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How To: Unbox and Setup a Pinball Machine (Point of View Camera)

Flip n Out Pinball·video·40m 2s·analyzed·Jun 19, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.020

TL;DR

Step-by-step POV tutorial on unboxing, assembling, and powering on a new Stern pinball machine.

Summary

Comprehensive unboxing and setup tutorial for a Stern Black Knight Limited Edition pinball machine, featuring point-of-view camera footage. Covers leg installation, leveling, backbox assembly, playfield inspection, glass handling, ball preparation, and initial power-on configuration. Intended as educational content for first-time pinball machine owners.

Key Claims

  • Stern Black Knight LE comes with factory shaker motor and upgraded subwoofer system for Limited Edition models

    high confidence · Host visually identifies components in coin box: 'there is a factory shaker motor for the LEs as well as upgraded subwoofer system'

  • Stern no longer includes power cord for bill acceptor in standard machine packages; must request from distributor

    high confidence · Host states: 'in the past Stern has put in a power cord for a bill acceptor for those that are going to put their pinball machines on location. They no longer provide that'

  • Standard playfield slope regulation on most pinball machines is approximately 6.5 degrees

    high confidence · Host: 'every designer is different how they want their machines but for the most part that's probably pretty good regulation on most pinball machines is a six and a half degree slope on the playfield'

  • New pinball balls arrive with protective oil coating to prevent rust and scratching

    high confidence · Host: 'one of the things you want to make sure on the pinballs as you're getting them out that they're going to come with a coating of oil so that they don't rust or scratch up'

  • Stern provides instruction guides with new machines covering maintenance, glass care, and lockdown bar operation

    high confidence · Host identifies included documentation: 'usually I'll get them, you can't get them too tight because they're a new cabinet... you have instructions how often you should clean it your once a month maintenance'

  • This Black Knight LE unit was manufactured May 10th, 2019 and is unit #256 of limited production

    high confidence · Host reads serial number and certificate: 'It shows that this game was made May 10th 2019... This is a 256'

Notable Quotes

  • “Unboxing a pinball machine is really not that bad. It's a little intimidating for the price you put into it and the weight of it and the collectability. But it really, really is not that bad. With most things, I tell people if I can do it, then you most certainly can as well.”

    Flip n Out Pinball host@ 4:48 — Addresses first-time buyer anxiety about unboxing an expensive, heavy machine; positions the task as accessible to non-professionals

  • “With some of the stern machines or any pinball machine that you buy brand new, there will be a rough textured powder coat. Those are pretty durable. Powder coat in general is pretty durable, but for these, since they are powder coated and they get that metallic flake, you just want to be careful not to bang around and hit them on things.”

    Flip n Out Pinball host@ 6:36 — Provides care guidance for cosmetic cabinet finishes on new machines

  • “I cannot recommend that you do this by yourself. Unbox many machines. I guess I'm a professional do it with a friend have some fun with it. Just be careful”

    Flip n Out Pinball host@ 16:31 — Safety recommendation: strongly advises against solo setup of machines, even for experienced operators

  • “It's got a wire holder. There you go. to plug into your wall outlet... Do not over tighten those. There's no need. Just make sure they're nice and snug.”

    Flip n Out Pinball host@ 26:22 — Practical assembly guidance emphasizing proper torque specifications to avoid damage

  • “This glass can slide down and out. is an expensive piece of glass to go breaking and you're going to have little bitty diamond pieces of glass everywhere. It's going to be hard to get out.”

    Flip n Out Pinball host@ 30:49 — Emphasizes fragility and cost of backglass replacement; reinforces careful handling procedures

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyFlip n Out PinballcompanyBlack Knight Limited EditiongameGary SternpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyKenwoodcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern changed parts/accessory strategy: no longer includes bill acceptor power cord in standard shipments; buyers must request from distributor if needed for location operation

    high · Host: 'in the past Stern has put in a power cord for a bill acceptor for those that are going to put their pinball machines on location. They no longer provide that'

  • ?

    community_signal: Educational tutorial content addressing first-time pinball machine owners; designed to reduce unboxing anxiety and build confidence in setup process

    high · Host repeatedly emphasizes accessibility: 'With most things, I tell people if I can do it, then you most certainly can as well'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Black Knight LE includes factory shaker motor and upgraded Kenwood speakers plus upgraded subwoofer system not present in standard versions

    high · Host identifies in coin box: 'there is a factory shaker motor for the LEs as well as upgraded subwoofer system' and notes 'Kenwood speakers. That's an upgrade for the limited edition'

