I've done the order thing. . . even started a thread about it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-many-orders-does-it-take-

One of the other things I hate is dropping some random small screw, nut, spacer, etc. to have it disappear into thin air. . . only to find it months later on the complete opposite side of the room in a location almost physically impossible to bounce or roll to.

All the way on the order thing and almost every time. Loosing nuts and washers is also common. LOL your definitely not alone.

I also suffer from creating more work by breaking something that wasn't on the original agenda. Aka old light sockets then I'm left wondering why I even bothered after all it lit the insert just fine before.

Here’s another one...a variation of the “vanishing screw or washer trick”...top on my list. Playfield is in the service position leaning against the backbox...while working high up on the underside of the playfield you drop a screw, washer, etc. and hear it bouncing down the underside of the playfield thru all of the coils, mechs, etc. like a little game of “plinko”. The only problem...it never falls out into the base cabinet. It is amazing where a screw can get caught on the underside of a playfield. My problem is I won’t turn the pin on until I find it...cause I’m convinced it will short something wherever it is!

it's also the one that you don't have any extras of!!

Spill my BEER

Troubleshooting under the playfield with a game started & bumping the flipper button to scare the crap out of you.

Holding a part in a certain place and then can't reach the tool you need to install it

Yeah I've forgotten plenty times have a needed part on a parts-order, but also after getting the parts that I DID order forget where I left them when comes time to getting around to installing them

When working on the underside of the playfield, drop a screw, hear it start to fall to the cab floor, but then goes silent. So you know it’s hung up somewhere.

Snapping a screw or post,
also lifting up the playfield, and hearing some screw or whatever go up and under everything on the freshly assembled PF

How about finding a nut or screw when you haven't worked on anything in months. I know this sob came from somewhere.

I lost my fuse box for 1.5 years until today... put it right where it should have been and never looked there for it

(One on the right, the other on the left is the replacement I’ve been slowly populating)

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I always leave shit in the cabinet and have to open the game back up and lift the playfield to retrieve it. A telescopic magnet, a claw that grabs things, and the magnetic trays that hold your parts are your 3 best friends.

The best thing about working on pins for me is i am a dumbass so i make about 300 trips from the game to my tool box and back because i never have the right tools. It gives me a great workout.

Doing a teardown/rebuild then having one single screw/bolt/washer leftover.

Sending all the metal parts off to be chrome plated and realising too late you missed that one inch hex post in the back corner of the playfield.

Opening a machine and finding a part (screw, washer, nut) I can't identify on the bottom.

This x1000. A simple job then turns a huge task trying to find that screw. Worst is when it falls through a hole and gets on the top of the pf in places impossible to get to without taking everything apart.

Worst is when you hear it drop while playing a game. You then know for sure it went to something.

I do this, but with my pockets, which is so dumb I can't even make up an excuse. Usually goes:

Use nut driver, place in back pocket while I use screw driver, look for nut driver on table, profanity, look for nut driver on floor, do 3 laps back to bar table and workbench, profanity, try to sit down and get poked in the back/ass by nut driver, put screwdriver in back pocket while I use nut driver, and repeat. The circle of life.

Lightbulp drops in the subway.. jaaayyy

That's why I ALWAYS add 2 or 3 additional bulbs, per color if I have to. Dont want to be in that situation.....

Snap rings and c clips flying off no matter how many times you say you wont let it happen. And when they do, they are gone.

How about e clips that just mysteriously appear???
Look at everywhere there's one, and none missing.

- Always grabbing the wrong nutdriver (arrgh this locknut isn't 1/4 it's 5/16... dammit now *that* one is 3/8). So hey lemme just loosen this acorn or locknut NOPE #&@^@ post wants to come up with it!

- Wishing you could lay the playfield flat but extended maybe 6-12" out of the cabinet, it would make reaching and repairing that one thing so much easier BUT: Is there a sturdy coil bracket you can rest on the lockdown bar? Will everything on the pf shake and shatter loose when you try to pop it free off the #^%@! hinge bolts (the WORST thing about Sys11)?! Do you feel lucky, punk?!

Once during a simple TZ subway cleaning dropped a screw into the gumball machine somehow. That turned into a much more complicated cleaning!

I hate when I am working on a machine, fix something, but then screw something else up in the process.

My biggest one was somehow getting a bulb in TZ that wedged back in the lock area. You couldn't even see it with the naked eye, but it bricked lock shots all the damn time and I had no idea why. Found the damn thing back there a year or 2 after when fixing something else

How about raising the playfield for a "quick adjustment" and failing to put a towel over the back box and realizing after 20 "tweaks" you scratched the crap out of the top of the cabinet, or for that matter, any other number of times when you scratched something when "you knew better" and should have taken your time and put protection in place.

My #1 problem with working on pins is it takes away valuable time playing them!

All great comments guys

My #2 was issue was pulling my BM66 pf right off the rails and into the cab.

I had over served myself. Luckily no damage

I LOL'd at this one. Happens all the damn time!

Fixing a problem, having everything go great, put glass back in, lock bar on, clean glass, then realize the balls are all on the floor next to the machine.

"pinball missing"

*checks pocket*

"son of a..."

Is this pet peeve strictly a pinball reference, or relating to an unintended increase in the human population?

Towel over a backbox?

Adjusting slingshot switches/rubber on a SPIKE pin.......and the kicker pegs your finger!!!!!

Shocking the shit out of myself.Hate it.

First worst thing: put playfield up with prop-rod, lean over to screw or unscrew something underneath, scrape the top of my bald head on the sharp corner of a solenoid or wiring bracket. Hurts like hell every damn time. Bonus points for leaving some skin on the bracket.

Second worst thing: trying to remove a perfectly good but dirty plastic or whatever in order to clean it, and breaking it in the process.

Runner-up: placing a bumper cap, plastic, or some other brand-new part on the playfield, but not screwing it down, just to see how good it will look. Then, of course, forgetting that it's there, I raise the playfield to work on something underneath, only to hear the part go clattering down the playfield and land in the back of the cabinet.

Cat decides any loose part should be stored in the next room.

Now this is a problem that sometimes the telescopic magnetic tool wouldn't reach. That's when you have to go to plan B and break out the heavy artillery!

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LOL, have had all of the above happen to me. Good stuff. I'll add a couple more:

Dropping a screw or some other part down a subway and having to remove the subway to retrieve it.

Keeping the balls in the trough when lifting the PF thinking they wont come crashing down this time.... then naturally they do and the balls scatter across the bottom of the cabinet and floor only to leave you one short.