Bureau de change

[rivierakid]

I saw an ad recently which said that a vintage American 5 cent slot would work on the current UK 20p piece. Someone else also mentioned to me that a new 5p would work in the token payout of an early european slot.This all got me wondering which type of slot might be able to operate on current UK currency without converting or tampering with the mechanisms.

Do any members know if what I've been told is true and whether any machines can take current UK currency?

[raj]

Strangely enough I have just been trying the very same thing with a 6d Mills Hightop & a 1p Jennings Governor, to 20p. I have given up on both after too many hours. I put it down to experience & all part of the learning slotties have to go through.

The Mills needed the coin entry reaming out, the escalator guide rivets drilling out & the guides grinding to take the larger coin, the coin tube unsoldering & replacing with a wider tube, after machining the coin top hopper thingy. The coin slides took the 20p coin, however jammed due to the coin not being round. The next stage would have been to recalibrate the award card as the 6d is thinner than the 20p.

The Jennings is reputably easier to convert as the tolerances are less keen, however the ally coin entry will need reaming & they don't take kindly to mechanical trauma. The casting is very weak & cracks easily, even overtightening can cause it to fail..
I think the key is, once a machine has been used for a particular coin, it won't take kindly to being altered to take another. Changing from a large to a smaller coin is the easiest option, in my opinion.

You can't buy the bits at B&Q & all manner of unexpected problems emerge as you go along & at the end of the day, the machine will appear to have been 'got at' if the coinage does not appear right, but good luck, it can be done, as there are several people who will undertake the conversion for lots of folding money.

[coppinpr]

The columbia deluxe im working on takes old 6d or new 1p with out any conversions ,it will ,I think take 20p or 5p as well!! but I havn't tested that fully yet. At first glance this seems a failing in the design but in actual fact its not as the machine was designed to pay out the most recent coins played ,therefor if you played with lead slugs you got payed out with lead slugs so the coin accept system did not need to be that great.

note: 6d in the escalator, 1p in the carousel

anti tilt.jpg (40.78 KiB) Viewed 2255 times

[treefrog]

In reference to the 20p and 5c piece above, I have changed a 5C Mills set-up to use a 20p coin. The escalator, coin tube and and slide diameter were OK, although you can very slightly ream out the coin entry as it is a tight fit. The only thing I needed to do was carefully remove a fraction off the base of the slide, which obviously graduates as you work your way through them depending on the value. You need a set of micrometers as the tolerances are small. I cannot remember overall the the reduction on a 20 coin payout, but it was less than 5mm. I had no specialist tools and used an oxide type abrasive paper starting with coarse grades down to fine. Also the slides were brass and easier to do. The only other thing to do was reduce the overall value off the slide posts, fairly easy again....