Glass beads are much quieter in a Hyperball than those stupid noisy metal balls.

On a Stargate machine, if you use the flipper buttons and press up up down down left right left right B A start, the call outs will tell you to "Shoot the Pyramid" even more, that way you always have an idea what to aim for.

If you like a machine's game play, but absolutely HATE the artwork, Hire a clown that does children's birthday parties to puke in your GI sockets. Problem solved.

Along these lines, blue painting masking tape is THE ONLY way to secure display glass to the display board. Do not under any circumstances replace the plastic holders that are specifically designed for that purpose if they break.

If you have a Star Trek machine and you really want to convey the image that this particular game is themed after lets say, Star Trek, the artwork alone is not going to do this. In this case Ebay is your best friend. Search for "Star Trek figure" or "Completely idiotic and not needed Star Trek waste of good money mod so everyone north of El Paso knows that this is a Star Trek game" and buy them. All of them. Multiples of them. Oh, and a bag of zip ties.

If you have a CPU board that is not working, blow on it like its a Nintendo cartridge.

I wonder if its obvious that I am bored at work.

If you have a back glass that is flaking, chewing gum will work in a pinch.

To get rid of that nasty cigarette smoke smell from pin, just go outside and find a dog turd and throw it in the cabinet, problem solved.

If you are transporting a machine in bitter cold temperatures, you want to get that baby warmed up as soon as possible, so do not hesitate to turn it on. And I mean first chance that you get.

Ryobi makes a pretty good battery powered weed wacker, that does wonders if you are trying to clean soot off of subways.

To clean and polish screws, nuts, bolts, etc, put everything in a wooden barrel filled partially with coarse sand, and roll it down a mountain.

If you recover a machine that has been in a flood, just fill the cabinet with white rice.

Some non pinheads think that the harder you press the flipper button, the harder the ball will be shot up the playfield. To prevent excessive force used, get a couple of flat head metal tacks and super glue them onto the flipper buttons.

If your plumb bob is too sensitive, fill the cabinet with concrete.

If you have a warped playfield, wedge it in between two sturdy trees that are close together, and twist it in the opposite direction of the warp to correct it.

Do not try to color match paint when doing a playfield worn spot. Use whatever is available and then repaint the rest of the playfield to match.

In the case where you've cut your wire too short, just cut the desired length of speaker wire needed.
Reason for that was explaned previously by this gentlemen

Then remove at least an inch of insulation from each wire that you want to connect together (teeth works just fine for that) and twist the copper together in a wire connector as shown bellow, just make sure to twist it a lot just like with screws.
If you don't have any wire connector, don't worry since you can also use e-tape.
you could even consider leaving it bare without e-tape since dust will make a protective coat over it with time.

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If you are tired of replacing broken drop targets, carve some new ones out of NERF.

If you lose legs bolts you can always attach the legs to the cabinet with rare earth magnets. Unless it is a Baywatch machine, in that case leave them off.

If you are trying to come up with a re-theme for a Raven machine, here are five suggestions that will work with the existing layout.

1. Not Raven
2.
3.
4.
5.

If you need to repaint a cabinet, there is no need to prep and clean the surface first. Apply the paint with a pressure washer and kill two birds with one stone.

Bally actually suggested that at their service schools to save time on location. Time is money.

11629s replace ANY flipper coil... except other 11629s.

If a game slips off of your truck, be sure and catch it. Within a year you'll be good as new.

LTG : )

Got a back glass that's flaking? Don't worry, simply go to the hardware store, purchase the thickest silver spray paint in stock and spray that shit on super thick. Wait 5 min for the paint to dry and put it right back in the machine. Good as new. Also sharpies for back glass touch up make perfect black lines just like from the factory.

Got a lock down bar receiver that's rusty? Fear not, simply spray a coat of chrome colored paint right on the top side of the receiver. No need to prep any surfaces or even remove from the game, just leave it right where it is and spray the hell out of it. The end result is fantastic.

