I adjusted a pop bumper switch with pliers & the power on. Won't do that again.

Dumbest thing was buying the first one....

You take that back...Road Kings Rocks...!!!... ............Joey

Joey!!! MY MAN!!!! Been a while.... look what I have and took to the Houston Expo this past weekend:

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I had just bought a Space Shuttle, that I know was in need of some repairs, but it was operational.
set it up, everything was working, except for some reason I could start a game, WTF did I do wrong?
After spending 1 1/2 hours trying to figure it out, the game locked up and would no longer boot.
Went to take it apart to set it off to the side, when F@#$& white plug plugged into the black plug.
pretty expensive mistake.

Big
12v in 5v DMD fried

Small
Put my hand under cabinet for IMDN & SW and under backbox for DI

Sprucing games up for a tournament at the pub where I routed some machines, about 1 hour before tournament starts. Found a broken wire to a switch and flicked it to make sure it was broken. Flick caused a short between voltages and roasted switch matrix. Had to get that pin home for repairs and bring one from home in, with just an hour to do it. I somehow pulled it off.

Honestly - every time I lift the PF and forget to remove the balls and they come crashing.

Noob mistakes...

When I got my first pin (NGG) I was changing bulbs and put a regular bulb in a flasher socket. Playing a game and saw smoke. Bulb completely melted.
I was having dmd issues. If I pushed on the ribbon cable on the board, the display looked fine. As soon as I took pressure off, it would scramble. I thought it would be a good idea to clip one of those metal binder clips to it to keep pressure on. Worked for a while, then it borked my whole AV board.

I've broken my Taxi plastic that covers the shooter lane about 83 times forgetting it catches the rail and lifting the playfield too fast. I just keep it taped together instead of replacing it because I'm too dumb not to break it again anyway.

Congo was turned on. I was leaning into a cab with the playfeild up and dmd leaning down, I accidentally touched the back of the the dmd to my neck and got the full 120v zap to my neck.

First game I owned was a WCS. Bought an LED kits for $250 instead of buying individual bulbs from comet. On top of that, I removed the entire top side to replace them. I'm mechanically inclined. I remember looking under the playfield and thinking, probably could just unscrew sockets but it was an overwhelming world looking at everything underneath and I already committed to the top side. Took 6 hours with me and a buddy. Now I can LED an entire game in under an hour.

Trying to lift Dialed In by myself to install the back legs. With the backbox up.

Oh, and selling TAF.

Dialed In is a heavy beast. I did the same with the back legs (backbox folded though) and was temp tattooed with a couple of bruises.

For whatever reason I didn't use my usual stool as an aid / brace.

I replied to a dimple thread once. Does that count?

Had access to an operator's warehouse of dead games 18 years ago. Bought a Bally Mata Hari and Strikes and Spares but passed on a Stern Star Gazer for $350 that had a nice PF & BG but didn't boot.

I just finished reading every post so far in the Beatles confirmation thread! Not sure which is worse......

Working on a WMS Solids N Stripes EM with the playfield propped...albeit incorrectly...jiggled the playfield trying to unscrew the relay bank underneath and the playfield prop stick slid off the playfield resulting in the bottom of the playfield landing on the top of my head...anyone familiar with WMS relay banks of this period know how much weight they add to the playfield’s total weight... I can still feel the pain after 20 years!!!

Spent hours last night on an EM tracing wires, reflowing solder, adjusting/readjusting the advance unit, checking all switches, adjusting score reels to diagnose a buzzing locked on relay.
I was so consumed with the thought that there was something wrong that I forgot to think about it actually being a hold relay that’s supposed to be on after game start up. Changed the wore out relay and all is well. So stupid!!

When I was doing my first shop out I unknowingly installed wood tapping posts in to threaded T nuts. Whoops.

Played a full 3 ball game on Punchy the Clown....

Put money down on a pre-order. Did it once and will never do it again.

Lol. I actually like shooting the targets in order to get the jackpot on punchy. I wouldn’t own it again unless I got a steal on it but it wasn’t a bad game.

Wait..... does framing this and hanging it up in my house count?

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Absolutely not; it's a classic.
Replacing that with a refake on a Genesis machine would count though

I can’t upvote this post enough. I replaced this one with an NOS one in my first genesis and have had it framed ever since. I’ve owned it four times and will own it again. I love this translite.

And then I turned around and bought a second one.......didn’t learn after the mistake of buying the first one.

Biggest mistake:

When doing a PF swap, do not force anything. Enlarge holes and do not trust that the CNC holes are wide enough. Never ever force. Because when you get stuck half way and you decide you should have drilled, getting the part out will do considerable damage. Expensive mistakes.

I decided to clean some contact points on my Vector. With the playfield up I decided to start with the flipper switches when the playfield tipped forward and came crashing down on my head. Other than a nice bump, I think my head will be ok. The Vector on the other hand is playing intermittently and rebooting during the first ball. At least I'll have something to do over the holiday season

Today I spent lunch break on a trip over to the Collective space to pull a couple boards and dig some coils out of a bin to fit them with Molex plugs. Took half an hour to chat with my pinball partner-in-crime, and returned to work.

Realized halfway home that I had forgotten to put the parts in the car.

At least they're on the table and ready to go for next time...?

At least they aren't on a box on the top of your car

Yes, one would generally consider that situation worse.

Did that too. Good bye U20. Luckily that was the only problem.

I once bought a Metallica LE and a Batman66 pinball machine. I wasn't even on hard drugs at the time.

Opened an account on pinside. Oops

I bought a vector once.

Professional restores were a waste for me. I should've found nice and clean examples and enjoyed them. I found have no need for museum pieces. Never again.

I used a floor jack to hold up my TZ as I changed out a leg. It slipped and my TZ rolled to the floor almost taking me out in the process. Amazingly, we all came out unscathed.

I had a couple friends moving a TZ a few years ago. They took it out of the truck and set it on a couple of foldable metal saw horses. One of them collapsed and it came down on the top of one of their feet. Broke a number of bones. Six weeks later it hadn't healed correctly and they had to make corrections. Took about 3 months before it was back to normal.

FWIW, the foot belonged to a doctor.

Wow! I was lucky for sure!

Ya, but did the game survive?

I had the bright idea of labeling parts using colored rubber bands with labels tied on it. The idea was great as I know what connects to what based on parts having the same color rubber band.

I know that over time rubber bands dissolve/become brittle but the bands I used already where falling into pieces within a few weeks..

Had a hell of a job finding out what part belongs to what afterwards

My biggest screw up are not buying some pins. Like the Line Drive for $125, Adams Family, $1000
and MM for $1300. All of these were years ago before prices went nuts. Groan.

Throw a bunch of pinball stuff into the garbage when it wasn't worth anything and nobody wanted it for free. Hindsight is 2021 though.

Tried to troubleshoot a score motor that would run continuously on the first EM (Capt Fantastic) that I ever owned, just added problems. Driving it to New Orleans next weekend for an actual repair by someone who know what they are doing.

I was going to say this

Carrying a pin up cellar stairs on a hot day in sandals. My feet somehow slipped out of the sandals and I slid down the concrete steps on my shins with the pin cab on my thighs: bump, scrape; bump, scratch, etc. Fortunately, it was only an EE, but my shins were not a pretty sight.