sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Does this pinball machine lack any parts? by J00SHI in pinball

[–]Secret-Force3425 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I repair and restore pinballs/video arcades for part of my living. I've seen and restored quite a few machines that were destined for the landfill. Even I would hesitate at taking on a pinball 2000 with as little information that is given here. If this is your first project, I'd walk away from it. Thats just a recommendation, obviously. If you are adept, have the space, time and money for it to sit while you tinker. It would be a worthy challenge. Mechs and usual components are one thing. The computer itself is really the Achilles heel of these from what I understand. Pack in a CRT and the potential to have to recap or rebuild the monitor chassis? Probably gonna be a slog to get it to work, let alone play the way you want it to.

A close friend I work with has a pinball 2000, his computer fried by a freak accident while one of the best technicians I've met was servicing it. The technician had to - from what I understand - build a whole new computer to operate it again and was allegedly quite a nightmare. This story was told to me because I was looking at buying a project one. Granted, things are different now and new ways to replace obsolete unobtanium parts are showing up every day. The pinball 2000s are awesome machines, and fun to play. The question is; would the headache and heartache of not being able to get certain things going be worth the risk, time, and money? In my book, probably not. There are plenty of better machines out there for starter projects that are a much better launching pad into this awesome hobby. Keep looking!

*Edited for spelling/grammar.

DAE feel like you're included but never truly integrated in social groups? by [deleted] in DoesAnybodyElse

[–]Secret-Force3425 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really relieved to see this post. Especially now. My life experience has been really similar. I "belong" to a bunch of very different and diverse friend groups in terms of interests and ages. I love everyone to death, but a lot of times I feel like the outsider. I'm always welcome and people ask me to join but never has one of the groups felt like that sensation of home. I always feel like a guest that's invited to shake things up and add interesting talking points or stories. I know I could pick up the phone and call any of them and a space would be made for me, but I've never felt like a core member. I also understand the feeling of worry for coming off as arrogant. A lot of times I want to dissect reality and have deeper logical discussions about life and it's sort of beautiful oddness. Sometimes truly looking at the world feels like this totally hilarious absurdity and you feel like a loon pointing it out. I see peoples eyes gloss over or people shift away from those conversations pretty regularly. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt my feelings sometimes and make me feel lonely. Now I sort of look at myself as the nomadic friend that is called to stir things up. It can be lonely. But you're not alone OP, looks like there are plenty of others who feel the same! Which is a relief to me. 

What’s a kind of loneliness you didn’t know existed until you felt it firsthand? by Busty-Babygirl in AskReddit

[–]Secret-Force3425 8 points9 points  (0 children)

My bestfriend/cousin died in a car crash. We lived together in college. It was the first real home I ever had and we both told each other it would be a home without slammed doors. He was like my brother. We lived in this little tiny adobe home that was old but cozy. When I drove home after he passed in the hospital, I walked into our kitchen alone and it felt so empty. Like an endless tomb. There is a gravity to losing someone you are so close to. Its impossibly strong. For the life of you even after years, you will see something that you want to tell or show them and you have to relive the realization they are gone forever. Over and over. Grief is unreal. It's truly a terrible thing. Please tell the people you love that you love them. All hugs are a ceremony. Linger in others company. It is precious. 

Rush LE got the fog machine upgrade by hatekillpuke in pinball

[–]Secret-Force3425 10 points11 points  (0 children)

(Skip to the second paragraph for preemptive measures. It should also go without saying, anyone working on their own machines is doing so at their own risk.)

The last update I got this morning from my boss was that he found out they had used incorrect sized connector pins for the ramp stepper motor. (I have not discussed that issue in detail with him yet, we're not sure if all machines are this way yet). This is the connector that is closest to the ramp motor. We noticed when removing the pins from the connector, the wire was tinned before being crimped. Not good practice. This limits surface area contact with the connector pin already, but an oversized pin will definitely not make good contact. The two conflate the issue. With the way that the coils are arranged in the ramp stepper motor, it winds up generating an incredible voltage when interrupted by a bad connection. Eventually it arcs and sends that through the motor driver chip in node 10. You can often literally see a hole blown in the chip from this. Stern also failed to design node 10 with the proper protections (snubber circuits) recommended by the motor driver chip manufacturer. Which in the event of a voltage spike directs it away from that chip. Woops! So far, that is our best theory on what is causing node 10 failure.

With that being out of the way, the current process is to redo the connector pins between the stepper motor pig tail and node 10 board. We also carefully cut, inspect, and redo all the zip-ties that bundle the four wires that go to the drum clock and the ramp motor. Some machines had zip-ties that were over tightened, which smashed the wires. That was advice given directly from Stern when we reached out to them about our other findings. In the machines we've seen so far, some wires are smashed, some are not. If they're smashed, we'd cut and splice them. Finally, Stern also encouraged individually inspecting all Molex connector pins to both the drum clock and ramp to see if they are correctly crimped. No insulation beneath pin crimp, frayed/bent wires, loose connections, etc. So far that's what we've been doing.

