Things I learned this week - 2008 archive
Even I still learn something new about pins every (few) weeks.
Sometimes things I know but still I mess up something because I'm in a hurry or just don't think
before I act, when I want to clean or repair something. Or sometimes you can get some
funny/weird/.. situations when dealing with people who are not 'into pins'.
Do you have a funny story or something interesting related to pinball or arcade machines ?
Please submit it.
2008-11-01: How not to wire switches by Scott
Had an IJ with a Fliptronics error. Traced the Orange wire from the leaf
switch right back to the other side of the same leaf switch.
2008-10-01: Only solder what's necessary.
OK, I'm working on my Star Trek Next Gen... and one of the cannon
micro return home switches goes out. Check the diode, it's fine.
Put in a new switch. Put it in test mode (switch hanging loose, not
installed) click it a couple of times, back to working!
Turn off the game, screw it down, turn it back on, and POP SIZZLE
SPARK... Uh Oh... I turn it off immediately to see where the smoke is
coming from...
Opto switch board under the playfield... Top two chips (U3 & U4) are
cracked and crispy. This is bad.
I know it has to be related... so I go back to the switch I just
fixed. and I see a small amount of solder has oozed from the first
wire of the micro switch onto the metal plate under it, the one that
goes to the motor for the cannon.
2008-09-01: Flying inserts by Mark
My stupidest thing I've ever done to a customer's pinball was to drop
the playfield, from leaning against the head, to slamming down on the
cabinet front edge, causing a light to smash through an insert,
causing the insert (No longer made color or size) to fly out of sight
and mind for 2 hours, and luckily finding it 20 feet from the pinball,
in the corner of the room.
I glued back the insert, letting it drive
over night, and the next day it was just FINE!!! (with slight
crack?!) Owner was actually much more relaxed about it than I was.
2008-08-15: Secure the apron by PinballPoor
The metal apron was not screwed down when I lifted the playfield and it
dove on down cracking a rare plastic in the upper right and scraping others..
2008-08-01: Drilling holes by Todd
My biggest knucklehead move was drilling pilot holes to mount a Kerry
protector, and on the last hole, just went a bit too far ... right
through the top of the field.
I nearly cried. I'm sure I'll top it
some day. I still have to put my TAF back together.
2008-07-15: Keep the door closed by Chris
So I am in my backyard pitching baseballs to my 8yr. old to fine-tune
the ole' swing before tomorrow's game, when he fouls a ball off behind
him. It rockets at an angle towards my walkout basement (french
swinging) doors as I think to myself "haha-good thing doors these days
have tempered glass in them"!
And then it happened. My 6 yr. old daughter decides to exit the
basement to join the backyard fun....
Ball goes screaming through the partly opened door just missing the
girl and whacks the recently stenciled Old Chicago at an angle just
below the siderail and then caroms into the basement wall.
Had the ball been 4-6 inches higher, we would be searching for a *3rd*
backglass for this thing..
2008-07-01: No Keys ? Really ?
On a game I bought (Bally Eight Ball) the owner didn't have the keys of the coin door.
Instead of picking or drilling the lock, he had removed the pin
that goes in the middle of the hinge. That way he could open the door.
Whilst loading the machine in my car I noticed the keys to secure the backglass
were on the backbox. I lock the backglass and put the keys in my pocket.
The next day I take out the keys and notice there are 3 keys on the ring, 2
different types. Sure enough the coin door keys were present and had been hanging
on the backbox lock all the time !
2008-06-15: Pinball is hot stuff by Brett
Drilling rivets out of ramps (for example to take a metal flap off)
generates heat. Enough heat to transfer to the backing washer and
allow it to pull through the ramp! AARGH!
Fortunately, judicious use of a soldering iron to reheat the washer/
rivet allowed me to reposition/remelt the washer back to its original
position...
Well, sort of... actually, the washer is now an integral part of the ramp (flush on
both sides). Think of it as reinforcement. :-)
2008-06-01: Working machine goes faulty when buyer shows up by G-man uk
Sold a Data East Simpsons off ebay.
Spent weeks getting this baby back to a nice working condition and last
night some friends and I spent a few hours play testing it, to
everyone's delight. All working a treat, I retire for the night, a happy man.