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern machines ship with protective packaging and quality control; host notes smooth unboxing experience with Black Knight LE and minimal loose components

    medium · Host: 'Black Knight doesn't look like it has much' loose; playfield inspection shows 'looks pretty good' with no damage observed

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.120

0:00
We're here to show you how to unbox a pinball machine. Now this is a Stern Black Knight Limited Edition and I've got a little point of view camera for you so you can follow along with everything that I am seeing as we unbox this game. Alright, some of the things you're going to want and need when you're unboxing a pinball machine is a nice stool. You're going to have a stool, a 5-8 socket set, and a knife. First thing we're going to do is we're going to cut the straps off right here. It is on a pallet. We're going to cut the straps off and then take it off of the pallet so it's easier to maneuver. You're going to want to watch out because whenever you do cut those, they do tend to fly off. Okay. Okay, give me extra stuff up here. Another important thing to consider when you're unboxing a pinball machine is where you're cutting the box. Now you see along the sides here it says, truck this side only. This is going to be the bottom of the pinball machine. This is the panel that we are going to cut out to expose the bottom of that pinball machine. You'll see on the sides it says, do not truck from this side and so forth. So again, we're going to cut right along the side of the box. up the top first. There are going to be staples on top. You've got to be careful with those because as you're unboxing they tend to fly around
2:47
now let's cut the sides Now as I said earlier, you can, after you cut those straps off, you can actually get it off of the pallet if you want. We didn't do that, but when you're bringing this down, be careful because there are legs that are loose right here.
3:25
Bring it down. We're going to take these legs and just lay them down. And get them out of the way. Alright.

  • “If the game is on, there's high power right there you can get shocked if you touch that so just bam bam bam bam all the balls will come out”

    Flip n Out Pinball host@ 32:36 — Safety warning about electrical hazard when manipulating playfield with powered machine

