It seems to me that the wires that like to break the most are the ones in locations that you can barely see, can't get to without folding yourself in half, and can't fix without bumping 18 other wires with a hot soldering iron.

I am the worst offender. Most recently I opened up a pin to find my dremel just sitting on the cash boxed still plugged in... I didn't even know I was missing my dremel.

Could have been worse. Could have been your plugged in soldering iron...starting the game on fire.

Attaching the head and realizing you forgot to pull the power cord out first.

These!

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Getting a cramp while working between machines

Buying bayonets instead of the correct 555’s or other way around :/

Or having 2,3,4,6,7.8,9,10,11,12 .156” connectors and not the 5spot you need.

Screws and nuts fall under the board on the bottom of cab or in the speaker

Doing a complete teardown on a game ,taking a 1000 pictures and you need 1001 ....

Yes, that is my number one.

Number two = working to fix a problem for hours and finding out it is a simple fix after all. One I know about. One I have seen before.

Or forgetting to cut a 6 down, file smooth. And continue.

LTG : )

Having to replace a uncommon but necessary bolt or screw that's missing, requiring a $10 shipping charge for just that one piece. Then during a thorough cleaning of the inside of the cabinet a few weeks later, finding said part stuck inside the speaker or under the transformer panel. Grrrr!

Thisssssss

When you buy a new part...

...and you install the new part...

...and it doesn’t fix the issue.

playfield raised: solenoid plungers and other mechanics move freely.

playfield lowered: geometry changes & plungers and other things move sluggishly

raised, lowered, raised, lowered, raised, lowered, open the coin door to figure THAT out

Not sure if this qualifies as “working” on your game but when moving them out of the house, back box is nice and wrapped to cabinet, take back legs off, tilt game onto it’s back, clang clang clang clang. Forgot to take out the balls. Every. Damn. Time.

Having 20 uninstalled mods sitting on my workbench and never installing any of them because when the decision needs to be made between spending a couple of hours playing or a couple of hours installing, playing wins every time.

And then ordering more mods the next day.

Great topic and funny but true!

Here is one of mine. Your working on an assembly, you don't seem to have a problem taking it apart but when you go to put it back together your finger reach seems much shorter and getting those screws back in with the wiring harness in the way is much harder, you try and drop screw, no problem you find it, so you try a different route, and drop screw again, but this time it rolls under the transformer panel and you have to find a piece of wire to fish it out, then you spend a few minutes planning your next attack like Wile E Coyote, only two drop screw again and again.

Pro tip, get screw starting screw drivers and save your sanity, or in a pinch take that 14 gauge wire you used in previous step of fishing for the lost screw and wrap it around screw allowing you to guide into position more easily.

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One of the worst is when you're working on an EM, and you drop some minor little thing like a nut or a bulb or something... and it lands just right to slide down beside the board on the bottom of the cabinet, then roll under the board so you can't possibly reach it.

So then you have to start thinking "Should I try to just tilt the cabinet to one side and see if I can get it to roll to the side and grab it with some pliers?"

or "Maybe I can slide something flat under the board and push it out the other side"

but eventually you have to take the bolts loose and move the board to get whatever little tiny thing you dropped down in there out...

The other day I was ordering some stuff from Marco (which I love) and had written down everything I found on a machine that I needed to order. So while I'm doing it, I see something I hadn't thought of like, oh instruction cards and add that to the cart too. So then I go back to the machine, work on it awhile looking for other stuff I might need to order, oh, I need some of those clips (or whatever)... so I go back to add it to the cart off the website, and the cart is empty because I screwed around too long without checking out.

Damn, now I'll have to redo it all over again. So I go reorder everything I had written down, then add the clips and checkout... then just after I press the checkout button, remember that I forgot to add those cool instruction cards (for $1.50 or whatever) back in

Yup, exactly what I was saying too, lol

Dropping screws etc and they go to that special place that can't be found?

