Innovative Bowling Products is the owner and manufacturer of the Haus Resurfacing Machine. As such, we get a lot of calls/emails from pro shops and individuals asking about the values of the used machines they find on the internet. With the volume of questions increasing, we decided to write this article to hopefully answer some questions before we get them.
In preparation for writing this I thought back to when I bought my first Haus Resurfacing Machine. I couldn’t remember exactly when that was, but I do remember that the maintenance and instructional video was on a VHS tape. “Can I get a show of hands of those of you reading this that have no idea what a VHS tape is?”
I am thinking that I bought my first one in 1997. I asked Google AI when its inventor, Bruce Haus, first introduced the resurfacing machine to the bowling industry. The AI response said that Bruce filed for his patent on June 30, 1995, and that the patent was published on March 25, 1997. This would seem to validate my memory of when I bought my first one.
When you see a Haus Resurfacing Machine for sale on the internet, if it is one of the original, first-generation machines, understand that it could possibly be 30 years old.
During the years prior to the purchase of the machine by John Jameson of Innovative Bowling Products, the Haus Resurfacing Machine went through some major feature upgrades. The machines that we manufacture and sell today have, in my belief, remedied all the issues that I perceived as “weaknesses” when I bought and used my first one.
There have been three versions of the Haus Machine manufactured first by Haus Specialty Manufacturing and later by Innovative Bowling Products. The first was silver in color. The second is red in color but does not have the reversing controller. The third and final one (as produced today) is also red in color but it has a reversing controller to achieve the random rotational spin of the bowling ball.
Bruce Haus was very wise to patent the rigid cutting wheels. Our rigid diamond cutting wheels set the Haus Resurfacing Machines well beyond the capabilities of soft cutting pads and will make bowling balls rounder than factory specifications.
Soft pads like those used by competitive products will always follow the contour of the ball’s surface. Soft cutting pads that follow the contour of the ball’s surface will always make flat spots bigger. Each time a ball is resurfaced with any other resurfacing system, all flat spots (including holes) will be made larger.
Interesting note: If you place a plugged and polished bowling ball on a Haus Machine while using the diamond cutters, flat spots will very quickly reveal themselves. The polish is worn away from the ball’s surface, except flat spots that are below the ball’s surface. Spots above plugged holes that have been worked over by a ball spinner, and unskilled hands will also very quickly show themselves. You can see exactly where the unskilled hands were pressed against the spinning ball to remove the traces of the ball plug.
This is why we developed and recommend those new to using a ball spinner to use our 5” sanding blocks (https://innovativebowling.com/5-Sanding-Block-CAB-by-Innovative_p_272.html). The sanding block are shaped to the contour of a ball and evenly distribute the pressure applied to the ball’s surface across a 5” wide area.
The first Haus Machine is silver in color and has a five sided shape. The first machines have an oscillating motor on one of the spider legs. The job of this motor is to tighten one of the motors against the ball every so many seconds, then relax it which moves the ball into its random action and does not allow focus on a single circular area of the ball. These oscillating motors are no longer available and cannot be replaced. It is my belief that very few, if any of these little motors are still working today. Should you find one that appears to be working, it is doing so on “short time” and very near the end of its life.
The first-generation silver machines also utilize a small spring loaded, white clipped nylon wedges that are pulled to the lower-right of the rotating wheels. The goopy liquid that accumulates on the cutting or finishing wheels is scrapped away by these wipers and diverted to the catch pan. The wipers are designed to keep the watery goop away from the top of the rotating wheels where gravity will then pull the liquid down into the bearings. Ruined bearings can be replaced at auto parts stores, but the wipers cannot. They are no longer manufactured, and inventories have long ago been exhausted.
The original soft rubber catch pan was removed and was no longer needed with the addition of the sidewalls which placed the bearings and the motors on the outer side where they stay dry and free from danger. This also eliminated the need for the wipers which have not been manufactured since that time.
Also at that time, the small diameter drip line was replaced with one that is a larger diameter. The small diameter tubes quite often closed themselves up to the point that nothing could pass through. This would require removal and then the insertion of a straighten clothes hanger to be run through it, opening the tube to again drain the catch pan.
The Haus Resurfacing Machine has always been a great tool for bowling ball maintenance, and it is a much better machine now.
Buying a used machine, especially one that is silver or a red one that does not have a reversing controller, does not make any kind of reasonable sense, once you understand what you are buying.
A tight budget is even more of a reason to not gamble with the purchase of a used silver machine or used red machine not having a reversing controller. A good gamble means that you have a chance of winning, a used silver machine or a red one without a reversing controller, is not a good gamble. Even if you think you found one that is working “perfectly,” it won’t be for long and there simply are no parts to repair it.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact John Wise, [email protected].
