Brunswick A-2 pinsetter 

These pinsetters are at least 50 years old and are still rockin' on strong. Just goes to show you how well made things where back in the 50'0 and 60's. I was head mechanic at a 24 lane house for 6 years, had 8 Japanese A2s, and 16 JetBacks converted to A2s.

Agree on the GS-X. Nothing like the A and A2 machines - mechanical marvels - works of art. Properly maintained, they're outstanding machines. A large percentage have served faithfully for more than half a century. Although AMF was first with a pinsetting machine, Brunswick didn't come out with one until it had it all down. The A2 was a perfecting of the old reliable A model. Sad to see so many of them gone now with the decline of bowling. Love this game.

Long live the A-2s! over 50+ years still running strong!! : D

I worked on these when I was 15- 16 years old. This sure brings me back. I miss 'em.

It's not a Jetback machine, it's a A-2. The difference is the way the ball is accelerated back to the bowler. The Jetback uses the same ball wheel as the ball lift where the bowler picks up the ball. The A-2 uses a wide long belt that accelerates the ball at different speeds depending on the diameter of the accelerator motor pulley, max speed is 35 mph which requires the use of a leather brake assembly and the smallest pulley sends the ball back at 11 mph which allows you to eliminate the leather brake assembly greatly reducing ball return problems and cost. As a mechanic one thing you quickly realize is the slower a Brunswick Pinsetter runs the longer without breaking parts it runs and the more reliable it is. The Brunswick A series operates at three speeds, model A is the original speed but mind you I'm talking the gearbox speed that actually runs the pin setting operation. I've. Seen a center that the machines were operating at Creepy speed which is one half the speed you see in this video. While creepy speed does have its effect of greatly reducing stops with the machine in my opinion the original model A speed is just fine if you reduce the auxiliaries speed as the machine in this video has had done to it. The turret operates very smoothly and it doesn't impede the bowlers. Next we have the jet back which uses a ball wheel identical to those used in the ball lift up front but Brunswick used a larger motor pulley to speed up the machines cycle time. The you have the A-2 of which more than half the model A machines were modified in the field to A-2 configuration not using the scotch yoke modification which gently lowers the deck right at the point when it's setting a rack of pins while the machine is runing at A-2 speed of 8.5 seconds cycle time the scotch yoke allows the A-2 to set a rack exactly like a model A but increases the speed of everything else on the Pinsetter. The problem arises when something jams because the machine is running 2 1/2 times faster than it was designed too. I always ran my machines at model A speed and lowered the auxiliaries speed to quiet and smooth out their operation. And that included taking round stock and making my own turn pan rods exactly like you see it in the video and that little modification eliminated my turn pan jams and burned pins.eliminated the use of carpet covers which greatly increased the speed the pins travelled to the pinwheel and had to decrease the washers used by the previous mechanic to get the pins to move as too much tilt front to back causes the pins to pile up so the ball kicks them out of the machine. 26 new bungees cords kept the pins in the machines and made life easier. The turn pan rods took a few hours to figure out where was the best angle to install them for best performance but it took a machine from 20 to 30 plus turn pan jams a night to zero turn pan jams after I figured out the angle to install the turn pan rod. Previously myself and everybody else tried dozens of different ways to eliminate turn pan jams and this seems to be the permanent fix. Presently watching on tv the show PBA Bowling in Portland, Maine and they finished last year a 12 lane addition to the privately owned bowling complex and the entire house is less than 10 years old is old school equipment wise by using Brunswick A-2 machines. Why spend lots of money simply to send it overseas for new Pinsetter machines that are built by the Brunswick company but purchased a company in Germany that had what Brunswick needed. A computer driven state of the art bowling machine. The company agreed to be bought out by Brunswick but some caveats where in the purchase agreement, the production and company had to remain in Germany and while they are a technical marvel in my opinion the A-2 will do the same job without the capability of setting whatever individual pins the bowler wants. I can get all over the country from several bowling supply companies rebuilt to what ever degree you want but the Portland bowling center requested their A-2's like new and that's what they got. A little more expensive to buy that way but saves you lots of time and trouble shooting when they are installed plus you can install 3rd party modifications that are known to eliminate trouble spots on the Pinsetter. Not real problem areas but improve operating reliability. Opps I just realized how big this post is, my apologies but it needed to be said.

Dude this is from. 13 years ago and it's still good

Glad to see these still running strong! : )

i miss this one i love it so much

Another way to quiet the pinwheel is cut up pieces of carpet and glue them to the flat areas between the pin pockets on the rear of the pinwheel work really good

Nice, gives people a basic idea of the operation of a Brunswick A-2. Looks like you're missing a scissor pad on the 10 pad scissor assembly. Sounds like you need a silencer cord on the pinwheel also.

A or A2 is the best machine ever. While I have never worked on machines, my experiences as a customer have shown me that these work better than any other machine. I have bowled with AMF's machines and Brunswick's newer GS series machines, nowhere near as reliable.

@MacLover678 Brunswick still makes parts for these machines as manyyyyyyyyy bowling alleys still use them. So finding parts is as easy as knowing what you need and making a phone call.

Yeah I had to machine the pulleys on the Baldor Motor Because we didn't have underground ball returns!. I hade lots of work cutting the the 2 inch pulley to a 3/4 of an inch..otherwise the balls would've shot right thru the masking units!! Lmao!! Live and learn..lol AMF 8230 + BRUNSWICK A-2 PINSETTER AND BRUNSWICK TYPE A PINSETTERS!!

Very great video of the A-2! From the back looks like the ballwheel speed was reduced.

Damn! Oil that sweeper

If you get a strike more than one time in a row the turret has to load up more pins. There isn't much you can do about it, and even the newer ones will do it if you bowl strikes fast enough.

my Bowling Alley, yes Alley used to have the Brunswick Asroline lighted masking unit. sadly it was replaced with gawdy colors now

I think that squeak is from the cushion links, at least that's what I have noticed that specific squeak coming from.

i bowl with these machines in my bowling league

Rake Board needs a cushion

Is this particular pinsetter you were filming still around?

Good video ,the pinsetter looks exactly the same but its just the sweep thats been changed. Am I right?

we use contact cement, works great.

This one is way faster than the jetback

The staff let you do this?!

It's funny that my local AMF bowling center has these

nice! : )

P.S. The stabilizer rods on that pinsetter around the 1:00 minutes mark need some lube!

And put the rubber back on the rake, those things dont stay on for shit, lol

The rubber on the that scissor is missing.

Bruins are in the Final

omg u need kickers on the wheel

cool

they stop the pins and the ball

Another Jet Back machine

and u got belt burn on the pins wow take the 1 out

i hate the carpet cover