    • 3:38
    That's the bottom of the pinball machine. What is it? As you see, first thing we see when we look in here, you do not, I repeat, do not take this off yet.
    3:52
    We'll remove some of this, some of the packaging. Okay. Oh, look at it back in there. Peek-a-boo. The next thing you're going to want to do as you're unboxing your pinball machine, up Up here you're going to see the bolts are in. You're going to take those out. Sometimes they are a little bit tight so don't be worried about that. Get them loose. Unboxing a pinball machine is really not that bad. It's a little intimidating for the price you put into it and the weight of it and the collectability. But it really, really is not that bad.
    5:03
    With most things, I tell people if I can do it, then you most certainly can as well. Okay, so we've got all four off. One of the things to look at, they have washers now in here. This is to protect your legs. This will eat right into that powder coat leg as you're tightening it. So before we put the legs on, we're going to want to make sure those washers are in there to prevent from that rubbing. Make sense? Alright, let's get into our legs. Look at that. Mmm.
    6:14
    Ooh, little gold flakes in there. Beautiful. Now, with some of the stern machines or any pinball machine that you buy brand new, there will be a rough textured powder coat. Those are pretty durable. Powder coat in general is pretty durable, but for these, since they are powder coated and they get that metallic flake, you just want to be careful not to bang around and hit them on things.
    7:12
    As we're setting up the four legs, We're going to level the machine once we get it all up, but for now that we know that two of them up front, in the front of the game, are going to be all the way flat to the ground for the most part. The two in the back may have just a little bit of incline, not too much. every designer is different how they want their machines but for the most part that's probably pretty good regulation on most pinball machines is a six and a half degree slope on the playfield i like to line those up see how even we are there looks like this one needs to go up just a hair or one. Tighten up that nut there so it won't go anywhere. Okay now we've got our legs. Okay, just like so. Looky there. Usually I'll get them, you can't get them too tight because they're a new cabinet. Like that. Now when tightening these things there's a trick to it. It's not rocket science but you want to make sure that you're putting some support with your hand over here just because you don't want it hanging by itself when you tighten it you want to
    9:14
    make sure don't tighten the top and all the way you get the other one until it starts getting snug and you go back and forth so that both of those bolts are supporting this leg evenly.
    9:39
    And again, you don't want to go into the cabinet too, too much. Okay you have to excuse my fumbling bumbling I have somewhat of a helmet cam on here It hard to see a lot Okay same thing I supporting it with my hand here hand tightening them We come around this
    10:25
    snug without crunching the cabinet all up. That's good. So now that our legs, front legs are on the machine, we're going to lower the machine down onto those front legs. you may want at this point to have some help because pinball machines can be a bit heavy but you're going to lower it down
    11:08
    okay now you can admire the beautiful artwork oh man that is fantastic you're going to have instructions how often you should clean it your once a month maintenance the latches and lockdown bars of how you keep that lockdown bar on taking the glass out as well as a number of other rules and how to's and everything else I'm going to set that to the side But it's nice, check this out. If you're a first time person doing this, it gives you a nice little setup on a how to guide to set up your pinball machine. It's really nice that Stern does it. For now we're going to set this to the side otherwise you wouldn't be watching this tutorial. part, we're going to have to get the back legs onto the back of the pinball machine. Right now we have a box in the way so it would be advantageous for me to cut the rest of that box down. Just like we did in the front, I'm going to cut the back of the box.
    12:43
    My cutting wasn't very good. Oh, my cutting was horrible. Okay, here's one. Wow. Good thing I'm not keeping the box.
    13:13
    Some of you may want to actually keep the box that it comes in. Okay, so now we... Now you see that the back of the game is exposed. We have plenty of room. We're going to want to move all of this rubbish out of the way. we've still got that pallet on so for the those of you who kept the pallet on just be mindful of that next next step you're going to i would recommend you having help because we're going to lift the back of the machine up we're going to stick this stool under it to support it while we put the legs on also you'll want to put it in front of the game a bit because whenever you lift this up you are going to be going forward that way you have your stool right there you don't want to be reaching for your stool as you uh as you get the game up okay let's do this I lift from under right under there. See if I can do it with the helmet came on. Bear with me guys.
    14:51
    See I've got this supported. grab my stool you're going to want to put it right in the middle come on stool, there you go see how it's right in the middle of the machine half on half off, you just want to make sure that is sturdy before you go trying to put the legs on Same as the front. That's what you don't want to do those with. We take the back bolts off. As I'm tightening down, I'm picking this leg up. A little snug there. I'll snug the bottom and then I'll snug the top a little bit, bottom until I know that It is tight without being too tight.
    16:25
    We're almost there, guys. See, this isn't bad so far. Again, I cannot recommend that you do this by yourself.
    16:35
    Unbox many machines. I guess I'm a professional do it with a friend have some fun with it. Just be careful
    16:45
    These plastics right here These protect the legs whenever you're tightening it protect the legs from wearing into that cabinet so that long-term Very nice.
    17:03
    Again, as a reminder, we do have those washers on there to protect those powder coated legs. Holding the leg up, providing leg support upward as we tighten those top bolts.
    17:26
    Okay, now that we have that done, we're going to remove the stool. The best way for me to explain to remove the stool, I always take a hand over here, lift it up from the side, pull the stool out, and then set it back down. up, pulling the stool out, and allowing it to come right back down. Okay. As you can see, our machine is now on four legs. Now if you have a friend, now might be the time to pick the machine up, remove all the boxing and all the packaging so that you can pull the head up. For the purposes of this video, we are simply going to set it up where it's at so that you can see the process. Okay.
