Loose reel bundle fixed!

Advice and guidance on repair and restoration techniques.
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coppinpr
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Loose reel bundle fixed!

Post by coppinpr »

Ever had a reel bundle on a slot machine with too much side to side movment? I have several and I've always had trouble fixing it, but today I came up with a good idea that works. Now, I'm sure all the gurus will say it's an old idea they have used for years but at least it will be on the forum now for new members to see.

It's clear that the reel bundle needs to have just a little movement, as the constant slamming of the vertical fingers would damage parts if it did not, but I guess that it's this vertical finger hit that eventually leads to too much movement to the right, resulting in the payout discs touching the fingers during the spin, often to the point that the first reel will not spin correctly.

Now there are three obvious ways I can see to fix this, one of which is not really practical, one is risky and one is obvious but not always successful or even possible on some machines:
1. adjust the anvil (sometimes called the dog & cog on this site). This will move the fingers back further but may well upset other timings.
2. grind off the ends of the fingers slightly. This would work, but is a bit extreme :shock:
3. fit washers on to the end of the spindle to take up the slack. This is the obvious way, but has its drawbacks - a. it's hard to get the washers in to the space, b. they automatically fall out every time you remove the bundle, c. they can easily be too tight or too loose, d. on some machines (I've just done one today, which is how I came to work out a new method), if the washers go into the recess round the spindle hole they can stop the spindle from going all the way through, as the spindle hole is not always drilled in the center of the recess.

Today I tried something new, and it seems to work perfectly. I cut a large compression spring to fit, almost exactly, the space between the frame and the wider collar of the spindle cover. It must not have much, if any, spring effect, as it will then force the reel bundle the other way into the star wheel brake springs that are set between the reels.

This seems to have several things going for it: it's easy to fit, easy to adjust, and puts no pressure on the reels when they are running. Anyway, seems to work.


spindle spring.jpg

Please forgive the WD40 on the spring in the photo, I was doing the final clean when I took the photo. :woops:
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