Home bowling alley?

i used to work for an elevator company back in the late 80's. we put an elevator in this guys house. in the basement it had a 2 lane bowling alley and a 4 lane shooting range. the house also had a personal 9 hole golf course surrounding the house. it was an amazing place.
 
im not talking full size here, thats minimal 80k.. which is freaking retarded if you ask me, I dont think you could spend 80k bowling at the alley in your life time.. plus power and shit like you guys said.

no one with a small scale?
 
StreetzKing said:
anyone have there own bowling alley? I know they sell ball bowlers but there pricey, I was looking at something on youtube and if you ever play the game where you click the videos on the right randomly you get to see some cool shit. Eventually I ended up seeing people who made bowling alleys in there house. nothing crazy but some had automatic pin settings and seemed to use the 4" bowling balls and stuff. Anyone do this? LOL

looks awesome..

Click to expand...

No offense, but that looked kinda boring. For he made almost all strikes. That would get boring after awhile. But still neat to have in a game room though.
 
needhelp said:
No offense, but that looked kinda boring. For he made almost all strikes. That would get boring after awhile. But still neat to have in a game room though.
Click to expand...

What would get old is having to go down and reset the pins after every shot.
 
I have a 14' Chicago Coin Gold Medal 4" Ball Bowler. It is, without question, the most popular game in my gameroom. I think a 4-6' extension would make it better so whaen I get a few $'s I'm going to get one. These things were the Cadillac of games in their day.

BallBowler-810.jpg
 
In my arcades, I have the AMF/Qubica Route 66 mini string pin bowling. I think they were around $20,00 for a pair of lanes. We just have the standard software running on them, and there is different games you can run off them. For home use they should last damn near forever. I usually spend a few hours a month for standard upkeep on 14 lanes, so not much upkeep actually. Need to replace that broken string here and there and repair/cleaning of the pins. I might have 3 pairs for sale soon, as the owner is looking into putting something else in its location.
 
RalphT3 said:
In my arcades, I have the AMF/Qubica Route 66 mini string pin bowling. I think they were around $20,00 for a pair of lanes. We just have the standard software running on them, and there is different games you can run off them. For home use they should last damn near forever. I usually spend a few hours a month for standard upkeep on 14 lanes, so not much upkeep actually. Need to replace that broken string here and there and repair/cleaning of the pins. I might have 3 pairs for sale soon, as the owner is looking into putting something else in its location.
Click to expand...

Can you shed some light on these? Im interested to take a look at them
 
StreetzKing said:
im not talking full size here, thats minimal 80k.. which is freaking retarded if you ask me, I dont think you could spend 80k bowling at the alley in your life time.. plus power and shit like you guys said.

no one with a small scale?
Click to expand...

Here at work we have a four-lane Highway 66 system. There really isn't much of a price difference -- I recall the bill being something like $300k. And the pinsetters are full-sized string units that need special power, so there was an electrician call involved too. And from what I understand, this is pretty typical.

We had to resort to time play and group packages to get them any significant amount of play, and judging by the numbers, the damned things will NEVER make enough to even pay themselves off. Worst investment we ever made.
 
You are not correct (but Nixon did upgrade the White House Bowling Alley).
..
President Roosevelt had the White House Bowling Alley Installed...
...
LyonsArcade said:
I googled.

Nixon built it, it looked like this:

bowling-alley-2006-thumb-425x573.jpg


When Obama took office, he was famously a bad bowler, so some company offered to pimp out the old bowling alley in the basement to bring it up to date, so it now looks like this:

New%20White%20House%20bowling%20alley%20small.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Incidentally... There is a man in Phoenix, Arizona selling AMF automatic Pinsetters and Maple Lanes (the original Style Regulation Lanes) for $35K a pair.
..
Great deal, So good I bought a pair...
Now I have to get all the work done to install them...
..
I got the two pinsetters, two lanes, the Ball return chute and covers that go between the lanes.
I also got the Telematic Score Station with both seats ointact and the two display screens (gotta keep score).
The right hand and left hand pit seating cots me an extra $299 - but I was glad to pay it.
...
Then I noticed the extra crate - he told me that is the ball return lift with ball rack - Cool!!
..
So essentially I have a bowling alley in a box...
The lanes are in like 65 foot long crates!!!!!
..
The wife is pissed (these are occupying the entire two-car garage until they get installed.
..
But hey - I got one of my life's long wishes - One more item off "my" bucket list.
...
I found these on Craigslist - of all places...
 
