bowling alley table

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Tim Sherwood

Tim Sherwood

Tim
Corporate Member
I have been volunteered to convert an old chunk of bowling alley into a table. The first issue is that it is at my daughter's house in Florida. My shop is in Greensboro.

I know that I'll have to reduce the width and square off at least one end. How are these things put together? Are they glued, full of nails, or both? It looks like the boards are assembled on edge. I'm hoping that will minimize any expansion issues. Any estimates on the weight per square foot? I think it is 3" thick.
 
gesiak

gesiak

John
Corporate Member
Tim Sherwood said:
I have been volunteered to convert an old chunk of bowling alley into a table. The first issue is that it is at my daughter's house in Florida. My shop is in Greensboro.

I know that I'll have to reduce the width and square off at least one end. How are these things put together? Are they glued, full of nails, or both? It looks like the boards are assembled on edge. I'm hoping that will minimize any expansion issues. Any estimates on the weight per square foot? I think it is 3" thick.
Click to expand...


My work bench is a 6 foot section of bowling lane. Pretty solid, took 4 of us to move it. I would say it's about 275-300 lbs. my understanding is lanes are nailed together.
 
thrt15nc

thrt15nc

New User
Tom
I had a little experience with some lanes about 30 years ago that had been built about 30 years prior to that. They were nailed and glued.

Tom
 
Charlie

Charlie

Charlie
Corporate Member
Tim,

I removed two bowling alley lanes years ago. (1968-70, when I was young and foolish, now I'm just old and foolish) One of the biggest mistakes of my life.
These lanes were built from hard pine for the first few feet. Then soft pine for the remainder. I'm not sure about today's process, but the lanes that I removed (built in the 40's) were built in place upside down. The boards were on edge and were T & G, but very loose fitting. All nailed together (no glue) using common nails. Then steel T-bars with 90 degree hooks on the ends were set across the lane, one about every 18", and hammered in place at an angle to the lane. This pulled the board together just like bar clamps. These t-bars were then anchored in place with screws. The lanes were then flipped over and the top was planed/sanded/finished. I cut the lanes into 8' sections using dozens of saw blades with a 7 1/4" saw. This was before carbide was available. Once cut, it took 4 husky men to carry one section. Once the t-bars are removed the sections become very flimsy.

Over the years I gave away all but one section. I took that section apart, planed all the boards so they were the same height. Drilled all ???? pieces every 10" and re-assembled using 3/8" all thread. I never was happy with the top. Too much movement/expansion/contraction. About 15 years ago I gave it to someone just to get rid of it. I then built a new top using two sheets of 1" MDF. I applied a couple of coats of poly and it looks as good today as it did 15 years ago. Far superior to the bowling lane top.

My recommendation would be to purchase whatever wood is required and build a top from scratch.
As far as I am concerned, old bowling alley lanes don't even make good firewood, since they are pine.

Have I given you the impression that I don't like bowling alley lanes for a table/ workbench?:gar-La;
 
Endless Pursuit

Endless Pursuit

New User
Jeff
Closest to a disaster I ever had in the shop involved a short slab of bowling alley on the Table Saw. Carbide blades and the 18 zillion nails they use in alley assembly do not get along. On the chunk I was given, each board was toenailed to the previous on staggered 12" spacing. If yours is the same, you might find a narrow window to cross cut it but that would be good luck. Too much metal to use a detector.

Be careful.
 
thrt15nc

thrt15nc

New User
Tom
In older lanes, the first 1/3 of it was maple and then transitioned to pine. The one I'm familiar with was nailed but also had a glue on the first few feet near the foul line. I know the statement about it not being good firewood was in jest, but you really didn't want to burn the stuff. The old finish would gum up a chimney in maybe two fires. But if you really wanted to get the lanes to burn, you poured about 20 gallons of the finish on it and put a match to it. Quick fire and lasts a long time. :) Seems where the hot fire alligatored the deepest, that released a lot of stresses on the lane and it would become wavy. Each strip of wood making up the lane moved either up or down depending on whether the nailing was weak or strong.

No, he tried, but the owner wasn't able to collect insurance money. Couldn't spend it in prison anyway.

Tom
 
Tim Sherwood

Tim Sherwood

Tim
Corporate Member
WOW! Thanks for the warnings guys. It looks like my best bet is to make her a new cherry table. I'll try to get her to look this "gift horse" in the mouth.
 
Rwe2156

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
You can successfully make a very good workbench with a little work. First, take the boards apart, pulling all nails and removing cross cables or rods. Remove any finish, joint top edges and rip to width if not uniform. At this point you can cut square dog holes if desired. Glue up sections wide enough to fit through whatever planer you have. Glue sections together and apply an apron. Built a good, heavy duty base, do a final leveling of top, mount vises, and you have a workhorse of a bench with a whole lots less work than building from scratch.
 
bluedawg76

bluedawg76

New User
Sam
Rwe2156 said:
You can successfully make a very good workbench with a little work. First, take the boards apart, pulling all nails and removing cross cables or rods. Remove any finish, joint top edges and rip to width if not uniform. At this point you can cut square dog holes if desired. Glue up sections wide enough to fit through whatever planer you have. Glue sections together and apply an apron. Built a good, heavy duty base, do a final leveling of top, mount vises, and you have a workhorse of a bench with a whole lots less work than building from scratch.
Click to expand...

How does disassembly and removing nails save time? Saving time would be skipping those steps and starting w/ boards that aren't nailed together.
 
gesiak

gesiak

John
Corporate Member
or buy one that the guy selling it did all the work needed to make it into a workbench.................
 
Rwe2156

Rwe2156

DrBob
Senior User
bluedawg76 said:
How does disassembly and removing nails save time? Saving time would be skipping those steps and starting w/ boards that aren't nailed together.
Click to expand...
Disagree because you're skipping all the milling involved when starting from scratch. The wood is already tongue-and-grooved, so glue up is easy process.

Removing nails and cross cables is easy and fast and eliminates the problem when drilling for dogholes (which is a real pita).

I wouldnt go looking for bowling lane to build a bench, but if I could get it cheap (in my case a friend gave me an 8' section) its a real money saver. I was in a salvage store last week and they were selling lane material for $100/ft, yes $100 a FOOT for a 3' wide section.

You can also look for sales on 1 1/2" thick butcher block slabs and glue them up to make 3". Woodcraft had 30X60 slabs for $99 recently.
 
J

Jeff

New User
Jeff
A problem: Tim is in Greensboro, NC and the freebie bowling alley chunk is in Florida with his daughter. :eek:

How to save time for the overall project? :confused:
 
Hmerkle

Hmerkle

Board of Directors, Development Director
Hank
Staff member
Corporate Member
Jeff said:
A problem: Tim is in Greensboro, NC and the freebie bowling alley chunk is in Florida with his daughter. :eek:

How to save time for the overall project? :confused:
Click to expand...

:widea:float the piece of bowling alley toward Cuba - head to the Hardwood store for wood!:eusa_clap
 
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