Hello everyone!
I recently inherited 2 Mills slot machines from my late grandmother. When I was a child, one of my favorite things to do at grandma's house was to "fix" her prized slot machines. (Which usually just meant un jamming them or tinkering with them to figure out how they worked.) She passed away about a month ago, and despite having a very large family, only left one thing in her will to one person- the slots go to me.
I know one of the machines is a Mills 5c black cherry. The other is also a Mills and takes half dollars, but I cant find an exact model in all of my googling. I even tried to look up the serial and model number with no luck. I think it is a hi- top or a jewel bell, but it is slightly different. I'm also wondering if it was customized or cobbled together with odd parts. If someone knows what it is I will appreciate you forever!
Neither of them work. They are missing some parts and have their own issues. The green one looks like it was dropped, and the black cherry one is slathered with...crisco? Whatever grease it is it's congealed into a hard sticky substance. Also I'm not sure if the guts of the black cherry are supposed to be painted black? It looks like it might've been but it could just be the iron oxidized over time. It is my mission to restore them to their former glory. I don't intend to sell them, but I do want to try to keep them as close to their original design as possible. I would be eternally grateful if anyone can share their wisdom or resources to help me with this quest.