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How to remove .093 & .062 terminals using different extraction tools (also how to fail miserably)

Pinball Shenanigans·video·15m 50s·analyzed·Nov 28, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Tool review: extracting .093/.062 terminals from pinball connectors with varying success

Summary

Mike Dus reviews and demonstrates various tools for removing .093 and .062 terminals from pinball machine connectors, comparing a Waldom Molex tool, a cheap Amazon dual-end tool, and a new premium Amazon tool set. He shows mixed success rates across different terminal types, with particular difficulty removing female terminals, and provides practical tips like pushing wires toward the tool and using leverage.

Key Claims

  • The Waldom Molex tool is the go-to standard for removing .093 terminals

    high confidence · Speaker identifies Waldom/Molex as the traditional choice and demonstrates its use throughout video

  • The cheap Amazon dual-end tool (.062/.093) is useless because the .062 female side doesn't fit over female terminals

    high confidence · Speaker explicitly states 'the 062 female side does not even fit over the female terminals. So, it is completely useless.'

  • The new premium Amazon tool set ($60) performs better than the Molex tool and much better than the cheap Amazon tool

    medium confidence · Speaker states 'I like them. Probably better than the Molex tool and definitely better than that Amazon piece of crap' and 'for 60 bucks, I'd say I am a happy camper'

  • Male terminals are consistently easier to remove than female terminals across all tools tested

    high confidence · Speaker repeatedly notes: 'I definitely have more success removing the male terminals with any of my tools and minimal to no success removing any female terminals'

  • Pushing the wire toward the tool significantly improves extraction success rate

    high confidence · Speaker discovers mid-video: 'you're supposed to kind of like push the wire towards the tool uh just to give it a better chance of latching over top of the little tine'

Notable Quotes

  • “I've always had trouble with these connectors even with this proper I guess Waldom makes the Molex tool.”

    Mike Dus @ ~1:15 — Establishes that even the standard/proper tool has been problematic for the speaker

  • “Problem is the 062 female side does not even fit over the female terminals. So, it is completely useless.”

    Mike Dus @ ~3:30 — Clear condemnation of the cheap Amazon tool's design flaw

  • “I like the little thumb push pressure whatever you know may call it to help assist the removal of the terminal.”

    Mike Dus @ ~5:00 — Identifies the key design feature that makes the new tool superior (spring-assist equivalent)

  • “It's like it's like a little uh slingshot weapon here.”

    Mike Dus @ ~6:15 — Humorous description of the tool's effectiveness when it works properly

  • “I do recall not having a whole lot of success. It just seems like in general I have more success removing the male terminals with any of my tools and minimal to no success removing any female terminals.”

    Mike Dus @ ~7:45 — Key insight about asymmetric difficulty between terminal genders

  • “It's a little bit tricky um to do this just out in the open. So, having to do it inside of a pinball machine or under the hood or in a back box or something is going to be uh even more tricky.”

    Mike Dus @ ~10:30 — Practical acknowledgment that controlled workshop conditions are easier than real-world pinball repair scenarios

  • “I like them. Probably better than the Molex tool and definitely better than that Amazon piece of crap.”

    Mike Dus @ ~end — Final verdict on the premium Amazon tool set

Entities

Mike DuspersonPinball ShenanigansorganizationWaldomcompanyMolexcompanyAmazoncompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Cheap Amazon dual-end terminal tool has critical design flaw where .062 female side doesn't fit connectors, making it non-functional for half its intended purpose

    high · Speaker states: 'the 062 female side does not even fit over the female terminals. So, it is completely useless.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Speaker demonstrates recurring difficulty with female terminal extraction across multiple professional and consumer tools, suggesting a fundamental design challenge or technique barrier

    high · Repeated failures with female terminals using Molex, cheap Amazon, and premium Amazon tools; speaker notes 'I don't think I successfully removed a single female terminal from any connector' until late in the video

  • ?

    technology_signal: Premium Amazon tool set ($60) with thumb-push spring-assist mechanism performs better than legacy Waldom Molex tool, suggesting aftermarket improvement in connector extraction technology

    medium · Speaker prefers new tool over Molex: 'I like them. Probably better than the Molex tool and definitely better than that Amazon piece of crap' and appreciates 'the little thumb push pressure' feature

