Stupid question maybe, but tell me you are not doing this with the machine turned on.
(Topic ID: 79579)
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Plus I'm guessing the tip is all grounded, thus touching even one thing is completing a circuit.
Never solder with the machine on.
How the hell did you land a Stern Viper??? Like, we are talking old Stern Viper, not Sega Viper Night Driving right? If so, cut your losses and just sell this to me. Hell, just send me the backglass 
I'm no expert with classic stern/bally. If you need the guides, send me a pm with your email. I have to go through them as a refresher for these, as I have done very little with them.
Quoted from markmon:Bah just be careful. I solder with the machine on all the time. Some people think you need to turn the machine off *and unplug it* just to replace a light bulb. Bah! sissies These were probably the same people you remember crying all the time in grade school cause they fell down.
I would not recommend this. Again, I believe the solder pens are grounded (in fact, I just confirmed this on my Weller), and thus you are not only completing the circuit for anything you touch with voltage and possibly jeopardizing many aspects of the electronics in the machine, you are also sending voltage unintended through your pen, which could either trip something, blow an internal fuse or failsafe, or worse yet damage your station/pen/iron.
This is just not a good idea and no one should ever do this.
Quoted from markmon:Yea yea. I've fixed 100-200 machines in the last few years and solder with the game on all the time. If there's some danger, it's so rare that it hasn't occurred even once in over 150 times. I suppose you are the same folks that use ground straps before opening your PC?
It's flat out a very careless and dangerous thing to do. If you want to, go for it, but I just want to make it very clear to anyone out there reading this that I would suggest no one ever does this, and I'm betting that position would be heavily endorsed by most. I’m actually surprised you would recommend this Mark.
I change lights at times with the machine on, but only if the light or socket can be extracted without touching anything else. Once I see there is a possible contact with anything else, why risk it? I turn it off, change it out, turn it back on. One of my friends did some serious damage to his boards once when doing just this and brushed the socket against a solenoid power lug. Sometimes you have to test things such as switches underneath the PF with the power on or measure voltages, but I always make sure my path is clear to and from whatever I have to touch. For anything you don't *have* to do with the power on, why knowing the possible consequences noted previously would you ever risk it? It’s just flat out careless in my opinion.
Anyway, to anyone debating this in the future, you know the risks, do as you see fit.
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