Fixing shitty repairs or dodgy hacks.

1. I will burn myself with the soldering iron every session that I use it. It’s a GUARANTEE.

2. I will ALWAYS button the game back up without putting the balls back in.

I got in the habit a few years back of putting removed balls in the track under the removed lockbar. They won't fall off, unless you knock them off, and there's no way to put the glass back in without moving them first.

This is fantastic advice and a buddy of mine always yells at me to do this. But old habits are a bitch. Haha

It is so comforting to see that I’m not the only person that does these things! This thread had me laughing all the way through!

losing a C-clip. Or a JC clip...as in "Jesus Christ there goes another one!!!!"

Happens to me when I order from Comet.

My top 2 worst things when working on my pins is:
1- Might have a little drink-e-poo while tinkering with my games.
2- Little drink-e-poo turns into a "party of 5" of drinks and before ya know it I am half cut and can't find (nor do I care) where I left that Phillips screw driver. Ah well, better have another drink, that'll make it all better.

I AM NOT AN ALCOHOLIC, I just like to drink

QSS

Glad it's not just me. Still got a scar from a nasty burn few months ago. I'm also good at melting other things under the pf when trying to squeeze into a tight place. Fun playing the "what's that burning smell?" game when using the soldering iron. Finally order a better soldering iron, maybe that will help.

CNKay - Brilliant idea using wire to hold screw. Going to try that next time. I've used blue tape to hold screw to screwdriver when trying to get it into a tight space. I use blue tap for everything lol. That tape trick also works for getting wedge bulbs into tricky places. One example is the bulb that's behind the bubble gum machine in TZ. It's buried under riveted plastics and not accessible under pf but you have straight access to it with pf out. Wrap the tape around the tip of the bulb to a pencil or some other kind of blunt stick. Not sure it's the best method because it takes a lot of swearing and tries to finally get it to work.

I haven't burned myself in a long time. Good news with soldering irons is they are basically self-cauterizing so I don't really find iron wounds to be too troublesome.

From this morning...

I replace a few rectifiers.
I triple check my work.
I put the board back in the game.
I check again for any shorts.
Moment of truth.
I hate this part.
I flick on the power switch.
Nothing.
Zero at every test point.
Shit!
Then I notice the power cord lying on the floor.

My favorite rule is "if it goes back together easily then I missed something"

I broke the playfield glass in the game next to the one I lifted that way once.

Aside from everything else that everyone is talking about I always seem to cut myself by trying to fit my hand further into a place that it shouldn't go

I've done something similar on the older Sterns -- work on/repair a board, put it back in, power on, check voltages, etc. Everything checks out -- Great! Press the credit button. . . nothing. Open everything back up, recheck everything. . . all is good. Finally it occurs to me, because these games have no free play, credits need to be added before a game can start.

Anyone mention removing that screw from a playfield plastic for a different repair, then re-tightening it... making sure it's extra tight... until you here that spine curdling "Crack!" sound. Now you have a new plastic with a crack around the screw hole.

Or you're working underneath and you reinstall the wood screws, but you want to make sure it's good and tight. After all it is a steel ball rolling around on top, smashing into things. But that last tight turn to make it nice and really tight... Then the slip... Overtightened and now the screw hole is stripped! Should have just left it tight and been satisfied.

Then painstakingly extending a magnetic wand under the bottom board, using the tips of your fingers to swing the magnetic end further in to try to catch the screw, only to lose control of the wand and listen to it join the screw under there in nowhere land! (Only posting for a friend)

If if you don’t already know, then you’ve never put together a classic Williams or Bally pin.
No matter how many times I tell myself not to forget the power cord.

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Agreed-great thread. It’s so great because I’ve had at least half of these scenarios happen to me and I was definitely NOT laughing at the time.

Ain’t it the truth. I’ve ordered three times from Pinball Life in the last two weeks. Just went to bend a VUK switch on my LOTR a half hour ago and snap!