Carlisle, ON
Quoted from SFBP36:New to me IJPA
Gift wrapped in tape for Christmas?
(Topic ID: 28788)
Lafayette, CA
Quoted from JimWilks:Gift wrapped in tape for Christmas?
Haha the messed up thing is it actually works in this condition.
Quoted from SFBP36:New to me IJPA
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Some people should not work on pinballs lol
Quoted from Sputnik:That is even better than the machine I bought that had a flipper coil held on by a bread bag tie.
Haha that’s awesome
Quoted from Williampinball:Some people should not work on pinballs lol
i second that thought
Quoted from Tuukka:Maybe the original 1-1/4" size fuse was not available locally? And the repairman did not have (for example) a 10 amp 20mm fuse but used two 5 amp fuses in parallel instead.
Not so pretty, but sometimes you have to get the game working with the spares and tools you happen to have with you, on location.
Fine - get it running and them come back to finish the repair correctly. These "ops had to do what they had to" excuses are BS to me. Don't be lazy - go back and fix your temp repair.
Quoted from Methos:These "ops had to do what they had to" excuses are BS to me.
You shouldn't assume all the hacks you see here were done by operators. You also might want to consider the age of the game in question and how many hands it's passed through before you saw a picture of it.
When I had games out, I serviced and cleaned them once a week, whether they needed it or not. More and more operators are hobbyist today, as I was. Location maintenance has never been better. Don't be lazy and assume every hack you see here was done by an operator.
Quoted from phishrace:Don't be lazy and assume every hack you see here was done by an operator.
That's for sure.
Some of the worst hacks I've seen have been in pinball "restoration" guides and on pinball hobbyist YouTube channels.
1 week later
The "methed" up wiring job on an ESCO rotary merchandiser I picked up.
The jabroni that made this used whatever scraps of wire he had.
One wire will change FOUR times in just a short 20" run.
I tried making a schematic and seeing how it worked but so many wires that lead to nowhere, crappy butt splices, and ever-changing wire colors I just scrapped it and will be replacing the whole thing with an Arduino.
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Bordeaux
Quoted from lanfeust:And when you think you have seen everything but...no...
The wedding between a 555 and 47
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What a monstrosity, lol
Quoted from lanfeust:And when you think you have seen everything but...no...
The wedding between a 555 and 47
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Interesting.. looks like there is a resistor in there as well? was thinking maybe an old LED socket, but then, never seen a brass one. Definitely a story telling device.
Wires going up the butt of the linebacker on my Strrn NFL.
Someone hacked in a 1970s phone cord, and ran them both to ground. I’m still trying to figure out where they should actually go.
08667331-812C-4411-AB2E-8D4E2135F65A (resized).jpeg7A00340F-3D14-4894-A0FA-2D2973565E2D (resized).jpeg95B445FA-C775-4DB9-A944-4F82C06F7002 (resized).jpegC26A4A39-57D0-4E07-BFDA-B248FD4896F6 (resized).jpegQuoted from TronGuy:I’m still trying to figure out where they should actually go.
....in the garbage! 
Quoted from TronGuy:Wires going up the butt of the linebacker on my Strrn NFL.
Someone hacked in a 1970s phone cord, and ran them both to ground. I’m still trying to figure out where they should actually go.
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That looks like some of the cars people were trying to trade in when I had my car lot. It did not take me long to learn to just cringe when someone would say, " I installed a stereo in it". They were all clusterfuck installations, like your pictures.
Quoted from JethroP:....in the garbage!
well, of course the telephone wires are going in the garbage, but I need to figure out where the wires are actually supposed to go, haha.
Quoted from TronGuy:Wires going up the butt of the linebacker on my Strrn NFL.
Someone hacked in a 1970s phone cord, and ran them both to ground. I’m still trying to figure out where they should actually go.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
When using phone cords, its best to use the coiled versions for vibration resistance, pinball repair 101.
Quoted from pinballplusMN:An extra heatsink!
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does this make it super cooled? 
Stavanger
Quoted from Zigzagzag:Not a biggie, but still it surprised me when I took of the apron on a Royal Rumble (WWF) ...
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Thats a new "quick release" to speed up maintenance.
It might catch on, or not, or it dies...
Quoted from Zigzagzag:Not a biggie, but still it surprised me when I took of the apron on a Royal Rumble (WWF) ...
