The danger of working on pinballs

[The Pinball Shed]

I have been playing around with pinballs for almost 20 years now. Today, two things happened to me that really made me think about all the newer pinball owners working on their own games.

 

Having 2 very young children, I try and be extra careful, working around electricity.

I was working on an older Williams solid state game today, I was removing a burnt out knocker coil with the playfield raised and the power turned off at the cabinet switch. The knocker is located halfway down the lefthand side of the cabinet beside the power line filter. Not thinking, I started removing the knocker assembly screws with screwdriver when the assembly fell and pushed the screwdriver onto a live 240v terminal. Lucky for me, I have a very good safety cutout switch in the fusebox. This is dangerous location for the knocker assembly and I should have unplugged the power at the wall.

 

Then less then 20 mins later, I was rebuilding a pop bumper on an old em pinball, these have very old and thick solder, heating the solder to remove the gi wires was taking ages, I pull the wire as I heated, flicking hot solder into my eyelid. What a stupid thing to do, it really hurts when that happens, would have been bad if it burnt my eyeball.

 

It goes to show, that we all must be very careful working on our games, if in doubt about any live wires, just unplug and be extra safe to live another day.

[Arcade King]

And wear safety goggles when soldering ;) All sound advice.

[Fish Tales]

I allways turn off at the mains, I didnt allways, and have learnt by a small buzz lol

[Arcade King]

Woka just tests it with his mouth.

[narf_]

i always unplugg at the mains

 

ive learnt to never trust a switch recently

[poindexter]

Unplug from the mains, don't trust anybody.

Who knows if the switch or the machine are wired switching neutral.

[bigdaddy]

Great message. Just when you think your an expert at something it sneaks up and bites you on the arse. Or flicks you in the eye...

 

Safety begins at home an really there is really no such things as accidents just events that were not under control.

Edited May 19, 2009 by bigdaddy
spelling. Skool Taut me nofin

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Tony you are simply getting old

I will take all your machine off your hands so you do not injure yourself again :)

[IMPURE]

Woka just tests it with his mouth.

 

BAHAHAHAHA id forgotten about that :lol

[MrMaloo]

Glad to hear that you're OK Tony ....

 

Yes electricity is an invisible danger that you usually only get one chance with (lucky for you , you had a RCD installed ). Good reminder to us all to be extra vigilant and remove all sources of power by unplugging machines before maintenance.

 

You should go and buy a lottery ticket Tony .... And if you win a million $ then you can shout all of us 1 pinny each ... :lol

[stuba]

shit T

hope that wasn't a disco fever that nearly cooked you ;) had a couple of close calls myself lately. RCD's! or residual current devices save lives - install them if you don't have em guys and I also use one of those live wire buzzers, it's a good habit to get into into.

[Fair Dinkum Dan]

Thanks for posting this Tony. Some very good advice by other members too.

 

Working on pinball machines must always be treated with caution and safe working practices.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[The Pinball Shed]

Glad to hear that you're OK Tony ....

 

Yes electricity is an invisible danger that you usually only get one chance with (lucky for you , you had a RCD installed ). Good reminder to us all to be extra vigilant and remove all sources of power by unplugging machines before maintenance.

 

You should go and buy a lottery ticket Tony .... And if you win a million $ then you can shout all of us 1 pinny each ... :lol

 

 

Yes I will do that tomorrow and if I win it will be drinks and pins all round.

 

shit T

hope that wasn't a disco fever that nearly cooked you ;) had a couple of close calls myself lately. RCD's! or residual current devices save lives - install them if you don't have em guys and I also use one of those live wire buzzers, it's a good habit to get into into.

 

No Stu, it was the World Cup thats now on ebay. I haven't got to those ones of yours yet.

 

Thanks for posting this Tony. Some very good advice by other members too.

 

Working on pinball machines must always be treated with caution and safe working practices.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

 

We all can't thank you enough Dan for all your help to any body in need. Also a big thanks for posting all those pictures from the weekend. I'm disappointed that I missed catching up with everybody.