    18:29
    So we're looking back here. We still have the strap. This is what was holding the head up as it was in the vertical position. We're going to cut that.
    18:38
    And then you see your keys are right here. It says do not use this as a handle. Looks nice. We're going to cut those keys off so we can access that. Inside there, we're going to find a coin box with the balls, the tilt bob, everything we need. But these head bolts right here, we need these head bolts. Those are in the coin door. As we fold this up, we're going to have to apply the head bolts right there to secure that head. So let's go ahead and cut, do the honors. Here we go. Black Knight. Sword of Rage. Okay. Now the head is free, free moving. Take this off. Make sure to take this one off as well. We don't want anything getting in the way as we're putting the head down.
    19:57
    It shows that this game was made May 10th 2019 If you guys ever want to know where The serial number is on your pinball machine It inside the coin Door you can see it as well as right there My camera's not very happy, but all the information is right there
    20:17
    Let's lift this head up shall we Now it'll sit there by itself But it is not secure See It is not secure at all But I want to look at this thing Oh man That mirrored back glass back there The certificate of authenticity signed by Gary Stern Showing the number of the limited production model This is a 256 Whew You've got your Beautiful gold plate Your Kenwood speakers. That's an upgrade for the limited edition, your LCD monitor. And we'll peek down here.
    21:05
    All right. Before we put those head bolts in, we're going to read this. It congratulates us on the new HD glass that Stern sells. This is a glass that shows little reflection as we have the pinball machine on. So it tells you how to clean. You want to make sure you get ammonia free glass cleaner and we'll put that into our directions and then this one says congratulations on your new stern pinball machine be informed of the latest code updates so you can register your game with your serial number okay this is this is what dreams are made of everybody look this room really has been putting together some nice packages here it's got the side art that you see, factory all kinds of goodies in here sorry, I could sit here and look at this all day, the upper play field the black knight toy with his flail ok now to cut the keys off The easiest thing to do is to use some side cuts.
    22:23
    You can use a knife, but you just got to be careful because the minute you slip and hit the decal, the powder coat, you just want to do a nice, easy snip there.
    22:35
    Right on that zip tie. There you go. There's going to be two sets of keys. One of the sets of keys goes to the coin door here. One of the sets of keys is going to go to the back box up there.
    22:48
    Let's see which one's left. There we go. As you're coming into the coin door here, you're going to see the coin box. That's where most of your goodies are at. But there's a pin back here. This pin is holding this into place so you can't get this out without removing this pin. Remove the pin. As you're taking out your coin box, be careful not to scrape it along the sides here over time. That will wear it out. If you see in there, there is a factory shaker motor for the LEs as well as upgraded subwoofer system. You got a goodie bag way in the back there. This is where you put your tilt bob. Right there. So we're gonna install that as well. Let's see what all is in a goodie box here
    23:49
    Those are where to receive code updates we have our power cord This hooks into the back of the machine to power the game now in the past Stern has Put in a power cord for a bill acceptor for those that are going to put their pinball machines on location They no longer provide that so if you need one tell your distributor that you're going to be putting it on location and That you're going to need one of those cords. We'll hook that up
    24:22
    Everything very organized in here. It's very nice. There's your tilt Bob I Had to guess this is the screws that we're going to need for the back box and There's one there's two that's it
    24:38
    And then these should be our pinballs one of the things you want to make sure on the pinballs as you're getting them out
    24:46
    That they're going to come with a coating of oil so that they don't rust or scratch up Make sure the old dog doesn't eat that And the expensive vet bill Okay So we're going to rinse these off the best way to do just no soap No, nothing like that. Just rinse them off microfiber towel. Just keep wiping rubbing wiping rubbing Until you can get them clean make sure they are very dry before you put them into the game We'll get to that in a second So for now, we've got our two screws and our power cord You want to make sure as you're putting these in they go in easy. If they're binding for any reason, you're going to want to shift this head left to right, front to back just a hair until they go in freely and easily. You do not want to force these bolts or something else is going wrong. Now tip here, you can get your 5 eighths and tighten those up, but do not over tighten those. There's no need. Just make sure they're nice and snug. Here is just not quite enough finger tug, but we'll tighten those up in a bit. The power cord goes right back here. Then it's got a wire holder. There you go. to plug into your wall outlet. The next thing for us to do is to somewhat inspect the game. We'll take this off here.
    26:48
    A piece of tape. That's nice. Look at that bag glass. Wow. Okay. The next step is to inspect it. We're going to do that by taking out the glass. I'm going to clean the balls off and we'll install those. We're just going to make sure nothing's loose. On a lot of these games you're going to get out of the box, not just Black Knight. Black Knight doesn't look like it has much, but there may be Star Foam for shipping purposes so that things don't jostle loose. So you're going to want to make sure that there's nothing. I know in Jersey Jack games in the very back, you're going to want to remove a shipping block behind the playfield. You're just going to want to pull up the playfield and inspect to make sure nothing's loose and nothing is damaged. First looks, this looks pretty good. Now these keys for the head, I'll show you guys. They go right here. comes folds down that's cable so you don't have to worry about it hitting the glass there this is where your display is at this your board is back here this is your power supply here this is responsible for power to the boards as well and any accessories that you have oftentimes Sometimes toppers, etc. Or in the spaces there. To lift up the back glass, it sits on this tray.
    28:43
    You're going to very carefully pick it up, pull it out, and then support the heck out of it because you do not want to break that.
    28:51