Fast forward to this morning, the buyer shows up, I switch it on and
offer him a game. Press Start, off you go, right flipper dead. What?!?
So, open it up, start checking, seems like a faulty wire and/or switch
(some joker had put microswitches for the flipper buttons). Hmm...
check switch, definitely dodgy so I go to replace. The only other
switch I have literally snaps in half as I try to install it. -sigh-
Ok, I decide to re-install the leaf switches, at this point, the buyer
decided to leave and pick up another machine about 1/2 hr away and come
back later.
So, I get 2 new leaf switches on, replace the connector and 8 pins on
the flipper board and deal with some dodgy soldering on said board. Now
it works, just, but its not perfect, something still not right (cable
issue I think, or something is failing on the flipper board). The
flipper works 99% of the time, but occasionally will not flip (usually
after starting a game).
I'm testing the game and guess what happens next, the ball careers into
the three drop targets and one snaps off! Could this get any worse?
I secretly think this machine hates me for selling it.
3 hours later and the buyer is still not back. Figuring him for gone, I
pack up and go back indoors. I get a call later, he's still interested,
so I'll let him know when I've ordered some parts and got it 100%.
Some days I just wish I'd stayed in bed.
2008-05-15: Best tip in restoration - take your time by Don O.
Have been working on an EM restoration for a while, and after a
playfield clearcoat and swap, I'm slowly putting it back together.
Decided to put mylar surrounds around the pops, and screwed up the
placement of one of them. Instead of taking my time and using one of
the proven methods for removing the mylar, I decided to do it by hand,
and ended up lifting a little bit of clearcoat in a few spots.
I knew it was stupid, but I was in a hurry.
Remember this the next
time you're taking a shortcut in your game restoration. Take a step
back and do it right the first time.
2008-05-01: My CFTBL translite flew away by Mike G
While on a ride home, it flew off as the glass was not locked.
The machine was transported head down. Glass with tlite moved forward along with speaker panel.
Glass breaks, translite flies away when car is going 65mph.
2008-4-15: Undressing games by Stevebo
I have 3 sweatpants I routinely wear when shopping games. I've used my
wife's sewing machine numerous times to repair the pockets in the sweatpants
that get ripped when snagging them on the ball shooter. The problem seems to go
on for awhile until I get sick and tired of putting a pinball in my pocket and
have the thing bounce off my foot as it travels down my leg through the hole in
the pocket for the umpteenth time and then rolls under a game towards the back
requiring me to swat at Black Widow spiders while trying to retrieve the
pinball. Not that I have a ton of spiders in the basement. Actually, I think
it's just one and she moves around on the floor to the underside of games just
to scare the hell out of me. I usually follow up this process of avoiding
spiders with banging my head on the underside of the game box when I don't quite
clear it and try to stand up. I think this is her real tactic but it's only a
theory.
Well, it looks like my games are on to me. I've been very careful lately when
walking around them so that I don't snag the pockets anymore on the ball
shooter. They seem to know this and now the coin eject button is snagging the
hell out of the pants pockets.
If that isn't bad enough, I squatted down tonight
to pick up something I dropped on the floor and as I was using the game to
steady myself while getting up, the coin eject button on my Fathom snagged my
shirt pocket and ripped the hell out of the shirt. I damn near lifted the game
off the floor with my pocket when I stood up so quickly. Riiiippppppp. I could
almost hear the other games laughing as I staggered away looking down at a loose
flap of cloth hanging down on a nearly new shirt.
2008-4-01: 35 expensive games.. by pinballtom264
Picked up an HUO Sopranos...
This guy paid around $5000.00 for this game new from the company that
put his home theatre in and he didn't even know that it had a power
switch until I flipped it on it's end to take it out. He had simply
used the plug to power it on and off.
I checked the audits when I got
home....35 total plays!
2008-03-15: You know it's been a long time you've played pinball..
When...
You fire up a pin and it says factory setting restored.. meaning the
batteries are dead.. so you switch off the pin and go watch telly instead.
Yup it happened.