[candyflip]

No Stu, it was the World Cup thats now on ebay. I haven't got to those ones of yours yet.

 

 

So the World Cup is 'used' and perhaps 'dangeous' now, and you can let me have it for half price! :D

[coolspot]

there's a big danger working on ems getting hit on the head by the playfield

[hamish_nz]

nothing like the tingle of 240v

 

I love how some of the old EM's had 240v at the coin door

[Fish Tales]

nothing like the tingle of 240v

 

I love how some of the old EM's had 240v at the coin door

 

yep, and how scarey is that!

[Talby]

I've had a couple of those buzz's but stupidly thought, fuck what was that and touched it again to make sure I was getting buzzed. Checked the switch was off....yep it was so checked it again....BUZZ. :o

 

At that point I thought better of it and totally unplugged the machine and walked away for a couple of hours. Only took three hits but hey I'm a slow learner.

 

I wasn't aware that there could still be live bits and pieces under the playfield even when the machine is switched off.

 

Good to hear everyone is safe and sound and hopefully a little bit wiser at the end of the day.

 

P.S. Good to hear that there was no damage to the machine either. :)

[stuba]

I've had a couple of those buzz's but stupidly thought, fuck what was that and touched it again to make sure I was getting buzzed. Checked the switch was off....yep it was so checked it again....BUZZ. :o

 

At that point I thought better of it and totally unplugged the machine and walked away for a couple of hours. Only took three hits but hey I'm a slow learner.

 

I wasn't aware that there could still be live bits and pieces under the playfield even when the machine is switched off.

 

 

shit yes! sometimes the ops rewire them to bypass the on/off switch (and line fuses even). never trust that the wiring you are working on is to orig spec especially in older machines (EM's).

[Talby]

shit yes! sometimes the ops rewire them to bypass the on/off switch (and line fuses even). never trust that the wiring you are working on is to orig spec especially in older machines (EM's).

 

Funny you should mention that Stu.........

 

This was one that I stumbled across a while ago. You may notice a nasty little wire bypassing the fuse that wasn't in there. They are out there so just beware.

[stuba]

Funny you should mention that Stu.........

 

This was one that I stumbled across a while ago. You may notice a nasty little wire bypassing the fuse that wasn't in there. They are out there so just beware.

 

looks like they used fuse wire to do it but 'dodgy as'. those line fuse holders are crappy units, i prefer to be able to see the fuse like in the older machines. the prob with that is that you have to cycle it (pull out and re-insert) to check the fuse. I guess its safer because it lives in a box and no danger of dropping something on it but the prob with that is unsuspecting joe pulls the line fuse to isolate something and its not really isolated....

[pieces]

I wouldnt take the RCD for granted Eg I can be slack and it will save me .

 

You might find you self at a site that dosnt have a RCD one day .:059:

[Ric]

I got zapped whilst working on my Roller Disco

 

the machine was off but plugged in

 

scared the living crap out of me.

 

I never work on machines plugged in now unless I absolutely have to to diagnose a problem - just not worth the risk - and the first thing I had inmstalled in the workshop was a safety switch - you only get one life

[poindexter]

My Dad takes the cake.

The globe in the fridge blew.

He took the globe out and stuck his finger in the hole. He said he knew it was a bad thing to do, but did it anyway and of course got booted. Makes you wonder, he is a Principal of a large School.

Luckily he has an RCD.

[TheYellowDart]

While it is good to see the message of safety reinforced in this thread I think it is important to point out that an RCD/Safety Switch will not protect you from all types of electric shock. They only protect against faults which return via earth but not faults which return via the neutral or adjacent phases. As far as an RCD or Circuit Breaker is concerned in these fault situations you would appear as quite an insignificant balanced load and it would not trip.

 

Also as has been said, unless absolutely necessary always unplug the cord from the socket outlet. This will protect you in case of switched neutrals which would leave a live active inside your machine even with all switches turned off. It will also protect you against a rise in earth potential if your MEN link is faulty, though this is unlikely unless you happen to be working on your machine during an electrical storm or a large earth fault occurs nearby.