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Time to ........

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:38 pm
by badpenny
Oh well, with an enforced restriction on what, where and when to do it, for an undetermined time, I guess it's an opportunity to catch up on the projects lying around.

A brief scrutiny of the darkest corners suggests: -

An early oak Bradley's Challenger to re-mantle.
A 3d Novomat that needs a stern talking to.
An old penny Exacta to put back on 1d.
A Mills Extraordinary 60% done.
A Mills Hi-top BONUS that can't spell.
A Jennings Governor with no self esteem.
A rare BMCo allwin needing a cash door, and all metal work nickel plating.
A Groetchen Columbia double jack pot that is living proof that grease can petrify into granite.
A What's My Line that looks fantastic but has simply forgotten what to do.
A Slick which works but is beyond shabby and is verging on condemnation.
Two electro-mech Rotamints with winking lion on the graphics, they both think electrocution is part of the game and are keen to join in.
A Jennings Galaxy 2 pulls for 1/- which is currently giving no pulls for anything and looks like it has acne.
A Groetchen Columbia double jack pot which some scrote at some time made a slight adjustment to the jack pot trip with a tyre lever.

I think that's it for now, so if I can only find my boxes of spare bits & bobs I'll get stuck in.

Oh! I forgot a Bryans Gap Win that needs to be reminded of its maker's high standards and efforts which played such a large part in its original construction.

Still if I get half of them done at least I can move them into the dispose of in the future pile.

How big are your piles? :woops:

BP !!THUMBSX2!!

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 4:37 pm
by treefrog
Certainly have more time for machines, but I go through spells of working on certain types, so for last month I completed mainly German machines, two Beromats, an Orion and a Roma. Even got into making the payout discs on Gunther Wulff machines, as they seem to move to white plastic ones in the later years which were not as robust at the metal ones. The annoying thing is I have always had a habit in taking apart four or five machines at once and then getting bored and moving onto something else, leaving boxes of bits. I did this a few times on the German machines as had always struggled with them. Now I seem to have become a bit of a master on them, I realised that over the last two years I have been over helpful selling people parts for these machines thinking the boxes of bits I had were spare, only to find I had sold lots of critical items like clocks and coin chutes.

Anyway, started this week working on three Black Cherry and Diamond front projects, two from January’s Eastbourne auction.

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Hopefully green one will be sorted by tomorrow, which I was going to strip and repaint, but realised it is very original, with only a missing jackpot, escalator and door all replaced and lots of graft needed. Always difficult to know whether to leave original paint, but I like this one, even with the paint chips, seems to have been supplied by Chicago Automatics which is stamped on top of the coin slides.....anyway back to that dirty mechanism

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 6:39 pm
by highfield
Envy you guys. Have no projects so I’ll end up decorating !OMFG!

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:31 pm
by coppinpr
looks like the average age of slot collectors is going to push us to get working on machines again, biggest problem is no Coventry to sell machines to make space for the new ones!! (when they are done)
all I have to last me through are 2 hi tops (mechs done cases to do)
and a Brenner past the arrow (mech done, case %90 ready)
does this mean the price of distressed slot machines is going to rocket the same as hand sanitizer !OMFG!

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:53 pm
by geordy55
Why isn’t the market place on here used more to sell machines and spares ? In the absence of the Coventry auction and EH for the foreseeable future, it would seem ideal.

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:22 pm
by treefrog
geordy55 wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2020 8:53 pm Why isn’t the market place on here used more to sell machines and spares ? In the absence of the Coventry auction and EH for the foreseeable future, it would seem ideal.
Good question, personally I don’t often sell individual machines, have done a couple of times on here, once on eBay and once on a Facebook group. Mostly I have used collectors auctions. I always struggle to know what to ask, whereas an auction market dictates at that point in time. I suspect I would ask too little, but I guess they would sell.

At the moment, not sure anyone wants the contact I guess. What surprises me is that most auction houses are ignoring government advice and staying open. Their argument seems to be that you can bid online, but you still need to view, pay and collect.....I guess like most businesses they want to survive

Also we are all ends of the country and Coventry was a gathering location for collectors to buy or sell one or many items. I had a few lots in, so a shame for all and enjoy the social aspect

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 12:50 pm
by brigham
Bother!
I'd finally decided to brave the 175-mile each way trip this year, on the grounds of the two Golding's 'flashers', which are certainly 'my thing'.
If the presenter were to offer them in the 'Market' section, I would be delighted to give them my consideration.

