My granddad died at the ripe old age of 99 years and 8 months just a few weeks ago. Thanks for your condolences, but what I came here to talk about is the two 1930s Mills slots that have been under a tarp in his basement since before I was born.
The back story is that these machines were in a building that was destroyed by fire some time in the 1940s. My granddad discovered them in the early 50s, in a storage room in a nearby building that he rented retail space from, and when he moved his business from there, he liberated these two machines from captivity.
I'll post images of the machines when I figure out how to do that, but from looking at pictures on the internet, I'm pretty sure that one is called Cherry Burst ¢10 and the other is Mystery Castle ¢5.
I spent about 12 hours over the weekend inside the cherry, cleaning and adjusting the mechanism without the benefit of knowing what the hell I was doing. And I'm happy to say that the machine will now operate at a basic level. That is: I can insert a dime into the slot, pull the lever, dimes traverse the escalator, the reels spin and stop fairly smoothly, and dimes occasionally pay out of the brass tube.
Yes, I am feeling quite pleased with myself over this achievement.
The payout mechanism seems to be out of adjustment somehow, because it is usually one dime short of what's posted on the schedule, and probably needs to be stripped down and cleaned. I've not gotten that far into it yet because I don't feel comfortable disassembling it that far without a good manual.
So there's my first question for the forum. Which manual? Amazon has widely varying prices on a couple of manuals that seem to be appropriate. Which one would you recommend? What's a fair price?
The general condition of both machines is far from mint.
-The fire didn't directly touch them, but they got pretty damn hot.
-The oak cases are not scorched and cleaned up pretty well with a damp rag.
-The strips in the reels are legible, but yellowed, and might not be in their correct positions.
-The safety-glass windows are all going to have to be replaced because the heat of the fire cooked the lamination film.
-The paint is in poor condition, especially at the tops of both machines.
-The castle machine is missing one of the reel brakes and has had a few nuts and screws replaced with modern hardware. Probably my granddad had tinkered around with it in the 50s.
My concern is unintentionally devaluing the machines with good intentions. Is the original paint more desirable even though it's in poor condition? Should I comb the Earth for period appropriate square nuts and antique slotted head screws to replace the hardware store, low quality hardware that's been installed? Is there a particular type of replacement glass I should use for the windows, or is matching shape and size enough? Was laminated safety glass used by Mills when they were manufactured?
That's all for now. Thanks very much for your help!