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Health warning re. 1990’s Bally Williams playfield ratchets

VeeMonroe

VeeMonroe

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Vee’s husband, with my worst pinball related injury to date…









I have had a number of problems with the ratchets holding up Bally/Williams playfields - it seems awfully difficult to get the thing to stay up securely. Fish Tales has fallen down a few times, but my AFM looked a bit more secure. We are installing the saucer mods, so I need to resolder some GI under the playfield. Up it goes, and I am setting up the soldering station in the bottom of the cab because the mains cable is long and the iron cable is short.

CRASH. Underside of playfield to the temple, complete with the usual sharp objects. 4-fold kitchen towel bled through, but a bath towel works. Now posting from the ambulance on the way to A&E (no blue lights - it isn’t that bad).

If you have any doubt at all about the quality of the ratchets, use something else to secure the playfield before you put your head under it...
 
It sounds to me you are not engaging the latches when raising the playfield?!

Are you just resting it against the wood shelves below?

Assume there's supposed to be a picture but nothing is showing.

Hope all is ok.
 
That era of pins should lock and the centre of gravity means once they're up they won't fall. They lean against the backbox.

I had Black Rose fall on me (and nearly Diner) because they're on a pivot, so if you're pushing on the bottom of the pf it'll tip forward.

Are you sure it was locked forward and it wasn't just lifted on the rails or held by the prop?

Hope the injury isn't too bad, I always wondered what would happen if a playfield fell on you before you could stop it like I did on Rosie.. still the canon mech gave me a little cut !
 
No picture, but husband has had three staples put in his head (I can provide pictures...)

He reports being 90% okay and seems in good spirits.
 
Ouch, worst iv ever heard of is a friends TZ back box falling down mid game play (as was not secured at the back with the latch) that made a BANG lol)
 
That sounds pretty scary Vee, you will be triple checking in the future if it is secure before venturing underneath the playfield.
Hopefully Johns head heals fairly quickly with no long term damage.
 
I’ve a broomstick in my pin room as a back up for games I don’t trust, always imagine it dropping on my fingers!
 
VeeMonroe said:
Fish Tales has fallen down a few times,
Click to expand...

A few times ….Seriously ??? Something isn’t right with either the machine or your method. If the lift mech is locked and it’s leaning fully against the backbox in the correct way it really should not just fall.

I think I have had only one fall down on me in many years of tinkering - and that was my own stupid fault as too lazy to pull the machine out to get more head room for a full playfield raise I propped it up badly then carelessly knocked the prop out 🙄

Hope your injury isn’t too serious . Do be careful - these are big lumps of wood and metal to have falling on you.
 
I seem to remember tales of @Poibug ending up stuck in a cab..... but i'll let him tell that one ;) :D

Hope Hubby is on the mend soon!
 
VeeMonroe said:
Fish Tales has fallen down a few times
Click to expand...
Definitely sounds like your not doing it right. As people have said pull it right out first until you hear the click then push it back towards the backbox.

If your that accident prone I'd be tempted to give it two or three rounds of gaffer tape around back box and top of playfield.
 
Ouch! AFM has to be one of the lightest playfields I have lifted, imagine if it was a STTNG or TZ🤯
Hope he is ok.

Working on EBD and like it at this angle, accident waiting to happen. Hopefully my head will not damage it too much😂
 

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Arv said:
Here's a good idea that's on that pinside thread you mentioned:

View attachment 199137
Click to expand...
Thanks, folks. This is just what Jon was hoping for out of the thread he started, I think - some ideas for how to safely keep the playfield up in future (also, possibly, some bragging rights on pinball-related injuries - I don't know).

He was checked out at Lewisham A&E last night, is fully conscious and seems to have escaped with only a few staples and a bad headache.

We are deploying dark humour. I've suggested we should pick another expensive, dangerous hobby - like downhill skiing. We've also got an auxiliary power source to connect to CFTBL at some point, so he's going to go for a hat trick by being electrocuted with 240V.
 
VeeMonroe said:
Thanks, folks. This is just what Jon was hoping for out of the thread he started, I think - some ideas for how to safely keep the playfield up in future
Click to expand...

As been said - if everything is working and the playfield raised to the correct position there really should be very little chance of it falling down …. you have had it happen multiple times with 2 Williams machines ….???? Something isn’t right
 
You should address what everyone is saying, there's got to be something wrong with your games or your technique.
I've never ever had our fish tales playfield fall and I've worked on it a lot.

Sounds like something is wrong and you're at risk of this happening again.
 
Yes, machine okay as it was on me 🙃
Delivered it back to the customer too.
Just hope my neighbours didn't witness it.
Made redundant last week so will have some rest time.
Sorry to derail the thread
 
The first thing you do in a situation like that is hope nobody has seen it then the pain kicks in😮‍💨
Then it’s whats got damaged.
Sorry to hear you got laid off☹️ Happened to me a few times in the past, not nice.
 
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