I dont think that finding qualified mechanics is the problem. Finding qualified mechanics that are willing to work for minimum wage and no benefits is. I worked in a bowling center in the late 90s. I was pretty good with the AMF 82-70. The owner was good about preventive maintenance. Every summer we would go through all 24 lanes and swap pin carpets from odd lane to even. Then back again the folloing summer. He got a lot of life out of those carpets by doing that. We went through bearings and bushings. Lubed what we could often. Changed belts on a regular basis. It was a lot of work but it was worth it. Breakdowns were rare. Ball damage non existent. Usually electrical problems such as capacitors and limit (range) switches. I ended up quitting for a job with better pay and health insurance. I often wish i could have stayed there. I loved maintaining those machines. But family was more important. And that is what string pins are all about. Cutting maintenance costs. But there is still a lot of maintenance that will be needed. Aforementioned pin carpets and ball return systems. These two will now get none, and ball damage is going to go up at these string pin centers. Remember i predicted it. The other thing is the cost will not go down for the bowler. I havent heard of one single string pin center that has actually lowered their rates.
I worked on and with Brunswick A-2s for around 10 years back in the day, but the AMF 82-70 has always fascinated me! Never worked in an AMF house, though.
My local alley has these pinsetters. I’m hoping next winter I can get a job there working on them while I go to college for diesel mechanics. Do you have any tips for someone just starting out to learn to work on these?
I remember as a younger kid, having a summer school class where we learned how to bowl, and getting to go behind the machines and see these in person. We had just an 8 lane alley in our small town. I think it had these machines or similar. They also had automatic scoring, on some ancient CRT tvs. This was back around 2016 ish, and the machines were still working well. There was one mechanic that would come in when we had our classes, and keep them running. I wish they were still there, but the building has since been closed and turned into apartments 🙄🙄. Miss that place! Wonder where those machines ended up.
I was a pinchaser back in the mid 70s .. The owner upgraded to the 82-70 .. I’m amazed that they haven’t changed at all in nearly 50 years .. they didn’t even have automatic score keepers yet …
Pretty cool, my first job as a 14-15 yr old boy working in the back basically supervising the pinsetters. We had this EXACT model running 12 lanes. We only ever ran all 12 during league nights, mainly because it was 2005 and those machines were ancient, at least twice as old as I was at the time lol. Since they were so worn down, league nights were the nights I really earned that paycheck as a kid, running up on top of those machines having to manually rig and re-set pins, or sometimes needing to shut a lane down completely because the elevator belt slipped off, and was quite a bitch to get back on
I worked on these around '86-'88 in Spartanburg , SC. I was on a winter league , and always did machine and mechanical repairs at my job. Most enjoyable job I had, even though it was only weekends pt.
I worked as a Machine Serviceman for a 28 lane AMF centre using these fangled machines in the early 90s. I'm a fast learner, so I got the promotion from Maintenance Man in a few weeks. The machines were great to work on and they all had a character of their own. If an alarm sounded on a certain pair of machines, I'd know which tools to grab to fix them. I had a bit of a run-in with centre management, as to what constitutes fair workplace safety and got fired. ha ha :-) Best career move ever. A few sneaky tricks I learned on the way: If one group of bowlers was causing trouble for us, you could: Remove a couple of pins from the pinwheel, so it takes ages to get enough pins feeding the distributor, so the machine would still function, but a lot slower Grab the bowler's ball, wait a minute then send it back to the bowler. Grab a pin just as it's leaving the distributor but before it triggers the Pin In Cup sensor. This slows the machine, for as long as you keep grabbing pins. But then, anyone who works on the 82-70 machine would already know these tricks. :-)
I worked as a junior facilities tech for 2.5 years, i don't miss it. My training consisted of how to cycle the machine and clear pile ups and how to clean the machine and pins. I was expected by the front staff to be able to do far more than that though :D
I worked as an AMF Pinspotter mechanic when I was in high school in German 72-75 as a military dependent. I imagine they were mid 60's era, no automatic scoring. I remember it cost 25c a line to bowl on base. It was great times.
Those look like the pinsetters at my old home town's bowling alley. Back in the 90's when I was in my teens I had a couple chances to get back there, mostly from knowing the owners.
what a great video. What happens if two pins simultaneously try to get set in the same spot? Is that possible (seeing that they get stacked in the bin with extras)
2 pins can’t really fall on the same spot. When the pins are sitting in the bin, there is a piece below called the shuttle that moves forward and let’s the pins fall into the cups to be spotted. The shuttle moves forward pretty quickly so there is not enough time (or space) for two pins to be dropped at once.
Yes, they pile up and you can hear the loud banging of them falling down to the pit carpet but someone runs to the back to un-jam the pin then set the pin distributor in order. Super easy problem to fix, it happens every so often.
