| This bowling trivia page outlines
many of the basic steps that are involved in the manufacturing
process of the typical modern day bowling pin. The basic wooden
material building pieces, the lamination processes, the cutting,
shaping, molding and finishing steps are all shown here in detail.
Pins are made of Hard Rock Maple wood, Brunswick claims that
they do not use wood that has been grown south of Indiana. This
is because of the winters, trees that are subjected to winter
do not grow as fast as the trees that can grow all year long.
The trees that have to shut down in the winter seem to be denser
(it also takes twice as long to grow) and this makes the wood
harder. |
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These two basic shapes of wood are
the building blocks of the modern bowling pin. Using several
of the larger pieces the center or core of the bowling pin is
created. From the smaller piece and several laminations the
bowling pin derives is girth, that unique hourglass bowling
pin shape |
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Here you see the larger piece of wood
laying on it's side laminated three layers thick. The formation
of the pin's core has begun and the process of thickening this
basic product will continue until an entire pin can be cut from
the formed wood. |
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The smaller pieces of wood stock are
then laminated together to form a larger piece of stock that
will then be milled to the correct thickness and the edges will
be trimmed straight. This final piece will then be cut into
four separate pieces that will be bonded to the pin core. |
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The previous piece of material is
cut once length wise and once cross wise to form the four pieces
that are shown here. These pieces will now be bonded to the
core piece in two steps. |
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Here we see the two smaller pieces
have been bonded to the side of the core piece. This is the
beginning of the thickening process that will enable a bowling
pin to be cut from the stock of laminated wood. The holes are
for adjusting the weight of the pin. |
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The pin has now had all four of the
body building pieces bonded to it. The wood now has enough material
on it that the unique bowling pin shape can be cut from this
piece of laminated stock. |
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The laminated piece of stock is then
inserted into a lathe with a large blade in the shape of the
bowling pin. The knife blade is pressed into the rotating piece
of wood stock and the entire bowling pin is cut in one pass
by the shaping knife blade. |
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The wooden pin blank is put into an
injection molding machine that encases the wood with the plastic
material. This material protects the wood of the pin and gives
a surface for the manufacturers logos and decorations to be
placed on. |
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Once the pin has been molded all of
the flashing and injection points are removed from the pin.
From here the pin will go into the finish preparation process
where all surface irregularities and any left over flashing
will be removed from the "almost" bowling pin. |
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Here we see the pin after it has been
sanded. This process removes all of the surface imperfections.
The process will also remove any of the remaining flashing from
the molding process. From here this point the pin will be ready
to receive all of the finishing touches. |
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The pin gets the wooden bottom cut
off and the plastic bottom piece is bonded to the pin. Logo's
and decorations are added by the manufacturer and the glossy
finish is added. The product is then inspected and finally packaged
and shipped to distributors. |
