A neighbor brought me two machines to help get operable, a Mills Black Beauty and a Mills War Eagle. They've been sitting for many years, as his father bought the Black Beauty brand new. So upon further inspection, the grease has turned to tar and oil is non-existent, which I would expect. But, the mech has remarkably low wear, and as I understand it, the machine was purchased for home use. He also had a stack of related paperwork, of which I made copies.
So I'll start by removing the reels and spraying the mech down with naphtha, then oil everything. Oddly, there are two bugs on the reels. Wondering why you'd have bugs on a home-use machine, I discovered the receipt for the "percent regulators".
The War Eagle was previously painted blue, sides and all, and I suggested a restoration, but seems he wants to keep it as is. Looks terrible, yet it's all there. Big job to strip and detail though.
The Black Beauty has a jackpot fill lock on the front, but it seems the jackpot also fills from the coin chute. Maybe it's only the reserve that gets filled manually? Any ideas?