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.
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 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!
