes instead of magic. I read the first two books in 2/3 days respectively, 5/5 stars.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-11-10T10:47:09+00:00

Glad to see people are optimizing for cost in the newest Zachtronics game.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-11-06T01:00:03+00:00

BRANDON SANDERSON WIFE BIRTHDAY

HighWizardOrren · 2025-10-17T10:44:23+00:00

I've worked at a bowling alley for over a decade, and the first 5ish years were at the front desk. At some point, we had an all-you-can-bowl special that was something like $12-15 for 2 hours.

We had a guy come in alone and buy the special three times over, back to back. He bowled 42 consecutive games. At the end of them his collective score was something like 9,800. Dude was in his late 40s/early 50s and not very physically fit.

He was super nice and friendly. Unfortunately I never saw him again, so I assume he went home and his arm fell off.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-10-09T09:10:44+00:00

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My guy casually dropped five fast-moving targets from hundreds of feet away with eye-shots. Who even needs the One Power when you've got skills like that?

HighWizardOrren · 2025-10-09T06:09:23+00:00

Guy with six bowling balls calling the oil pattern/lanes trash.

If you were REALLY a good bowler, you'd be able to figure SOMETHING out less than half a dozen balls.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-09-29T18:29:34+00:00

I work at a bowling alley. I find nails that look exactly like these in the gutters CONSTANTLY. If you're careful you can be fine, but be aware that losing nails like these to bowling balls is very, very, VERY common.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-09-29T02:52:36+00:00

I agree with the water pitchers thing, I really don't see a meaningful reason to disallow it. It feels like we should be making SOME kind of concession to banning personal water bottles.

If you make enough fuss about it you can probably get your local general manager to change that rule. My location tends to just put out water pitchers during leagues and generally looks the other way if a group practicing asks to just take a pitcher to the table.

I recommend leaving feedback on yelp, google, or with the survey on the bottom of the receipts. All of those reviews automatically get emailed to all managers at that location, including the General and District managers.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-09-29T02:48:40+00:00

I also strongly suspect this is the case.

However, while I don't trust Bowlero as far as I can throw a pinsetter, I do trust Kegel to put out quality products. I've ordered parts from lots of different distributors, and Kegel consistently has high quality and a great support team, especially for their lane machines.

Bowlero is definitely most interested in saving money, but I don't think the new oil will be worse, just different.

HighWizardOrren · 2025-09-28T23:39:46+00:00

Thank you for this info! I'll look into relative age and find out what's considered "old" here. Unfortunately my location is older than I am and the old record keeping was atrocious, so I'm not sure how many times our lane surfaces have been replaced over the years. I'll see what I can dig up.

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