I've seen a pin get knocked down and stand back upright in another location and the pinsetter came down and snagged it and crushed the pin to pieces. It was awesome to see the power of these pinsetters. Guess the newer pinsetters have pressure switches on them nowadays and will shut the system down when a pin is jammed or in the wrong spot.
No, the deck 'floats' on its frame and typically the pin would hold the deck up. Sounds like the pin was defective and/or there was a problem between the deck and frame which kept it from floating. Rare, but it happens. Although it won't kill you, if you are underneath the deck replacing parts and the deck comes down on you it is no fun at all.
If the pin deck has oil carry down the pins will slide out of range, our machines never broke any pins this way usually the pin will block the table from going down and cause a sweepdown or respot.
I've been around the 82-30's for years and I'm currently a mechanic on them and this is my first time ever actually seeing the 82-70s and wow they appear to be so much more efficient and easier to work on. Also alot easier to get around on as well
I worked on these in the 80's. Never worked on 82/30's, although I know them and understand their operation. The 82/90's are even faster, though they are basically a refined version of this design with newer electronics.
How much electricity does it take to run one of these machines? The only AMF machines I've seen in person were old 82-30's in an alley that closed down and was demolished. The remaining alleys in town are both Brunswick A2 houses.
I've worked on both but primarily 70s for 22 years... I learned a saying a long time ago from an old-school mechanic... On a Brunswick it takes 1 minute to find the problem and 2 hours to fix it. On an AMF it takes 2 hours to find the problem and a minute to fix it. The 70s may look more simple but have way more electrical "fun" to deal with. They're both awesome machines if taken care of...
@@Dana_Danarosana I'm a brand new mechanic and fabulously green to the job. you're right that they take a minute to find the problem, but i'm so slow to fix the problem! I'm starting to get the hang of some of the more common calls i get, but it can feel so intimidating at times, I get overwhelmed! Hopefully something finally clicks, because I'm losing some confidence on these machines...
The Brunswick GSX (including the Brunswick GS-NXT) had pretty much a bit more parts than the AMF but unlike both AMF and A2, incase Centers had no proper care in their pinsetters, the GSX and would survive a lot more since it has the Highest Reliability. And the one thing I love the GSX is that it doesn’t have too much complex parts anywhere on the machine (Like the A2 with the Gearbox and AMF with the Ball Lift on the bottom).
If everything you see here is taken care of properly, it runs beautifully. There are more modern pinsertters/pinspotters, but they're still very mechanical. Believe it or not, the largest percentage of this machines operation is electrical.
There's amf 82 70s and Brunswick a2s still running in places 50 years after they were put in. I'd have to see some of these computerized ones putting up with the same shit these do for anywhere near as long to believe it.
@@iloverush123 dude doesnt understand these machines. Thats all.. I'm standing here with mine right now. Were installed in 78 and still going very strong. 40 of them.
Do these machines listen to sound? Because one time I saw this little kid bowl, it was his second ball and he rolled it really slow it didn’t hit any pins and the sweep never went down
So for these pinsetters do you have to have 20 pins or less in it so it doesnt pile up pins on the deck or is there somthing to stop the pins from going on the track?? Like a thing that locks at the start of the track or the end of the pin wheel?? Im not a mechanic or anything, but at my bowling center I still work the back end with the burnswick pinsetters. These pinsetters look way less dangerous and look like they would hardly break down. Again im not a mechanic so i wouldnt really know just by looking at it.
Superfappio64. They should be run with 20 pins because if you load more than 2 pins in a bin they can miss feed. Sometimes guys will run only 19 pins to prevent "shuttling" a second set of pins with pins already in the spotting cups. There is no "pin gate" to stop the pin flow like an A2
Pat Ready, if you know, wich one is the quicker machine? The Amf or the Burnswick A2? And by quicker I just mean the one that can cycle between second and first ball the fastest automatically.
Superfappio64 I think the A2s cycled the fastest. However mechanics have found that if they slow them down (by changing the diameter of the drive belt pulley) they don't wear out as fast.
Pat thanks for answering this! I wondered how they handled additional pins since there isn't a pin gate. Do you know how the 82-30's stop loading pins since they can only hold one set of pins? The pins just keep turning in the pin wheel without going onto the distributor belt - as if something has to physically push the pin onto the belt when it needs pins.
Just look at that.bowling.mechanic on tiktok. Always has issues with those A-2 setters lol. I mean for the most part anyways. I am sure he doesn’t have issues all the time and only records when he does have issues. They look so much more complex than these machines with the whole turret setup. And the way it returns balls. He gets a ton of calls for stuck balls.
actually the creator of the GS-10 (now GS-X) took items from 5 different machines and made the GS-10. took the quick rake drop / accelerator from Brunswick, bins/3 motors like AMF, chain drive / elevator like Sherman duck pin machine, loading like a candlepin machine, and elevator like a 5 pin machine
