For those that like bowling, ever wondered how the ball comes back and how the pins get reset? well this video should show you most of that.

The Pinsetter shown here is called a Brunswick A-2. had a big interest in these machines since i was 7 and still do today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVuMbl3yu_4

I bet those things cost a lot of money. Do they use one per lane? That's a lot of initial investment if one were to establish a bowling alley.

Yes that machine does cost a lot. And it is one per lane.

The Brunswick Model A was started in 1955 and the A-2 started in 1967. Neither model is built anymore but there are millions of used A's and A-2's that can be bought..but for a fairly high price. So these kinds of machines are very old but are still used in countless states.

So you have to buy them used? I can't believe that they don't make 'em anymore, unless they figured that bowling alleys have saturated the country to such an extent that there is no need to produce any more. It just find that unbelievable that if I went out and built a bowling alley (hypothetically), that I could not purchase brand new machines to put in the sucker. I wonder if they have bowling equipment only auctions.

For some reason, this is piquing my interest

i dont see how anyone can like bowling.

it sucks

Well Brunswick now makes models called GSX. That is the only model that is *new*. They are more electrical than the A and A-2. With the exception of the triggering that starts the cycle, The A and A-2 are completely mechanical in operation, only one motor drives the whole machine. The center here used to have Brunswick A's and they were VERY reliable, for the 16 years i bowled with them i only had 5 problems with them. AT the end of last summer the worst happened, the A's were taken out and replaced with machines made by AMF and they are horrible, i cant count how many problems i have had with them already. I have bowled with GS's before and i have found them to be not as reliable as the A models.

Hm, interesting. Just like tractors, it seems like the older ones are just built better. I guess they're following the trend of most goods produced nowadays, quantity over quality. :(

Here's the simpsons' version of how it gets done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-qcrjQoWYg

They are wrong! lol ;)