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02
Okay, this is probably a horrible idea because I don't have a voice and I want to show off these new tools. Yeah, that's not going to work. I'm Mike Dus [music] and this is Pinball Shenanigans.
0:25
Okay, so I bought a microphone so that I could actually do a voice over for this video. Okay, so as you can see, I've got the 0093. This is a Waldom tool, and it is supposed to be spring-loaded. Mine, for some reason, is not spring-loaded. I don't even remember where I got that tool, but this is basically the go-to tool to remove these 093 terminals from a connector. So, I'm going to go over all these different tools. I just bought some new ones and I'm going to show a little bit of everything here. So, I'm starting off with the female. I'm going to just say 93 and I'm going to stop saying 093 and save myself two syllables. So, I've always had trouble with these connectors even with this proper I guess Waldom makes the Molex tool. So, this I'm going to call it a Molex tool. Uh I forget the uh the part number, but uh maybe I'll include it at some point in the video. Anyway, looks like I'm moved on to the uh male terminals here. And look at that. With the help of some needle-nose pliers, I was able to actually remove one successfully. Now, I from time to time tried to remove [snorts] terminals. Mostly I fail. I bought this stupid Amazon thing that has the 062 on one end and the 093 on the other. Problem is the 062 female side does not even fit over the female terminals. So, it is completely useless. Uh, looks like I'm going to try a male or is this the 093? Either way, one of the ends of this tool won't even fit over the female terminals. So, look at that. Male success. Successful removal. I think that was the 093. And looks like I'm going to try some more mail. Look at that. That was successful. So, you know, this Amazon tool will work okay for the 0.93, but for the 62 is garbage. Uh, so this is the new tool that I got. This was a set on Amazon, and it was like 60 bucks or something for the pair. I've got the 62 in hand and the 0.93 right here. And I like the little thumb push pressure whatever you know may call it to help assist the removal of the terminal. So it looks like I'm going to try a 93. Am I going male or am I going female? I'm going to start with male terminals here. So first time ever using this tool. And uh like I said, I like the concept of having the little like push assist, which is basically I guess would be the equivalent to the spring loaded action of the Molex tool. But uh Oh, see that fired right out of there. I didn't need no needle-nose pliers. Look at that. That is uh quite successful there. I mean, I do recall that I didn't have success every time, but definitely more consistent success. There it is. It's like it's like a little uh slingshot weapon here. So, looks like I'm having fun with this. And do I get the last one? Boom. Look at that. So, that's good stuff. Thumbs up for that. Now, we're going to try the female terminals here. N3 females. I've tried to remove these before. with uh my other tools and I've failed. So, this is the first time trying with this tool and uh I do recall not having a whole lot of success. It just seems like in general I have more success removing the male terminals with any of my tools and minimal to no success removing any female terminals. So going to try this again. And um I literally don't think I had any success with this particular connector. I may have on a different female terminal. Oh, hold on. My screen just went blank. Hello. Time to Okay, there we go. What happened? My screen went blank on me. Okay, so a little small smaller connector here. Female again. And uh Oh, yeah. So, one trick is that you're supposed to kind of like push the wire towards the tool uh just to give it a better chance of latching over top of the little tine, but I don't have no wires protruding out of this connector. So, uh I think I think I kind of remember that halfway through this video for my other test. So, uh, you'll see me trying to do that potentially moving forward. Okay, so it looks like we're moving to the 62 size male terminals here. And, uh, let's see to what degree of success I have here. I got to tell you, it's a little bit tricky um to do this just out in the open. So, having to do it inside of a pinball machine or under the hood or in a back box or something is going to be uh even more tricky. I haven't tried it using Oh, did that just pop out? Looks like it just popped out. So, more success here. So, that's good. I was originally going to go and try and find the Molex version of the 62 tool spring-loaded action, but there's another successful removal. But I made a post and someone suggested that they Oh, there's there's me finally discovering and remembering that you got to push the terminal towards the tool to have a greater success rate. But yeah, someone said they had these exact tools for a couple years and were happy with them, so I went ahead and gambled. It was Amazon, so I knew that I could return them if needed. Uh, I figured here that seeing might have helped my cause as well. So, I threw out my glasses there. So, I think I am kind of like pushing the wire towards the tool. Again, this I believe is the 62 smaller terminal. Oh, and there it goes. Look at that. Success. All right. So, going to move on to the female terminals. Again, I do have some wire to work with here and tug on. And I don't recall if I had success with these guys or not. We'll find out shortly.