    As you see back there, we've got a board. Not much in them anymore. They're very powerful systems. and then whenever you're putting this back into you're going to go slide it up into there and then push it back set it down usually i'll give like a little little tug to make sure it is in that tray you lift this back up and then these keys they've got a nice nifty little place in the cooling door for them. See it right there in the little hook. Perfect. Alright, and that's that. Now to take out the glass, I want you to do this. There are two latches, one up here and one over here. They're going to come up. I feel it right here with my monofilament. I don't know if you guys can see that. Maybe. It just a latch It goes essentially it goes up it clips in and then it pushes down You remove it by clipping it out and this will come up and then it loosen up It's hard to show that with my... The head came, the bottom comes out, there we go, and then the top comes up and over. See that hook? So, you go all the way up. When you're tightening it down, it'll hook in there and then you secure it by pressing that down. Comes up just like that. Now the lock down bar is free. Take it from both sides here, pick it up. Now make sure you secure this glass. This glass can slide down and out. is an expensive piece of glass to go breaking and you're going to have little bitty diamond pieces of glass everywhere. It's going to be hard to get out. So you're going to, I always secure my hand here while I'm putting the lockdown bar away. Make sure your next step, make sure to close the coin door and secure it before pulling this glass out. Now slide the glass down. Always make sure that the glass is you don't want the glass going down because it could snap my trick is to rest it on my knee as I'm pulling it out another thing to always make sure is when you're putting this glass when you're looking under the playfield put this glass somewhere safe do not sit it on anything hard. Do not sit it on concrete. I'm going to find a soft spot for this to sit while we're inspecting the playfield. Now, usually I'll just go through, hands it up a little bit, just to make sure that there's nothing loose jostling around. For the video purposes here, I will not go into all of that, but just, you're just going to go through and make sure nothing's loose. No screws or anywhere or anything like that. Okay. Now when you're lifting up this playfield, if you have the game playing, make sure when you're lifting up the playfield that you get the balls out first. The balls can be taken out. The best way to do it, I find, is that there is a little plunger right there. That's what kicks your balls out. So have the game off. If the game is on, there's high power right there you can get shocked if you touch that so just bam bam bam bam all the balls will come out and make sure put those balls up before you go lift in the playfield otherwise you're gonna lift the play field and the balls are gonna come tumbling they could break plastics you don't want any of that when you're lifting in the play field this your apron hand right here pull it up and there's gonna be service rails that you can then hold on to. You can pull it out into one of the service positions. There's a little bump there. Go down and see it will sit nicely on there. That way if you need to get back in here, you can get back in there. If you need to take the playfield out, there's a handle for that. If you ever need to take the entire playfield out, you shouldn't have to do that much. When you are sliding in and out the machine make sure not to shift it left or right or you could eat up your R blades
    33:39
    Okay, now if we want in the next position we continue to pull out Don't pull too hard because there's once you just feel a slight stop you're at that set position You're gonna lift it all the way up with both hands
    33:54
    And you can see where this rail is going See it there? It's got a little bit more room before it has the stoppers here. So you can kind of shimmy it back to there and then let it rest up top. See that? It's resting. Now this is the service position where you can come in if you need to fix a switch, whatever you need to do. So here's our goody bag. Extra plastics, different pricing cards, decals, manuals showing you where the node boards are at, any of the repair stuff. So that's that. When you're pulling this back down, you're going to take both hands. You're going to come down like this, just like you went up. And then you're going to slide it back. When you slide it back, you're going to feel a stop right there. Now this is a little bump. You're going to come back, bump back up and over. Those are coming down here. You're going to take this hand and grab this. That way this can come off. And there is two places to slide it in. Make sure those are both in there. Okay, I've got the balls ready here. I don't like to fingerprint them up much so rest them softly right there so they can go right back. I love that sound. Now we're going to put the glass back on. Okay, I've got the glass right here as I'm putting it back on. Usually I'll put my foot up there. It's got a tray system that it can slide into, as you see there. As a reminder, as you're going back down to the lockdown bar, make sure that hand is always there holding that glass. Open the coin door. It's got two places to put it, right in there.
    36:14
    It's down there. Now we'll want to get our latches here, securing them into place. Now, we are ready to fire this game on. Make sure it's plugged in.
    36:30
    There it is. Oh boy. Oh, it never gets old, guys. Let's play. You want to start a game? Press the start button here. Now, if I were to start it right now, there's no credits. Here's how you change your credits. Come back in here. There are going to be three or four buttons here. Essentially, this is enter, back up, left and right. This is also responsible for your volume. I can change that right now. Oh, yeah. Okay. So if I want to enter into the system, I press this button. I can go left to right. I'm going to go to adjustments, enter. I'm going to go into standard adjustments, factory, replay. Let's see. Oh, enter. Replay, I like to have it on extra ball. Press Enter. I can go left and right. Special, I'm going to press Enter. I can do get tickets, tokens, points, extra balls, credits. I like to get an extra ball there too. Enter, left and right. Now my extra ball limit, I like mine to be three.
    38:06
    And then as you keep going through, you will see. Free play, enter, left or right to yes, enter. Now you have free play. And then there's all kinds of stuff that you can go into. ball save time all different stuff game options all kinds of stuff previous you can go into audits and see how many balls you've played diagnostics see what switches or coils may be acting up go to quit there enter and we should be ready to play here we go Come and get it!
    38:49
    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Yes please! Thank you. Thanks for watching.