(Topic ID: 317662)

Pinball rites of passage

By WJxxxx

1 year ago


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    There are 101 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 3.
    21
    #1 1 year ago

    You cannot begin to consider yourself a pinball veteran unless you have done at least 90% of these.

    Install the wrong number of balls, causing a fault.
    Put glass back on with balls not in machine.
    Diagnose and fix a fault - by yourself.
    Diagnose and fix a fault on someone else's machine over the phone.
    Visit and fix someone else's machine.
    Diagnose and fix a fault on someone else's machine over the Internet.
    Break a playfield glass.
    Break a backglass- bonus point if it's unobtainable.
    Have the back box drop onto the playfield, because you forgot to secure it.
    Move a machine with the backbox unsecured, causing it to crash down.
    Have a machine fall off a sack truck.
    Take a machine to a show.
    Hire a van to take multiple machines to a show.
    Take a machine to a show, come back empty handed.
    Take a machine to a show and come back with a different machine.
    Buy a machine at a show.
    Drop a round of drinks at a show.
    Set up/take down other people's machines at a show.
    Lose the ratchet strap you arrived with when it comes time to set down and have to improvise.
    Have a machine fall over in a van.
    Travel more than 2hrs to buy a machine.
    Travel more than 2hrs to buy a machine, but leave empty handed.
    Travel to a different country to buy a machine.
    Buy a used machine sight unseen
    Buy a used machine sight unseen from abroad.
    Get lost with a van load of machines returning from a show.
    Lose the keys to the lock and have to drill the door.
    Redecal a machine.
    Repaint/stencil a machine.
    Build a cabinet/backbox from scratch.
    Buy a project machine.
    Buy a project machine, but never do anything with it before selling it.
    Buy a machine from a 'barn/garage' find.
    Get a machine by exchanging for a non-pinball item.
    Get a machine free of charge/given to you.
    Lose over 50% on a machine when you sell it.
    Bring a project machine back to life.
    Build/retheme a machine
    Temporary trade of a machine with someone
    Loan out a machine to someone.
    Forget who you've loaned machines out to, or where they are.
    Have more than 50 machines pass through your hands.
    Own too many machines to be able to set them all up.
    Have machines set up in more than 1 room in your house.
    Buy a machine without using the Internet at all.
    Wonder why a machine hasn't kicked a ball out of the lock - when there's a ball in the shooter lane.
    Get an electric shock from a machine
    Cause a short by dropping the tool you were working with.
    Break a plastic while cleaning it.
    Burn yourself while soldering.
    Forget to remove batteries causing acid damage.
    Buy a machine with woodworm.
    Make a game specific part that can't be bought.

    What else is there?

    35
    #2 1 year ago

    Set up a game, attach the head, and forget to pull the power cable out.

    #3 1 year ago

    Drop a playfield in the cab thinking you haven’t hit the stops yet

    Check all wires and coils before checking the fuse

    Leave the balls in the trough when lifting the playfield and have them fall all over thinking that little flap will save you.

    #4 1 year ago

    Fix a game that was actually just a fuse. Bonus points if you spend hours checking everything but the fuse.

    24
    #5 1 year ago

    In the old days. Call Steve Young at Pinball Resource and not have part numbers.

    I used to love telling newbies to call him and tell them they didn't even need part numbers.

    The ensuing tongue lashing was a right of passage.

    LTG : )

    #6 1 year ago

    Move your game around and forget the topper is taller than your joists.

    Flip upside down out of the bed of your truck onto a grocery store parking lot asphalt onto your back while covering a game before it rains and trying to look like you meant to do it and amazed nothing is broken. Maybe that one is just me.

    13
    #7 1 year ago

    Slice your head open on the underside of of the playfield.
    Hit a flipper button with your hip while working inside the cabinet and scaring the crap out of yourself.

    #8 1 year ago

    Drop a pinball machine off of a truck and catch it.

    LTG : )

    #9 1 year ago

    Letting a game “Sing Along” sit for over a year not realizing there is a fuse located under the playfield. At least I figured it out on my own, took awhile.

    #10 1 year ago

    Snag or rip clothes while trying to navigate a maze of machines in storage.

    Have your marriage threatened by your spouse over too many machines.

