Here you go Tiger!
http://www.pinball-fixers.com/PINBALL-HISTORY/tilt-mechanism.html

Also, watching Bowen's tutorials will make you want to practice 24-7..!
http://vimeo.com/user4577902/videos/

From the physical nudging of the machine's cabinet usually with your hands or a hard kick with your legs to the legs of the machine. Every machine has a tilt sensor that can be calibrated to different sensitivity levels so the force needed to tilt is different on every machine. The tilt sensor basically works like the game operation: if the bobber touches the outer ring, TILT happens.

Physically all that is happening is when you bang the machine, it causes a switch to close which puts the machine into tilt mode. So yes, you need enough physical force on the machine to mechanically close a tilt switch or move the plumb bob to contact the outer ring.

How much force is that? Like Guy said, you can basically adjust the sensitivity of the tilt switch however you want. You can set the machine to tilt with a simple nudge, or you could also set the machine to not tilt even if you pick the whole machine up. Your choice.

The machine itself isn't damaged by going into tilt mode. In fact, it's designed to protect the machine from further abuse. Any damage caused by "tilt" is going to be caused by the player's action that created the tilt scenario.

Unfortunately, if you are playing a machine for the first time, you never really know how sensitive the tilt is set.....until you cross the line. Part of the fun I guess.

Short of getting mad at a machine and shaking it, I think most people tilt when trying to save a ball from going down an outlane. Sometimes some shaking and nudging will rattle the ball around and bounce it out of trouble. I'm not exactly sure when tilt warnings were introduced, but most machines give you anywhere from one to three tilt warnings before you actually tilt the machine. You can adjust the number of warnings given in the software settings. So you can get away with some shaking to keep a ball from going down an outlane.

I'll sometimes get a tilt warning when a ball is going STDM and I try and bang the machine (or slap save) so I can get a flipper on it. I don't usually tilt the machine when doing this because it is normally just one or two quick hits.

I sometimes nudge upwards when there is a lot of sling activity to try and kill some momentum and slow things down. This doesn't usually lead to a tilt warning or tilt.

About the only time I'll tilt is when I do a successful slap save that gives a tilt warning and then try another one shortly after. The plumb bob will not have settled from the first save and since it is swinging it will easily trigger another warning or tilt. If you watch videos of some players in tournaments, you'll see they sometimes take a break after a nudge or save and let the plumb bob settle for a few seconds before going on with the game.

HOW do you do it? ....

Oops...
Nudge nudge.

nudgenudge.jpeg

Best worst question I've ever read..thx for the laugh...

hey Tiger next time when one of you machines cops an attitude and wont give you the scores that you are used to,
I want you to take 2 steps back and kick in the coin door as hard as you can- dont hold back now!
just pretend it's the 80s your at an arcade at the mall and are sporting the latest male hair craze
- the mullet

A machine has up to three tilt mechanisms: (edited normally)

1. Coin Door Slam switch - If you hit the coin door too hard with your knee etc you will set it off
2. Rolling Ball Lift switch - If you lift the machine at the front the ball will roll forward in it's rail and set it off.
3. Pendulum bob switch - This is a hanging round "pyramid" in the center of a hole. You can raise or lower it so it hangs closer or further away from it's ring. It is sensitive to all motion side to side and front to back.

Hope that helps explain it more.

Most machines don't have a rolling ball tilt switch nowadays, as far as I've seen.

TigerSaw (or maybe Elvis?) -

If you are wacking it hard enough to be fearful of breaking the machine or the glass, that's probably too aggressive. But all of those things you mention can cause a tilt.

But again, *if* those actions cause the machine to tilt can be entirely dependent upon how the owner/operator has set the tilt/slam switches.

I can set up a machine so a big guy like you can carry it around the room while it's plugged in with a game running - and you won't be able to tilt it no matter what you do.

Give me 10 more minutes, and I can set the exact same machine up to tilt the moment you lift the front legs 1/10th of an inch off the ground. So it all just depends.

Good players figure out how sensitive the tilt is set (via the tilt warning), and just work as close to that as they can.

