Duck Pin Alley - Help Finding More Details

markronz

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Hello all, first time poster on this website. I've been a member of BYOAC for a while, so I'm familiar with parts of the hobby, but don't typically deal with restorations. I'm posting because I'm trying to find more information about this old bowling machine my Grandma has in her basement. It's one of those old bowling games, the kind that actually uses a real ball, not a puck. The back glass on it says it's a Duck Pin Alley. I've tried to look up that title on the site here but did not find any results. I've also googled it, but it just returns information about the actual game duckpin bowling. I didn't know such a thing existed, bowling on a full length lane with such a small ball! But anyway, I'm looking for any information I can find on this thing. Like the year it was made, how rare it is, guesses on it's worth, the real name of the thing, if not Duck Pin Alley, etc. Here are some pictures of it. I apologize for the poor quality, they were taken with my cell phone.
duckpin2.jpg

duckpin1.jpg

I haven't gotten to take it apart yet, or look on the back for a manufacturer name or anything like that. Just in the initial stages of working with it.

Ultimately, I am going to attempt to repair it. It does work, all the levers under the pins appear to work and everything. About the only thing that does not work is the scoring. The scoring wheels appear to be all out of whack. They do spin around but do not keep an accurate score at all. Also, sometimes when you start out a game, it doesn't reset the scores back to all zeros. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't So I guess, if anyone has any information on how hard you guys think it might be to fix something like that as well, that would be most helpful too. But to start, I'd just be happy with some more information about it, if nothing else.

Let me know if you have any questions or need any more information! Thanks so much!
 
I am just starting to work on restoring my grandma's bowling machine. Below are some links to some better pictures than I had originally posted. I have full resolution pictures available as well.

www.markronsman.com/tn_IMG_2204.JPG
www.markronsman.com/tn_IMG_2205.JPG
www.markronsman.com/tn_IMG_2194.JPG
www.markronsman.com/tn_IMG_2207.JPG

I was just wondering is the listing of machines on KLOV complete? I don't see this machine listed anywhere on KLOV. The last picture above shows what identification I could find inside of the machine. It looks like it was made by United Manufacturing Co. My grandma purchased it somewhere around 1961 from a bar. We are unsure how long it was in the bar, so we are targeting the manufacture date as somewhere between 1950-1960.

So am I missing this machine on KLOV and it's actually there? Or are you working with an incomplete list? Is there anything I can do to help get this on the site?
 
Thanks for the information. I actually did just buy some actual duck pin balls from eBay, but when they arrived I quickly realized that they were too big to work with my machine. I believe real duck pin balls are 5 inches, which doesn't fit in my machine. But I looked on Craigs List and to my surprise I found someone locally selling replacement balls for a bowler machine! So I got 5 balls for $35. Not a bad deal at all. The balls are in good shape and I believe are 4 inches in size, and they do work with my machine. And now I have enough balls to last forever! Now I just need to figure out what to do with the three real duck pin balls I have (that were from approximately 1965)!

Anyway, thanks again.

Also, I now see on the KLOV site where I can submit an entry to have the machine added to your database. So I will do that at some point in the coming weeks.
 
It sounds like it uses Candlepin balls which are smaller than Duck Pin balls. Good luck with your game! I hope you are able to find more information.

Gary :)
 
That looks to be in amazing original condition. Lucky guy! I hope to see more pics. What do you plan to do in terms of restoring it?
 
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