How hard is it to restore a Rol-A-Top?

[Courk]

My grandfather was, from my understanding, basically given a Rol-A-Top a long time ago. My dad remembers playing with it as a kid, which would have been in the 60s and 70s. I never actually saw it until my grandfather died in the late 90s, and by that point, well, time had not been kind to the machine. But we kept it, and now I'd like to restore it for my dad. Ideally I'd like to be able to do that myself, but I'd have no clue what I was doing. Just looking at the outside I'd say it was in bad shape, but that's merely based on the fact that the big round thing that says what kind of coin to use is missing, though some, if not all, of the machinery behind that is still there.

Anyway, before I even start taking it apart, I'd like some expert opinions as to how hard a restoration would be for a complete newbie. I'm pretty crafty and can follow directions, especially pictorial directions, quite well. Though, I don't know where to find such directions. Do you think a restoration is something I could accomplish on my own, or would it be safer for the machine to be sent out to someone who's done this before? I realize I'm not giving you a whole lot of information, mainly because I wouldn't know if any other parts were missing, nor do I know its actual relative condition. If I'm out of my league, can you provide some names of people who are excellent restorers?

Some more details on the machine:

• According to my dad, it's a dime machine (any way I can verify that?)
• It's a Watling Rol-A-Top coin front with twin jackpot.
• Its serial number is 88212 (is there any way that number can give an estimate, at least, for the year?)

Ask as many questions as you need to answer my question. If a picture would help, let me know. Thank you![/list]

[Dave]

There is a book called the "Owner's Pictorial Guide For The Care And Understanding Of The Watling Bell Slot Machine" which has detailed pictures and decriptions of the Watling Rol-A-Top mechanism. It should be available from Mead Publishing. Go to http://www.meadpublishinglasvegas.com/slot_machine_repair.htm to check. Before you start you must get this book. If Mead does not have it then you might try eBay, I have seen them show up there from time to time.

About 14 years ago I documented a restoration of a Mills slot machine on an 8 hour VHS tape. Those tapes have long been sold out but I am looking at putting it out again on a set of DVD discs. The Mills and Watling mechanisms are similiar. The biggest difference is the escaator (the thing that takes the coins) and the jackpot The Watling Jackpot is much simpler than the Mills is.

Go to http://www.IBuyOldSlots.com and click on the Slot Machine Restoration link to get information about the DVD.

I have been asked to document a Pace, Watling (Rol-A-Top), and Jennings restoration. Sorry, but it is not going to happen. Way too much work involved. I did the Mills project just to see if I could do it.

Your biggest problem is parts. If you are missing anything significant than you could be in big trouble. Watling parts are hard to find.

Tearing a slot machine apart and putting it back together can be a daunting task for the inexperienced. The mechanism consists of hundreds of parts and if you don't put it back together right the thing won't work. If you put the parts back together in the wrong order you will find yourself tearing the mechanism back apart in order to get that other part back in.

If possible, you should try to locate (beg, borrow, steal, etc.) another Watling Rol-A-Top that you can use as a guide. Doing this will save you a ton of time.

If you want to post pictures to this forum of your machine and the mechanism I can probably give you a good idea if you are missing anything major.

One word of warning, if you start this project and get frustrated and quit and just have a half assembled machine and a bucket of parts then your machine has lost a lot of value. This is not an uncommon outcome at al. Take a look at the note at the bottom of the DVD page .

Dave

[Courk]

How big of a problem do missing parts pose for an expert restorer? Are there any who would have spare parts lying around?

[Dave]

How big of a problem do missing parts pose for an expert restorer? Are there any who would have spare parts lying around?

It all depends on the part and if the restorer has access to parts.

Sometimes a part can be made, other times the restorer might have the part lying around or know someone who might have it.

Like I said before, Watling parts are hard to come by. The restorer should be able to tell you what parts are missing and if he will be able to find replacements.

There are not that many people restoring slot machines these days. It is a very time intensive process and in many cases it costs more to restore a machine then the machine is worth.

A Rol-A-Top is a relatively high end machine and in many cases it does make sense to spend the money to restore it.

[Courk]

I'll see if I can get help getting a look at the innards tonight and take pictures. I imagine the pieces would be there, though, since I highly doubt anyone has opened it up in the past, and, as I said, it has worked within the last 40ish years (a long time, yes, but no one's made any attempt to fix it up, I'd bet money on it).

Would the "denomination circle" be something that could be made if a replacement was not to be found?

[Dave]

I'll see if I can get help getting a look at the innards tonight and take pictures. I imagine the pieces would be there, though, since I highly doubt anyone has opened it up in the past, and, as I said, it has worked within the last 40ish years (a long time, yes, but no one's made any attempt to fix it up, I'd bet money on it).

Would the "denomination circle" be something that could be made if a replacement was not to be found?

The denomination badge is one of the things that has been reproduced so not having it is no big deal. Plus, it is a cosmetic thing, it is not required to make the machine work.

Dave

[Dave]

One other thing, I have started to post videos of how to unjam a slot machine. The first video is on a Rol-A-Top.

The video shows you how to remove the mechanism and has close-up views of the escalator and mechanism.

It might help you identify what parts, if any, your machine is missing.

Go to http://www.IBuyOldSlots.com and click on the "How to unjam a slot machine" link.

Dave

[Courk]

From what I can see on the video and what I can see on the pictures I took of the slot machine to compare, there's not much, if anything, missing. The very first stages a coin travels through look a bit different, but I'm not sure if there's something missing or if it's the fact that they're two different styles and denominations of machines.

It is definitely a dime machine, one one of the pieces it was stamped "10 cents"

Also, on one of the pieces on the bottom it was stamped "May 1 1934" -- seriously? Were they that specific with dates?

We did discover a penny lodged in the gears on the bottom. We got it out and by holding back what I believe was the coin detector, we were able to pull the lever and have the spinning wheels click into place -- and evidently there were quite a few dimes in it. It kept paying out the right amount on jackpots. The oldest dimes were from the late 70s, so that penny's been there a while.

Placing a dime in as if we were playing the slot machine didn't work too well, though. Granted, the coin escalator (elevator?) wasn't filled, but the coin didn't move to go into the escalator, either. I'm still going to post pictures of every angle, but since it seems everything else works wonderfully, if you could just let me know if something seems off with the escalator, I'd appreciate it.

[Courk]

Looking at a picture of another dime machine, it seems there is a small part missing, I circled it in red on the picture I found.



What is that piece? How hard is it to find? What exactly does it connect to?

[PA23]

ah you found the picture of my dime machine

The part you have circled is part of the trim ring that holds the glass inside the front cabinet and is not part of the mechanism and I've seen them painted yellow or black.

Jeff