Stern has even made the coin door slam tilt switch optional now days. Cut costs wherever possible I guess.

It should also be noted that a regular tilt will make you lose your current ball and any bonus you have accumulated. A slam tilt from banging the coin door will end the current game entirely.

Some EM machines will end the game entirely when tilted.

I thought I answered this fairly well with my earlier post? You can give it a shake or nudge to prevent balls from going down the outlanes. You can slap save or bang the machine to try and get a flipper on a ball that may be draining. We're talking about smacking and nudging the machine with our hands. If you are lifting, kicking, or body slamming a machine, you'll probably find the same thing being done to you by the machine's owner.

I honestly don't see how you would just flip a table over by accident. I don't care how strong you are, I can't see anyone just tossing over 250-300 pounds without intending to

To tilt: When playing I rest the corners of the machine in the palms of my hand. This gives me the best grip on the machine, while still being able to hit the flippers with my fingers. I then am able to move the machine physically using the grip I've established on the corner of the machine. If I move the machine too much, it tilts. Make sense?

I think the confusion in this thread stems from terminology. I think what you're call "tilting" is properly called "nudging".

Nudging (or other more specific terms for specific kinds of nudging/shaking/etc) refers to ways of shaking, nudging, whacking, or otherwise applying force to the machine to change the course of the ball.

A "Tilt" is the penalty applied if you nudge the machine too hard and trigger the tilt sensor.

So people think you're asking how to trigger the tilt sensor on a pinball machine (which is easy, just shove it until it tilts)

How to nudge?

The general tricks are:

Slap save - when a ball is heading towards the center drain just a little too far for the flipper to reach it, you hit the closest flipper while nudging it, and then immediately do the same in the other direction with the other flipper, the hope being that the nudge brings the tip of the flipper into contact with the ball while you're flipping - this will likely send it toward the very tip (or just beyond the tip) of the other flipper, so you do the same thing to try to catch it with the tip of the other flipper, hopefully keeping the game in play.

Shaking - give the game a gentle upward shake when the ball is in a set of bumpers to get more action. More useful on some machines that others.

Bangbacks/deathsaves - wizard technique for getting a ball that goes down the outlanes to jump back up onto the flippers. I can't pull this off, but if you've ever seen those little bars on the playfield right under the flippers - they're there to prevent deathsaves and bangbacks.

Also there are game-specific reasons to nudge, you might find that the ball in a certain area tends to drain, but find that you can give it a nudge at the right time to divert the ball on a more desirable course. On my TZ, a slow, gentle roll along the two greed targets to the left of the slot machine is a certain drain, but a nudge to the left will ensure that it instead hits the left flipper.

How hard to nudge? Hard enough to achieve your goal, but not so hard that you get a "TILT" and get the ball ended. On machines that don't have working tilt sensors, just respect the machine and avoid damaging it.

DrAzzy - very nice info

Hey Nimble, Thats a recycled Pic. You've used that before!! and you forgot the wink wink.
I'm a little disappointed.

I'm accustom to non-recycled nimble pics..

And how many times have we seen the Capt. Picard facepalm pic? One would be really appropriate here.

I'm a little disappointed.

And how many times...

Would a ride on my Panda cheer you guys up???

wesperronponyride.jpg

"I can't DRIVE, 2.fiiiiivvvvvvveeeeee!!!!"

Still, you'd have to intend to tip a pin. Tilt is just nudging enough to effect the ball. What you're talking about is kind ridiculous, really. Flip the machine? C'mon now.

I'm actually not sure if you're serious

There is a video on Youtube that shows a jackass tipping over a
Rolling stones Pin maybe thats what you would like to see or
Todd Tuckey throwing Pins and Arcade machines off the roof
Is that what you want!
Here you go this is Tilting

When the ball heads to the outlane you'll find it a good time to nudge/whack the game to try to get some play off the post rubbers to hopefully bounce it out of there. Some will give the side of the game a whack. Some will also give a bump to the lock down bar pushing the game slightly forward.

Thanks. Much better.

That video made my stomach hurt.