2008-03-01: What's that sound ? by Jeff
I delivered a CFTBL to a workmate. It was lugged up 2
flights of stairs with a tiny landing in between through a narrow
doorway and used the existing pool table and some blankets to set it
up with legs on as space was at a premium in the attic/gamesroom.
I'd had this machine
for over a year during which I'd rerubbered, globed, popbumper mods, film
overlay etc. so you could imagine when I turned up for work on Monday
and asked "How did the family like it?".. Reply was Great!!! except
for the occasional loud "Crack" noise that comes from it like an Amp
fusing.
Being duly worried that a transformer was about to cause a
China syndrome I investigated the creech after climbing the stairway
to heaven and no obvious problem or smell of a pin in it's death
throes. Was duly advised to have a game and just see. Sure enough - 2nd
ball with the junior of the family playing the noise occurred from
the backbox/speaker area followed by a 3 fold "there it is". Well I
pi--ed myself as they had racked up a SPECIAL and upon later
inspection found that the daughter had been reading the manual and had
done the factory reset to extra easy. Game still playing great and
thank the man above the machine doesn't have to come back down for
surgery.
2008-02-15: What interlock switch ? by brokenvette
Im replacing switches on my new Medieval Madness. I was replacing them
on the right ramp entrance. My daughter was trying to help me( yea right) and
I unknowingly reversed the wires. I turned the machine on and nothing
happened. No ball popped out, no flippers, no pops of any kind. I'm
going oh shit. Then I noticed that I reversed the wires on the switch
so I reversed them and turned it back on and still nothing. I'm getting
really worried. I check all fuses hoping to find one bad and no luck.
At this point its 1:00AM and Im mad and heartbroken that I broke my
price so I go to close up the pin. I unplug the soldering iron and
guess what, the iron is plugged into the plug inside the pin and
coming throught the coin door and the door is OPEN. I shut the door,
turned on the pin and guess what, everything works including the
switch that I had replaced. I didnt know weather to be mad at myself
for the stupidity or be relieved that my prize wasnt broken.
2008-02-01: It was a great playfield.. by Eric A.
After a long wait and nearly a year and a half I was repopulating my
banzai pf restored by playfield renovations.
A friend came over to pick up a couple games I sold him and I
wanted to show him how nice the pf turned out. I went to turn it over
and the whole thing came crashing to the ground.
I guess it could have been a lot worse as the artwork and assemblies
are undamaged but CRAP!!!! I'm going to cry myself to sleep again!
See picture.
2008-01-15: Plug in all the boards by Stevebo
You know you've been working on games too long when you decide after 4 hours of
working on several games to finally throw your boards you had stacked up by the
Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition back in to the game that WAS working, and now no longer seems to work.
You search and search trying to figure out what the heck is wrong. You get the 7
lights on the CPU board so think nothing's wrong there, but when you push the
credit button, it changes after saying the "Eight Ball Deluxe - Three Ball"
voice to "Two Ball" and acts like it wants to start but won't kick up the ball
for play. And what's that "Two Ball" voice about? All you did was hit the credit button.
Then while scratching the old noggin' and checking voltages and some more head
scratching, you happen to look to your left while peering in to the backbox
hoping something will miraculously cure itself and notice that there's an empty
space on the backside of the backbox light board on the right hand side next to
the other two boards. And what's those 4 connectors doing there that aren't
plugged in? DOH! There's supposed to be a light driver board in there. The
game won't work OK with that board missing. Jeesh! What a waste of valuable
time screwing around like that.
2008-01-01: Early christmas repairs by Mario
Amazing, six calls since in the first week of december alone and I see about 4 messages not checked.
Local sales and Ebay junk bought for Xmas is starting to show up on my answering machine.
Here's a few:
Really need this fixed right away. I have a party scheduled. It's
probably an easy fix. The guy who sold it to me told me so.
I bought a pinball off Ebay and it stopped working. Can you fix it
right away. We would like to play it today.
I just got this pinball from a guy who gave me your number. He said
you could fix it cheap.
My favorite:
Hi, I bought this pinball locally but the guy only sells them, he
doesn't fix them. He gave me your number and said that you could fix
it and that you sometimes do free housecalls. We can't afford much on
repairs.
Gotta love this holiday!
Older stories can be found in the archive 2005 - 2006 and archive 2007.