8:04
I can tell you that I pinched, prodded, and poked myself multiple times throughout uh my video here. Look at that. Success 62 female success with the new tool. I probably should uh put the uh the link to these tools in my description so that if you wanted to buy this set as well, you could or at least give you the part number. I think I did show it earlier in the video. You could just kind of pause on the video if you wanted to as well, but uh it's probably easier to check the description. So, I just got to remember to add that in there for you. Oh, there's a fail. Thumbs down.
8:58
Okay. So, we're going to go back to is that point 93 the larger female. Yeah. So, we failed with the Amazon tool. We failed with the Molex tool. And now trying again here with the new tool. And
9:19
looks like I'm failing using my belly to kind of help. Well, I did find eventually that, you know, putting the connector up against like the edge of the table or my little scroll saw table there or something just to give myself something to force it against helped. But again, if you're in the middle of a under the hood of a pinball machine and may not be able to get that type of leverage. So, uh, I've decided to try a different female connector as my Meteor parts playfield. And look at that. That went smooth. So, it's kind of hit and miss with the female for me. I mean, some other people did say you kind of got to like there's me pushing the wire in. You have to kind of like sort of wiggle the tool around, swirl it around a bit. You just want to get over that tine. Oh, my my screen went blank again. Sorry about that.
10:28
I'm leaving my mouse uh for too long without moving it around. So that first female pin came out pretty easily and then I think I just struggle for the next minute without a whole lot of success here I don't think. But the fact that I was able to even get one out means that it's possible. It's kind of like there's me failing again. Thumbs down to that. I think up until this point, I don't know that I successfully removed a single female terminal from any connector. So, this is uh a step in the right direction for me. Not 100% success rate here, obviously, but uhoh, that looked like it hurt. And yes, it did. Uh I lost some skin on that one. So, getting a little frustrated at this point as you can tell. And yes, I did in fact draw blood, but uh you know, started off so well on that one connector, but it's all better now. We got a a band-aid going on there. Back to the thumbs up. All right, so Oh, um somehow I managed to get my springloaded action working on my Molex tool. I literally think I was using a hammer with the connector and trying to really smash the terminal out and then realized that my spring-loaded action was just stiff from probably nonuse for however long it's been around. I mean, I think I got this tool in a lot with some other stuff. So, this could be decades old. But so I don't know if there's like some sort of pin in the middle of the little tube there that helps push the terminal out and that's why there's the spring-loaded action. Going back to try See, this is what I was talking about. Getting a little leverage on uh my scroll saw there. Back to the female 93 terminals here. And uh nope, no uh no luck with that. So, going back to mail terminals and uh keep an eye out here cuz I think uh this first one potentially just fires out like a rocket. Watch this. Do I recall that correctly?
13:12
No, maybe not. [snorts] Like it looks like it should just work so easily, right? But again, I'm not really pushing the wire back towards the terminal at all. So maybe I'm going to try and do that here. I'm going to move my mouse so my screen doesn't go blank on me again. Okay, so Molex tool, no good.
13:40
What happened? Did it pop out? I didn't even see that. new tool.
13:50
I think I actually was able to successfully remove every single terminal on this connector because I spent like half an hour off camera after all this with all of the little connectors that I had and I fought with them and I probably injured myself some more. And I had varying degrees of success, but I do think I was able to remove all of these guys, but certainly uh not making it look easy here. Is it going to launch out here? This leverage this might help. There it goes. See that? Having that extra little bit of leverage.
14:43
Oh. Uh, that's where I pinched myself. Hard to tell there, but that also hurt. It's dangerous job. So, there's, uh, after like half an hour of messing around with these connectors some more. Can see that, uh, those guys there, mostly female, if not all, I couldn't remove, but I had success with a lot of the other um, connectors there. So, there you go. That's [snorts] my uh review on these new tools. I like them. Probably better than the Molex tool and definitely better than that Amazon piece of crap. So, for 60 bucks, I'd say I am a happy camper. If you have any tips or tricks on removing these terminals, please do share in the comments. I will be uh happy to learn whatever I can and have a greater success rate with these things. But that's basically it. Hope you enjoyed the video.