How are you going to install the lanes?
I know they are super heavy.
A friend kept a pin deck from a closing alley and used a crane that was on hand to load it into the bed of his truck.
That was just the pin deck not the full lane.
 
They off loaded the crates with one of those Truck Forklifts...
He warned me that they should be off loaded in the place they would be set up - because the lanes are extremely heavy...
...
I have an associate who has a BobCat Skip Loader with a forklift attachment.
He brought it over and we moved the lanes (I believe they are both in that monster crate) and it moved them just fine (seemed to strain a bit)...
..
My Main problem is with the City Codes...
..
They have to approve of the structural changes to the lower level... Their main concern is the 65 foot long 30" wide 20" deep trench that we are intending to install in the floor.
..
They aren't happy with me right now... They made me hire a structural Engineer (costs me over $12K) who basically stated that this was feasible and that the requirements for a structural analysis were unfounded. He stated structural analysis are only required when removal or repositioning of load bearing structural members are involved. The Pit is basically a modification of a non-load bearing "floating monolithic slab". I did not know basement floors were considered "floating slabs" but he pointed out that the Foundation and walls were built and later the floor was poured. The floors have no bearing upon the supports or walls. We should be free to literally tear up the whole floor and leave the dirt if we wanted to... He told me the City is just jealous... He told me he was floored when he read my permit to install a private bowling alley consisting of two bowling lanes in my basement. He told me the city inspectors are probably all jealous (he said "he " was...)...
...
So now it is the contractor's job. My wife is beside herself.. she cannot believe I am going through all this... She was pissed that she couldn't park in the garage... But we worked it out and repositioned the alley crate so it occupies my space in the garage. I have the workshop doors open and it extends all the way through the garage and into the workshop.... It is literally against the back wall...
..
The only thing I really benefited by paying all that money to the structural engineer was a suggestion by the engineer about getting the lanes into the basement. We are going to dig out a section in the back (where he identified an intended entrance was originally planned. It was walled up when the original owner made last minute changes (before the house was finished). But the Above door poured beams are there, they just inserted concrete blocks in and sprayed that sticky tar stuff on the outer surface to seal it up...
..
I will post pics when I get all this installed... I have already unpacked the 44 bowling pins - called the dude in Paradise Valley who sold these to me and told him I had too many pins... He told me each pin setter works with 22 pins , not ten.. You learn something every day....
 
Forgot to add something.... Since the Structural Engineer is on-record with the City Engineer's office that Structural analysis is not required when assessing a ball return trench installation in a poured basement floor - It should not be a future issue.
..
So essentially all one would need it to submit a sectional from their house plans showing that the floor is not structural.. He showed me where the blue prints clearly indicate that the floor slab is sitting on the floor of the basement. The rebar is drilled into the Wall sections and is not tied into the Structural rebar - therefore it is not a structure but a kinda stabilizer to keep the floor from moving around. He also stated that all we needed was to use a saw to over cut the trench,,, dig the trench and install a rebar/wire cloth cradle.. then pour the bottom of the trench, lay in the form and pour the trench side walls and end walls... He suggested I put Pallets with stacks of concrete blocks to keep the trench form weighted down (???)
...
So now I just need the concrete contractor to do the floor.
..
The electrical contractor s going to run the 1." Rigid Conduit for the "Telematic Score Station, and the Ball lift when the trench is dug, and before they pour the trench....
..
So as stated/indicated earlier - I am sitting on pins and needles and cannot wait to start bowling...
..
This is way better than when I scored the Pac-Man and Galaga Upright Video Games....
..
 
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