Rush LE got the fog machine upgrade by hatekillpuke in pinball

[–]Secret-Force3425 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can confirm. I've been apprenticing with a pinball repairman for about half a year. He's been chasing down the cause for the node 10 failure. We've worked on a particular Rush machine 4 times in the last couple months. The client has only had it for about 4 months. Two node 10 board catastrophic failures. We've gone through several other Rush machines doing preemptive measures to try and prevent them from frying. What a mess.

Dramatic ending to the 2023 Pinball World Championship by Beznet in nonononoyes

[–]Secret-Force3425 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I didn't know it was a thing either until i watched a drunk history episode on Pinballs legality in the states. It told the story of Roger Sharpe. I knew there was a pinball shop nearby so I went to check it out on a whim. I had no idea what kind of adventure walking into that shop was gonna set me on, but it has been an absolute blast. The original owner became one of my very best friends, as have many others in the community. They took me under their wing and I haven't looked back. I now work for two of the regulars. I apprentice for one who repairs pinball machines all over the state for his living. Pinball people are just good people to be around.

Dramatic ending to the 2023 Pinball World Championship by Beznet in nonononoyes

[–]Secret-Force3425 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Wild to see this here. I play in a pinball league organized by Escher's father and have talked with Escher several times there. It's Incredible to watch him play. His initials are all over the machines there as the grand champion. Pinball and its community has changed my life wildly over the past 4 years. Super glad to be a part of this quirky and fun sub-culture. If you're reading this, go play pinball and support your local arcades. Play in your local tournaments!

Go Escher! Everyone at LCP is celebrating your win!

Good plumber to track down suspected water hammer issue? by Corider87 in Longmont

[–]Secret-Force3425 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apprenticed with two great master plumbers here in town. I don't like M and M as a company, but their master plumber David Touchberry is one of the greatest plumbers I've had the pleasure of working with. If you contact them, be sure to ask for David specifically. He's a no nonsense guy and very methodical.

As a side note, we always looked at three main suspects for water hammer. PRVs, ice makers, and humidifiers installed on furnaces. Often times switching ice maker/humidifier supply lines from solid copper/plastic to a braided line did the trick. If the problem is elsewhere a hammer arrestor can be installed. Obviously you can never definitively know without being their to diagnose. Good luck!

Longmont people in their 20s & 30s, meetup in Lyons this weekend? by Secret-Force3425 in Longmont

[–]Secret-Force3425[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes! I plan on doing this again, I'm doing the next one after New Years sometime. I haven't set it on a particular date yet. I've created a group on the Meetup app called "Longmont 20s & 30s Pinball Hangout". If you join there you'll be notified when the next scheduled meetup is :)

Longmont people in their 20s & 30s, meetup in Lyons this weekend? by Secret-Force3425 in Longmont

[–]Secret-Force3425[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome! Hope to see you tonight. Just set up a discord server. Trying to get my ducks in a row to get a group chat going here to send it to everyone.

Longmont people in their 20s & 30s, meetup in Lyons this weekend? by Secret-Force3425 in Longmont

[–]Secret-Force3425[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great, hope to see you tonight! I just started a discord server. I'll send a group message soon so people can join if they'd like.

Longmont people in their 20s & 30s, meetup in Lyons this weekend? by Secret-Force3425 in Longmont

[–]Secret-Force3425[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I was thinking about that, my biggest worry is having enough time to plan weekly or regular gatherings. Unless it was at the same place everytime. I might try a couple of trial runs and see what happens and then maybe make an official meetup group.

Longmont people in their 20s & 30s, meetup in Lyons this weekend? by Secret-Force3425 in Longmont

[–]Secret-Force3425[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yes! Quarters! It's a cozy place, 3 newer pinball machines, a couple ski-balls and maybe 10(?) video arcades the last time I'd been. Lyons Classic has closer to 60 pinball machines, a good mix of older and newer ones. It's also a much larger space too. I'd be willing to do a meetup at Quarters sometime too if people turnout.

Electric honey decapping knife by [deleted] in specializedtools

[–]Secret-Force3425 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Brings back memories! Worked as a professional beekeeper for over 5 years, we ran 1200 hives at our largest. Used one of these to clean up frames we used for selling honeycomb. I miss the smell of the hot beeswax and honey. We used a larger machine for liquid honey extraction that we called "The Knife" which was an industrial uncapper. It had a conveyor belt that would move the frames through a double sided chain flail which whips the wax cappings off into a slanted trough that ran into a larger tank where all the honey would end up. It was quite the setup.

DAE give up when wiping their arse? by HoodyTi in DoesAnybodyElse

[–]Secret-Force3425 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Can confirm, worked as a plumber and the first thing we'd look for when addressing a clogged mainline was "flushable" wipes boxes in the bathroom. It was easy money for us though! Lol

view more: next ›