there may have been an existing flaw that was just waiting on the moons of Saturn to align

That sucks, but at least it wasn't some irreplaceable painted backglass.

Sometimes the tempering is not consistent and stresses wait to explode

When I closed down my route and threw out tons of glass in the dumpster, probably 20% of it was not tempered or partially tempered.

Piss off the wife last night? Might have been a warning shot!

Years ago I had a MM playfield glass explode while I was holding it (unfortunately most of the glass went in the machine).

Most recently, I was setting a Demo Man translite glass down when it exploded. It had the plastic edges and everything on it, and I don't think I hit anything, but it made a mess on the floor. Luckily it was about $15 for a new glass. But yeah, it sucks when this happens. At least it wasn't an actual backglass. Stuff like this usually always happens 5 minutes before a sale or party.

Could be temperature between hands and glass. Sorry it happened for you.

Just tell mister quick sale what happened and see if he wants game for $100 less or whatever the translite and glass costs.

Try to do it in 3 sentences or less!

Could be a blessing, imagine how pissed the buyer would of been if taking it home it and happened, you'd get nothing but bad mouthing.

had a piece of glass break in 2 pieces once while sliding it out of my machine, never even shattered

For me its about one every 3 years. Thankfully not at a clients house yet.

That was probably plate glass, rather than tempered. Someone probably replaced it at some point, especially if it was glass for a translite.

Interesting. I didn't realize that any WPC era game came with a real backglass.

NGG is a printed backglass also

No good gophers also, I believe.

Static electricity can do this.

Yes, your glass was tempered--I was responding to ccbiggsoo7 about the glass that broke into two pieces.

I have been very careful handling 100s of pieces of playfield glass and backglasses and always thought when someone breaks one it had to be at least some carelessness on their part.

However when I carefully picked up a piece of playfield glass I had in the garage that was leaning against the wall sitting on a piece of cardboard about a month ago and it just exploded in my hands I learned otherwise. It was tempered and not damaged around the edges, but an older piece.

Shit happens is right! I'm lucky mine wasn't in a game.

So the thought quickly crosses my mind- do I now replace all older playfield glass with new? I already got rid of all the plate glass pieces.

Then I sweep up the mess, and get on with business as usual.

I had a playfield glass go the same way. Exploded with such force I had cuts on my forehead. Just holding it, not touching anything

I just purchased 3 Playfield glass panels from a long time small glass company where I know the owner. He said tempered is weaker on the edges than plate. And for my home use pins thinks plate is better. While sharp when it breaks, not that dangerous over a pf, or when sliding in n out. Unless you make a habit of sitting on your pins. And won’t drop thousands of glass pieces into the game. So bought the plate and will see how it goes.

um. thanks but no.
I prefer my glass to NOT scratch the PF when it shatters... much less my hands when I'm cleaning up... or when I'm working on the machine 4 years later and there's a thin shard hiding somewhere and I slice something open.

Just no. No. NO.

Always buy tempered glass. There is enough plate glass ones out there.

He's an idiot. tempered is more fragile on the edges. but the edges are fully covered. The field is much stronger on tempered and that is often hit with airballs. Plus have you ever tried to pop an old piece of tempered glass to get rid of it? its actually not as easy as people make it out to be. Plate on a pin is just stupid.

How can my 12 year old fridge have tempered glass that never shatters? All 3 shelves are tempered glass and the kids are not gentle when throwing stuff in there. Hot food on a cold shelf, the temps don't bother it.

Even some of the early electronic pins had plate backglass. Bobby Orr Power Play I have seen 2 with cracked glass. Where tempered glass should have been used. I guess if you run out, use plate until you get stock again.

Think this only happens to people with too many pins

I keep expecting this some day and just pray it's not an impossible to find one when it happens.

Likely was the temperature differential with your hands and the glass/room. I had this happen with a playfield glass. Touching nothing except my hands mid-air and just exploded. You're not in the pinball club unless it's happened to you at least once. I will say that I became a LOT more respectful of tempered glass after that happened.

You can hit tempered playfield glass with a hammer and it won't break - I've done it when trying to dispose of old glass. It's the edges that generally cause problems. I don't know how tempered glass has improved (has it?) but maybe newer tempered glass is better than 1970-2000 tempered glass?

Yea, the shelves get so loaded with stuff in the fridge that they sag a little but they never break. The kids are not careful throwing glass jars of food and other things on the shelves, they are also all scratched terribly from 12 years of use. They seem nearly indestructible to me. Maybe those older pinball backglasses are just not as good as the new stuff.

Damn Man, That looks like a W/B Back Glass! Oh man that sucks! The W/B back glasses had a white backing. Man what a bummer. A very rare commodity for Champion Pub. Sorry that happened to ya man.