Bowling Pin

[Tim Baude]

Hi everyone,
I hope someone out there can help me.(Is Frank back from vaca?) I need a single bowling pin that I will be engraving and then cutting out. These will be used for give aways around the state to youth bowling participants to attach to their bowling ball bags. I did one, but it was a ragged edge. It looks ok, but if someone has a cleaner image it would be great. I am going to use white romark LaseMax that engraves red. Thank you in advance...
Tim

[Mike Null]

Tim

See if this works for you.

[Dick Jordan]

Tim,
This is probably more than you need but here you go.
The largest pin is the actual dimension of a regulation bowling pin.
I use this to create templates to use on my turning lathe to turn original bowling pins down a smaller size. I will attempt to include an image later on as to the treasures that come out of "used" bowling pins.
(New contributor, so hope this works)
Dick

[Dick Jordan]

These are some of the items "found" inside of retired bowling pins.
Yes it is true that you can make rolling pins from bowling pins.
They laser very well, but because they are maple you generally need to color fill.

[Tim Baude]

Thank you Mike and Dick. Dick, one of yours was perfect.....came out great. Hope this gets me the job.
Tim

[Angus Hines]

Where do you find 'retired' bowling pins? And what do you usually pay for them?

[Dick Jordan]

Where do you find 'retired' bowling pins? And what do you usually pay for them?

Several of the local bowling alleys have them available ranging from free, to a nominal fee from $1 to $3 dollars. They often look pretty decent from the outside but if you "test" them by rapping 2 of them together you get a hollow sound rather than the preferred "clunk" of solid new ones. What happens most often is that the plastic coating separates from the wood core and they don't fly around the way they should. Specifically the wood surface where the ball hits really takes a beating and shreds.
If you have a lathe, you can turn these down to a smaller diameter and use them for very decent trophy's. Kind of a "Green" solution to "retired" pins.