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 2:37 pm
by special when lit
brigham wrote: Wed Mar 18, 2020 12:50 pm Bother!
I'd finally decided to brave the 175-mile each way trip this year, on the grounds of the two Golding's 'flashers', which are certainly 'my thing'.
If the presenter were to offer them in the 'Market' section, I would be delighted to give them my consideration.
I was interested in those, too. As well as Mr TF's Lucky Devil.

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:28 pm
by brigham
Somebody else is interested in 1960s 'flashers'?
There's hope for the world yet!

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:38 pm
by treefrog
I like flashers, but have had to hang my coat up since the outbreak..... '!'

Yes shame about Coventry, was looking forward to it and had lots of lots in including the Goldings machines and the Lucky Devil.....Problem is we all live the the other end of the land to each other, which is why Coventry is a good opportunity for people to look at and buy or sell rather than individual items.

The Goldings machines I bought as projects and never got around to look at them, think the Greyhound lit up and sort of did things, but needed a but of tinkering, whereas the Aces someone has undone all, the wiring looms obviously to work out wiring, but never completed. They look complete though.

I may wait till November, but if enough interest is there, I don’t have an issue putting in market, no idea though in value, which why auctions are so much easier.

A SIGN OF THE TIMES!!

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 4:34 pm
by tammy
The times are a changing??

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 5:49 pm
by coppinpr
Now if you went back to the days this machine was new you could have used boxed toilet paper which would have worked soooo much better '!'
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Re: Time to ........

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 6:52 pm
by treefrog
At least you have toilet paper.....we are saving newspapers.

Well one machine done, took a lot longer than planned, not because of the machine bought, but getting one of my spare escalators to work in it. Incredible the issues you get with escalators and the time taken to strip down, rebuild, strip down rebuild..... :!?!:

No idea if green was an original colour as most are silver, but is old wrinkle paint, so left on rather than a dodgy shiny paint job. Perhaps I may change reel strips as very scruffy, but good for now. Even stuck Mills door and lock on.....

Mills Black Cherry


Re: Time to ........

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:07 pm
by dutchboy
Nice machine it is. The problem you have with the escalator sounds familiair. I did clean up some slides and they look like new. Untill i played the machine and it.... won’t pay out two coins. So have to take them apart again and rebuild etc. dirtdog

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:29 pm
by gameswat
Great job Tree in doing only what was needed. I've always thought any machine should work properly first, cosmetics second. And that machine is fine looking as-is, some character, which in this day of so many over restored pieces is getting harder to find. I always say, look at US eBay, sinking under the weight of brand new looking "vintage" slots! Not a scrap of individuality to any of them and most sit there unwanted. !!SUICIDAL!!

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:54 pm
by treefrog
I love to get to bottom of an issue, especially after spending more than a day wasting time building and taking apart items. Anyway of threes spare Mills escalators I had two had a similar issue where the coins would stick and jam the machine on operation. No matter how much cleaning, checking springs and blockages, something was causing this. One thing I have noticed on Mills and lesser so on Sega is that the metal parts are generally far more worn on machines, also the metals used seem less hard, so more use of brass and other softer metals, especially on escalators for example.

Anyway, the lower toothed coin bar is the main issue as this is fixed and only needs to spring back as the coins slide through the next position. I found any defect however small on the teeth locks the coin when trying to move to next position and as such jams the machine. As seen on the below picture seems to be more a issue on the second and third teeth, not the first. On removal filing the teeth back to remove any defects following the line the coin takes with the file not across. I also reduced the file size to fine to get a perfect smooth finish. I am sure other electric tools would do the job. Obviously you want to minimise the amount of metal take off as well. Fixed my issue on two escalators

You can tell I am bored....well maybe the wrong word

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:50 pm
by special when lit
I'm not self isolating, just have a week off work, so going to be starting on this.

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 7:43 pm
by dirk55
I want one.

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2020 11:13 pm
by brianh
Having self-isolated myself due to my advancing years I decided it is time to clean all the dust out of my long abandoned Bryan's Five Win.

Got bored......

Re: Time to ........

Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 4:44 pm
by santelmann
It´s time for wrecking a couple of german "crank"-type slots to generate spare parts for following projects.
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I'm waiting for parts to restore a coin operated '30s shooting range. Some things are not so easy available here in Germany at the moment...