[quoted image]
In my professional opinion, a bamboo skewer would've been a much better choice to solve that problem. Just sayin'.
Quoted from Deleenhe:Stuffing some bare strands of wire into the female connector to improve contact I guess? Maybe some kind of strain relief? [quoted image]
A giant blob of hot glue and duct tape would have finshed the job better IMHO....
Quoted from mdo1998:Gottlieb Super Soccer, a piece of wood with a hole drilled through and then screwed-in, with a loose eraser head in drilled hole, all sits in ball catch, the ball drain; crazy enough it works fine, switch activates when ball drains as it should.
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That's very clever, but there has to be a half dozen erasers in the bottom of the cabinet from forgetting to remove it when you lift the playfield. 
Pretty funny, yea it fell out again today; just emailed an order to PBR for the two replacement plastics, $2.70 for the set, a good example of doing the right thing being much less expensive, and more effective, than the work-around, even if not as inventive. But I wanted to honor the workaround for battlefield ingenuity, as such yesterday’s post.
Perth
I'm sure we have all seen this before, but it still makes me angry.
I picked up a Bally Star Trek which is working, but all original, including I think the original playfield rubbers from 1979. I went to replace the rubbers on the kickers and when I removed the plastic I found this.
At least the kept it symmetrical and added the same numbers of nails under the other kicker plastic.
Rather than spending the $2.40 for 2 new rubbers they added 4 nails under each kicker as the rubber had lost it's tension.
Yes the play field is filthy I'm waiting on the new full set of rubber to arrive before I remove everything from the playfield and clean it up, I was just fitting some spare rubbers I had on hand as my wife wanted to play the machine and it's best if I keep her happy.
PXL_20230109_102053546(1) (resized).jpgPXL_20230109_113200710 (resized).jpg
Quoted from tmuir:Rather than spending the $2.40 for 2 new rubbers they added 4 nails under each kicker as the rubber had lost it's tension.
Actually there are supposed to be two metal pins at the rear locations. They help prevent the plastics from warping down onto the slingshot arm.
The front two nails are wrong though..
Good thing I never throw anything out. I'll clean up the correct one and reinstall it and find something appropriate for the other one. I did get a new set of plastics still in their sealed bag too when I bought the pinball. I wont fit them until I have sorted everything else.
Quoted from tmuir:Good thing I never throw anything out. I'll clean up the correct one and reinstall it and find something appropriate for the other one. I did get a new set of plastics still in their sealed bag too when I bought the pinball. I wont fit them until I have sorted everything else.
Pinball Resource sells correct replacement pins. Not sure about any AUS shop.
Quoted from Zigzagzag:Backside of my Congo driver board.
Currently waiting for a new one that I ordered ...
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That's not too bad. Got to make that money!
Quoted from Zigzagzag:Backside of my Congo driver board.
Currently waiting for a new one that I ordered ...
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The lesson is don't overfuse a pinball machine.
It's a good repair since new boards were hard to get for machines that were new. Like today with "Node" boards.
Quoted from Zigzagzag:Backside of my Congo driver board.
Screenshot_20230118-191259~2 (resized).pngQuoted from MrBally:It's a good repair since new boards were hard to get for machines that were new
My OP friend tells me ( more than once 
) of the Stern Meteor he bought at an arcade auction sometime in the 1990s for $5.00 and then parted it out. The boards were bad.
Quoted from KJS:My latest project for my small
collection is this Pinbot, worst hacks I've ever seen.
Yes that's a DE flipper board in there![quoted image][quoted image]
A Little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing...
Quoted from pinballinreno:A Little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing...
I see zero knowledge there. I mean, it goes into a connector, and they are jumping it to the other side of the connector on one side.. if this is a MM, then it would stack with madness multiball.
Quoted from Zigzagzag:Backside of my Congo driver board.
Currently waiting for a new one that I ordered ...
[quoted image]
I like the commitment to making an Octoberfest checkerboard: blue to white, white to blue, NEVER connect the same color!
Quoted from KJS:My latest project for my small
collection is this Pinbot, worst hacks I've ever seen.
Yes that's a DE flipper board in there![quoted image][quoted image]
Did he somehow hack solid state flippers into Pinbot?
Does it work?
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