This is rather region specific to the Seattle WA area:
On the news this evening there was a bit about a major bowling alley in Seattle that’s been sold and (presumably) will be demolished for apartment development. Methinks there will be a huge amount of maple flooring being ripped up from the bowling lanes that would make really nice benchtops. Granted the stuff is probably full of nails and wouldn’t be of much use for anything else, I thought I’d put the word out.
I’ll be trying to find out more particulars such as demo contractor and such to see if I can get my hands on some of the stuff. I’ve got probably 30′ of benchtops I’d really like to cover with some quality hard maple. From the videos they shot in the facility, this would only be a small fraction of one bowling lane of dozens.
If anyone else finds out information before I can get back here, please let me know.
Replies
Hey would you mind keeping me updated as well? This would be VERY interesting to me too.
John_D -First order of business is to determine how we would manage cutting the stuff. From all indications these floors are bound together with iron strips that serve the function of the tongue in a T&G floor system. I worked on one project years ago where this was the case (a gymnasium floor) and it was a real bugger! It was maple shorts in that case that were end matched. The deal killer was that the maple was also laid in a bed of mastic. Really nasty stuff. Even after the 20 or more years that it had been down it was still plastic. Wasn't much fun trying to get it off, either.In any event, if I find out anything I'll let you know.
I could use a really heavy, sturdy planing bench. My Sjoberg is WAY too light, and bolting it to the floor isn't a great option.
I don't mind some sweat equity, so trying to salvage a lengh of alley sounds like a good challenge. I have a hacksaw and an afternoon...My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
My first time at this site but I may have something to add.About a year ago a got the top composite material that Brunswick corp. sells for bowling alleys.Its about 3/8ths of an inch thick and very hard.It comes in 12 sections about 42 inches wide.I built a 10 foot work bench on casters with it and it works great but cuts hard.I used an old skill saw blade.One of the great features of it is that glue does not stick to it.You can just brush it off or at most a slight touch with a putty knife.Its also quite heavy.The problem is I don't know where you would get it.I have 2 extra sheets but Michigan is a long way from Seattle.
Great info, thanks. If you've got some to spare, I bet you could easily find someone close to you to whom you could give or sell it by posting here!My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
A few years ago I was given some short pieces left over from a lanes rebuild.
This material is exactly 7/16 thick and is flat and perfectly straight. I use it for all kinds of jigs and router blocks. One of the larger pieces made a stable top for my router table.I rough cut it with a varible speed jig saw,and do the finish with a carbide spiral pattern bit at a reduced speed.
Work safely
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We had a salvaged piece of bowling alley lane brought into our shop once.
It was something like 2 1/2 inches thick and had nails throughout joining the interlocked strips. The stuff was immensely heavy. It would make a good bench top, but you are going to work hard to salvage it and clean it up for a new application.
John W.
I pretty much anticipated the effort needed to 'clean up' something like this, John. I take it this type of floor system is what we used to call an 'iron bound' floor?? Meaning that the interlocking strips as you call them are actually strips of metal fit into grooves along the edges of the maple? I figured there would be lots of nails but hadn't thought of the iron strips. This would certainly take something more than your average portable hand saw to crosscut!
Edited 12/15/2005 10:45 am ET by DennisS
Many years ago I worked on bowling alleys. For starters ,there are no iron strips in the alley.There are Tee irons underneath,you can see them when the old alley is turned over.The maple is only on the first third of the alley and under the pinsetter.The rest is yellow pine. The alleys are built with tongue and groove 1" x 2 3/4" strips. They are nailed together with 8d screw nails at 4" centers. Then 8d rosin coated nails are nailed in between the screw nails. This gives you a nail every 2".
The sections are very heavy,depending on how long each one is cut. If I were you I would cut the tops at the bowling alley to the size you need. The Tee angles have to be removed first if they are in the section your cutting. You need blades that will be able to rip thick hardwoods and thru the nails. When I did this work for Brunswick they were no carbide blades. We used a worm gear skilsaw and steel blades,lots of blades.