Imagine if someone did this with a Yagov Kicker for an F-14 LOL. If it worked I would imagine it would be insanely fast and break flippers and all kinds of stuff.

When taking the glass off make sure you put it on the cement floor corner first.

No soldering iron? No problem. All you need is some of these and a match. Works well on connections, circuit boards, whatever....

Better yet, use multiple strips throughout your project pin, then refer to the "contact cleaner" repair solution posted earlier. One can of contact cleaner plus one match paired up with a package of these strips will take care of all your soldering needs at once.

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not really a tip for repair, but if you are selling your game: Just make sure you list it as Imamaculate ... gets fast results!

Faded cabinet? No problem. Sharpie markers to the rescue.

(actually, they're not too bad )

Need to move a game across the room but don't have proper moving equipment or a helper? Just roll the game across the floor like a boulder. You may want to remove the balls first.

I had a similar WD40 repair where the flippers on a PinBot were sticky. They sprayed so much it was on the playfield and somehow droplets was on the underside of glass.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!! Some of these are priceless!

Not Really a repair item, but when you go pick up that first machine, Don't worry about removing the legs, and back box. Just through that sucker in the back of your pick-up and head on down the road. No need to tie it down either!

By the way leaving the balls in the machine during transportation will not hurt anything either!

ESPECIALLY good after head removal as mentioned!

I looked up the definition for "imamaculate" because I've been seeing that word a lot in pinside threads lately.

imamaculate
Used to describe and emphasize the pristine condition of a person place or thing when saying the more common word "immaculate" is not enough. Also used by questionable sales people who are misrepresenting their products and can't spell.

The more misspelling the better! More and better sales!

Didn't even though about it
I would pull my hair off if I ever encounter a pin with a full harness not only cut but also hacked back in place!

Yes, it's not used much but I think it originated in the late 1700's...

Always hold your soldering iron at its tip for precise control after all It's a dry heat
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You need to read the 600 play baywatch thread

And if you don't have an electronics store to get solder you can always go to a plumbing supply place and get that acid core stuff in a pinch.

Oh, and if you're going to send a playfield to someone for clear coating here are a couple of tips.

Use a sharpie to fix any fine black lines like around inserts. This will save you touch-up money.

And if you wipe the playfield down with silicone before shipping it will arrive nice and clean. Nothing will stick to it.

I've done maybe over 100 games now easily and only shorted the gi fuse once or twice. Most things an easy fix anyways. 10x faster to do bulbs with game on imo

Having board trouble? Need to replace some components?

- To remove the old ones, use as much heat as possible. You want that solder to just drip off. The old traces leading to your bad components probably went bad too so you'll want to get rid of those. Don't worry about the black color on the board, that's original: they painted the boards green at the factory but you can skip that step cuz it doesn't need to be pretty, it just needs to work.

- When soldering new chips in place feel free to connect the dots and leave excess solder in place. This gives the electricity lots of additional pathways, so the data can flow where it needs to more freely and efficiently. Those f*cks at Bally Williams and Gottlieb were penny-pinching bastards who didn't want to spend the money on extra solder.

- If after all this it still doesn't work, tack on some extra wires and just send it off to a professional. They love puzzles and teaching newbies their wizarding ways, and might fix your hacked board for free in thanks for the challenge and extra wires you provided for their use.

That's probably where I first saw the spelling then I noticed it was in a bunch of pinside threads.

Great tip for enhancing a sale. "It's IMAMACULATE! MINT!"

I heard there was some debate if it was a word from the future in year 3299 or from the past in the year 277.

There is nothing wrong with this on a teevee. Never for automotive or anything safety-related (Medical equipment) as dropping or vibration could eventually cause a failure. Believe it or not, Gottlieb had Rockwell Microelectronics perform vibration tests on the boards they designed to validate. The frequency sweep was much less violent than automotive circuit boards. This was before air suspensions were common in the trucking industry. The duration of truck shipment of pins was insignificant. The testing simulated typical game play shaking, nudging and vibration from the flippers, drop target reset coils and kickers.