    11
    #11 1 year ago

    Have a machine on location. Forget it’s there for a better part of a year. Come back to find the building reduced to a gravel parking lot.

    #12 1 year ago

    Good thread so far
    I think I got close to 90%

    10
    #13 1 year ago

    Not me. From long ago and far away.

    Don't sniff a soldering iron to see if it's hot.

    Pay attention to what you are doing and don't shove the soldering iron up your nose.

    If you do this. Once is enough. Don't do it again at a later date.

    LTG : )

    #14 1 year ago

    At a show...

    After breaking down several games, losing the 5/8 socket as it rolls to an unknown destination, and simply too tired to care....

    10
    #15 1 year ago

    Buy more machines than you actually have space for. lol

    #16 1 year ago

    Having a machine fall on you and break an extremity should be automatic life time rite of passage

    #17 1 year ago

    Forget to take numerous photos when stripping down a playfield, and bot knowing how it goes back together

    #18 1 year ago
    Quoted from EJS:

    Have a machine on location. Forget it’s there for a better part of a year. Come back to find the building reduced to a gravel parking lot.

    Brutal! In that case I’d hope someone just sold it so it didn’t get destroyed.

    #19 1 year ago

    Reassemble a playfield, but forget to put on a piece which requires you to then remove everything to get to where it should go.

    #20 1 year ago

    Oh and getting a speeding ticket cuz games in the truck blocking my view while 2 motorcycle cops stalked my bad behavior.

    #21 1 year ago
    Quoted from WJxxxx:

    You cannot begin to consider yourself a pinball veteran unless you have done at least 90% of these.

    Lose over 50% on a machine when you sell it.

    If you’ve done this in the past 3-5 years, you’re doing pinball WRONG.

    Quoted from shimmydisc:

    Set up a game, attach the head, and forget to pull the power cable out.

    The most annoying thing when setting up EMs. Even the little notes (DON’T FORGET CORD) don’t seem to help!

    Quoted from LTG:

    Drop a pinball machine off of a truck and catch it.
    LTG : )

    Bonus points if it’s one of your most expensive ones

    #22 1 year ago
    Quoted from WJxxxx:

    Reassemble a playfield, but forget to put on a piece which requires you to then remove everything to get to where it should go.

    Shoot done that which earthshaker where the bumper caps are different. Had to take off the ramp which was no small task.
    Thread of the year.

    #23 1 year ago
    Quoted from danisme:

    Oh and getting a speeding ticket cuz games in the truck blocking my view while 2 motorcycle cops stalked my bad behavior.

    Those games cost me a few hundred extra dollars. lol

    22
    #24 1 year ago

    Be working on a game, set the washers/screws/nuts/whatever on the playfield, and 60 seconds later forget they're there and lift the playfield, sending them into the Bermuda Triangle of disappearing hardware.

    #25 1 year ago

    Any trips to the emergency room?

    Twice for me.

    Transformer fell on foot I was wearing sandals.

    Needed help digging brittle 906 bulb out of two of my fingers.

    #26 1 year ago

    Move a game and forget the keys or leg bolts.

    #27 1 year ago
    Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

    Bonus points if it’s one of your most expensive ones

    At the time, yes. Brand new Judge Dredd fresh out of the box.

    LTG : )

    #28 1 year ago
    Quoted from Pdxmonkey:

    Move a game and forget the keys or leg bolts.

    Take game to show, realize after arriving that only 3 legs made the trip.

    #29 1 year ago

    Buy a game at an auction or show. And then realize you have no way to bring it home.

    LTG : )

    #30 1 year ago

    Throw out your back (spasms) or herniate a disc ( before you decide to work smarter not harder )

    Clean the glass and miss that one spot on the side facing the playfield.

    Watch someone CUT THE WIRES ON A JONES PLUG before you can tell them the connectors pull out.

    #31 1 year ago

    Buying a test dog from pinball life

    #32 1 year ago

    robin - let's get these set-up as Pinside achievements!

    #33 1 year ago

    I’ve done a lot of these things, plus installed a couple switches backwards or upside down. Traded games in a parking lot. Let simple fixes go for months because I’m lazy.

    Never burned my nose with an iron before!

    #34 1 year ago

    Soldered a flipper coil diode the wrong way or soldered a wire to the wrong lug.