Even the yellow pine will make excellent work benches.Good luck, and make sure you have enough help.
mike
Mike -The lack of iron bounding is encouraging. If I can find out who the developer is or who the demo contractor is (this project is, from what little I know at the moment) in the concept stages. The only thing I know for sure is that the bowling alley has been sold. I heard this on TV so it simply must be true! (grin)I'd plan on renting a worm drive saw with a demo blade (or three) and cut up the sections on site to fit on my 14' car trailer for transport. A lot depends on what sort of assistance will be available at the site with respect to how big the pieces are I'd try transporting. My goal is a wall bench, not a free standing one. The over all length is in the neighborhood of 12'. So for my part I don't really need a great deal of bench surface. I do have a small Kubota tractor with a front bucket that will pick a pretty good load of gravel so I think I can figure out a way to handle the stuff.To be honest, I'm one of those types that cringes when I hear about or see stuff like this getting thrown in the land fill. I wonder if there's such a thing as nail cutting chains for chain saws! (hahahaha)Thanks for the ensight on the nailing issue. I suppose the nailing pattern is random so there's a 100% chance one will hit nails in at least 50% of the boards!
You definitely will hit nails. I used a 7 1/4" dewalt blade last year to cut thru some boards that had a few nails. The blade is advertised to be able to do this. Worked well,did not use a wormdrive,regular sidewinder. Try this blade first in your saw before renting one.Do not recall the blade number,I think it had less than 24 teeth.
mike
Been there did that.. Worked out OK BUT! them slabs full of metal!
Just so you know.. Not a problem unless you expect just WOOD!
Here's a link to a bit in our local paper (Seattle Post Intelligencer) about the demise of the bowling alley:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/245358_paynter21.html
This one from the Seattle Times has more information regarding the owner and potential developer:
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=16871&forum=1
All indications are that this place was something more than your average 10 pin bowling alley. I suspect everything, and I do mean everything will go at auction. This being the case, I for one am not sure I want to pay what will probably be quite a bit for portions of this bowling alley flooring after hearing all the horror stories posted here. Looking like it's really not worth the effort for me, unfortunately.
Dennis
In the town that I'm from they were tearing a bowling ally down and couldn't get anybody to buy the maple ally's.
My X-FIL got them for the taking, stacked them up outside for about one year!
There wasn't much left of them after that, maple doesnt store outside in the elements all to well.
Doug
My uncle used a piece of bowling alley for a kitchen countertop. I don't know any of the details about how he did this but, it looked cool and he liked it.
There aren't any nails at the foulline or the splice where the maple is interlocked with the pine (cut on the splice line). I have cut lanes into sections for later reassembly and with a good metal detecting wand, you can usually find a clear strip within a 1 foot area.
A carbide blade is necessary. I used 8-1/2" thin kerf blades from Grainger. They're cheap so when you do hit a nail (casehardened) you don't swear quite as much.
Dick
My current workbench top is from an old bowling alley lane, the yellow pine part. It started as a piece ~10' long and ~42" wide. As mentioned, it was full of nails. But after a few hours of sweat equity It sure made for a solid bench.
I wanted a top that I wouldn't have to worry about hitting any nails when/if I ever drilled dog holes. This required that I completely dismantle the lane strip by strip. This wasn't really all that difficult once the t-bar iron supports were removed. The whole piece will basically fold over (an important tip when removing the sections from the alley...). Once all the strips were seperated, I jointed, planed and ripped to a standard size. (I should mention here that only the top of the lane is flat. The bottom is anything but...) With standard sizes I glued three sections together, each ~12" wide and ~8' long. When they were dry, I glued the three sections together. From there it was a short trip to a local cabinetmaker who had a large drum sander to smooth up both sides. Once that was done I squared up the ends and mounted it on bench. Total time to tear it apart and put it back together was maybe 8hrs, but worth it....
One of the other posters mentioned that only the first 20' or so and the last 10' are maple. The reason for this is the abuse those two area receive. Between the bowling balls landing and the pins flying & smashing, these areas get chewed up pretty badly... Something to consider when choosing which section you want to take home...
Two pennies worth...
Dave
If the bowling alley is auctioned off and the wood isn't available in any quantity other than the whole lot, you might look in the phone book for companies that rebuild/refurbish bowling alleys. We have 2 here in the Milwaukee area and they usually have leftover material from lanes that are past their useful lives or the original ones were replaced with the new laminate covered stuff.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
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