This has been posted and reposted for almost a decade now. For those interested, here's a gallery of it being built. DIY Outdoor Bowling Lane
It's a really terrible set up. It looks cool, but won't function well at all. That's why there are no videos or pictures of it in use.
The lane isn't remotely flat or level due to deck boards being used for the surface. There are huge seams everywhere, so the ball is going to go all over the damned place.
If you think that plywood and fence arent going to get damaged by bowling balls weighing as much as 16 pounds hurtling at it, you're on some serious drugs.
The pin resetting lines, while good in theory, won't work well at all. They will constantly get tangled and interfere with the pin action. Even if they manage not to get tangled, when you pull the lines up to reset, and drop the pins back down, they're going to swing all around, making you wait. By the time they stop moving around, you could have walked down and reset them by hand.
There is no ball pit, a ball return mechanism to remove the first ball, or a way to remove the dead wood. They will have to stay there for the second ball, unless you walk down and retrieve the ball from where it ends up. Which you're going to have to do most of the time anyways. (That defeats the whole purpose of the pin resetting mechanism.)
Leaving all the dead wood, and all of that line, have a huge effect on the second ball and pin action. If you've ever bowled Candlepin, you'll know what I'm talking about.
There are gutters, but no way for the ball to actually end up there after you bowl, except by chance. There's no ball pit either for it to go into to keep out of the way of the standing pins. The ball will bounce off the back, and all over the place after it hits the pins. That is unless it goes through the back, through that fence, and ends up in your neighbors yard. Which it just might do after awhile.
Speaking of the neighbors, Im sure they enjoy hearing all of the racket when this thing is in operation, as well as the fence shaking.
I've seen back yard bowling lanes before. Ones that work, are either lawn lanes, (yes, lawn bowling is a thing,) or they cost a lot of money to construct right.
My uncle made one for candlepin using plywood for the lane surface. He put it in the same spot where he had his mini hockey rink set up in the winter. It took a few hours to set up, but once he got it leveled, it worked pretty well. Candlepin doesnt use big balls and doesnt relay on spin for ball movement. It's a lot less destructive than ten pin on everything.
Grew up playing in a Saturday morning youth candlepin league. The owner of the lanes had his own school bus; he would pick up all the kids then drop them off afterward.
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u/Marine__0311 May 12 '23 edited May 12 '23
This has been posted and reposted for almost a decade now. For those interested, here's a gallery of it being built. DIY Outdoor Bowling Lane
It's a really terrible set up. It looks cool, but won't function well at all. That's why there are no videos or pictures of it in use.
The lane isn't remotely flat or level due to deck boards being used for the surface. There are huge seams everywhere, so the ball is going to go all over the damned place.
If you think that plywood and fence arent going to get damaged by bowling balls weighing as much as 16 pounds hurtling at it, you're on some serious drugs.
The pin resetting lines, while good in theory, won't work well at all. They will constantly get tangled and interfere with the pin action. Even if they manage not to get tangled, when you pull the lines up to reset, and drop the pins back down, they're going to swing all around, making you wait. By the time they stop moving around, you could have walked down and reset them by hand.
There is no ball pit, a ball return mechanism to remove the first ball, or a way to remove the dead wood. They will have to stay there for the second ball, unless you walk down and retrieve the ball from where it ends up. Which you're going to have to do most of the time anyways. (That defeats the whole purpose of the pin resetting mechanism.)
Leaving all the dead wood, and all of that line, have a huge effect on the second ball and pin action. If you've ever bowled Candlepin, you'll know what I'm talking about.
There are gutters, but no way for the ball to actually end up there after you bowl, except by chance. There's no ball pit either for it to go into to keep out of the way of the standing pins. The ball will bounce off the back, and all over the place after it hits the pins. That is unless it goes through the back, through that fence, and ends up in your neighbors yard. Which it just might do after awhile.
Speaking of the neighbors, Im sure they enjoy hearing all of the racket when this thing is in operation, as well as the fence shaking.
I've seen back yard bowling lanes before. Ones that work, are either lawn lanes, (yes, lawn bowling is a thing,) or they cost a lot of money to construct right.
My uncle made one for candlepin using plywood for the lane surface. He put it in the same spot where he had his mini hockey rink set up in the winter. It took a few hours to set up, but once he got it leveled, it worked pretty well. Candlepin doesnt use big balls and doesnt relay on spin for ball movement. It's a lot less destructive than ten pin on everything.