    #35 1 year ago
    Quoted from LTG:

    Buy a game at an auction or show. And then realize you have no way to bring it home.
    LTG : )

    Replace coil wrapper to increase strength. I think you told that story on here awhile ago so you get credit for that one.

    #36 1 year ago
    Quoted from EJS:

    Replace coil wrapper to increase strength. I think you told that story on here awhile ago so you get credit for that one.

    I believe you are referring to Rick Swanson of old RGP days.

    He heard new coil sleeves would improve the coils performance. So he replaced all the coil wrappers with brand new ones. He made himself, before you could get new ones.

    Game played the same but the coils sure looked pretty.

    LTG : )

    #37 1 year ago

    Find a broken solder joint with game powered on....deciding to fix it w the iron without turning the game off (surely, just a quick touch won't hurt anything)..having Lloyd scolding you and tell you to " just walk away from it for the evening before you blow more stuff (shit) up" when confessing your sin.

    Bourbon Friday, setting a brand new sheet of PDI within 1/8" of floor next to game to swap, thinking "it will be ok if I just let it drop that last little bit" explosion quickly follows...into game and on the floor at the same time...

    #38 1 year ago

    I thought of another. Work on the wrong game.

    A dear friend was helping me before an event. I gave him keys and he went to fix something on a game in the back.

    After a bit he asked me for help. I went back and looked the situation over. He couldn't find what I asked him to check.

    So I suggested, perhaps one game to the left.

    LTG : )

    #39 1 year ago

    Smell magic smoke, convince yourself it's not, continuing to play until you see it, THEN turn the game off

    #40 1 year ago

    Learning about ribbon cables, the hard way.

    Red stripe pin one each end.

    After you put the fire out. Call Lloyd.

    Then when you explain the problem, and claim "but Lloyd, it's a brand new board". You get to hear Lloyd laughing his a** off and saying "it ain't anymore" followed up by, "do you buy boards by the dozen and do you get a price break when doing so ?".

    LTG : )

    #41 1 year ago

    While I'm reminded of Lloydisms, you haven't lived until when working on a game you hear me say if i see a mushroom cloud in your direction, I'll hang up the phone.

    LTG : )

    #42 1 year ago
    Quoted from LTG:

    Learning about ribbon cables, the hard way.
    Red stripe pin one each end.
    After you put the fire out. Call Lloyd.
    Then when you explain the problem, and claim "but Lloyd, it's a brand new board". You get to hear Lloyd laughing his a** off and saying "it ain't anymore" followed up by, "do you buy boards by the dozen and do you get a price break when doing so ?".
    LTG : )

    Quoted from LTG:

    While I'm reminded of Lloydisms, you haven't lived until when working on a game you hear me say if i see a mushroom cloud in your direction, I'll hang up the phone.
    LTG : )

    Great stuff (neither me btw)!!!!...

    #43 1 year ago

    Receive a machine folded up with only cellophane keeping it that way, and before putting the legs on, cutting the cellophane.

    Cue heavy heart attack. Can't believe my T3 sustained zero damage.....

    16
    #44 1 year ago

    Leave tools in the bottom of the cabinet after working on a machine with the playfield up, then spend hours/days looking for them.

    #45 1 year ago
    Quoted from Coindork:

    Leave tools in the bottom of the cabinet after working on a machine with the playfield up, then spend hours/days looking for them.

    Been there. Done that

    #46 1 year ago

    Reply to a pinside ad with "Nice game. Wish I was closer. GLWS."

    #47 1 year ago

    Get crushed by a machine down the stairs because your carrying buddy couldn't hold it anymore.

    #48 1 year ago

    Hit back of foot/ Achilles on pinball leg. It hurts.

    #49 1 year ago

    Go to a pickup and realize your drill battery is dead and didn’t bring a regular wrench to remove the legs.

    Forget to ask if there are stairs when you negotiate delivery/pickup services.

    Plan your vacations around pinball destinations.

    Plan a pickup during vacation without telling your wife.

    Your wife playing a pickup during vacation and not telling you.

    Have 2 of the same machines in your basement.

    Have 3 of the same machines in your basement.

    #50 1 year ago

    You drive 90 miles to get a rare pinball at auction and find this.

    There are 101 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 3.

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