Obtaining springs

[markymark]

I remember in the Market Place on this site there were advertised Mills springs for sale? They appear to be gone!!! Anyone know where I can get some Mills springs from (new/repro). Usually order from MrSlot but since his house move he appears to have disappeared and not processing orders!!! Bah!!
Thanks if you can help

[pominoz]

Hey Mark,

I have seen some Mills springs, recently on the American ebay web site, but also "Mr slots" is still sending things out. I've been in touch with him in the last week, although he did apologise for having been so busy lately with his house move and a slots show he was attending a week or two ago, but I would guess if you chase him with another email, I am sure you will be in luck, but he has not disappeared, of that I am sure.
Hope this helps,
pominoz

[badpenny]

Wotcha pominoz ......

I remember those springs, and the member concerned.
Records show he does still visit the forum on occasion, so perhaps if he spots your post he could mail you.

He sometimes puts them on eBay as well.

He once explained in his eBay advert that he'd discovered a supplier in USA and waxed lyrical.
Evidence pointed to the vendor buying from a supplier such as Mr Slots.

Personally I bought one of those plastic boxes containing hundreds of different sized springs, expansion and compression for a fiver at Screwfix or the Web.

So you make your choice pays your money.

BP

Edited to add a link to the discussion we had at the time ............
Spring has already sprung!

[pennymachines]

Sources of springs mentioned by BP and Raj (Newbie wants to buy first bandit) were:

Machine Mart £7.50

Maplin £3.29

n06ct.jpg (8.1 KiB) Viewed 6538 times

For springs I can't find elsewhere, I've used Springmasters, a company with a good range, based in Redditch, the traditional centre of spring manufacturing in the UK.

[treefrog]

I bought one of those when rebuilding one of my first machines, not touched the box since as most of the springs are too big or over tensioned for slot machine use, also don't look the part. I have used older spare springs so far and not needed to buy any proper ones so far. The person selling them on here was the infamous Slider, not seen them on ebay lately either......

[pennymachines]

...most of the springs are too big or over tensioned for slot machine use...

That's been my experience with these pre-packed selections.
I've resorted to having them custom made in the past. I see Springmasters offer such a service, but I guess they would be expensive for small orders. I used a small local manufacturer, Paget & Glover Springs Ltd., and it worked out quite reasonable.
Perhaps some enterprising individual should approach them to make a batch of commonly used Mills springs?

[markymark]

Thanks to all who gave their suggestions. I will try and email MrSlot again, just in case the last order I placed went amiss!!!

[classicgambler]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

Hello guys,
Just a small question - where is the best place to get these from. It is from a Cashcendo machine. They are all like this at the moment. Any help would be much appreciated,
Thank you.

[coppinpr]

Mr slot has them and they do come up on ebay at regular times.

[widget2k4]

I just buy a box of assorted springs off ebay for £3 and use them. They come in handy for other things as well.
This sort of thing:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200pc-Spring- ... 4abe01e940
They are not perfect, but have done the job mint for me on a few machines now.

[treefrog]

I have now owned over 200 machines and never bought a spring. Odd there are ways...

Those boxes of 200 horrible stainless steel things you see on ebay and elsewhere are useless for everything slot related, except maybe to hold up your trousers while you're replacing your springs.

[widget2k4]

That's me put in my place.

[tazmantic]

Funny this should come up, as I have found that there are a few springs missing from my latest machine and wondered where people got their springs from.

[treefrog]

As Coppin has stated, MR Slots sells them... He sells on Ebay now and does bulk or packs for reasonable amounts, e.g., below mixed packs to the UK for about £13 inc. If you view his other items, you will see springs, springs and more springs:

MILLS, JENNINGS REPLACMENT SPRINGS FOR ANTIQUE SLOT MACHINE UPPER, LOWER PAYOUT

[classicgambler]

So no one do these in the UK then?

[aristomatic]

Like a lot of slot parts, the US has a plentiful supply as it's a larger market, but not all people in England want to deal with US suppliers for just a couple of low value items as they only have current need to sort out one/two slots.

If noone on the forum has contacted you, and none are on ebay UK in small volumes to buy, then for the value of the parts you need I would contact Henry Powell. I would be surprised if Henry couldn't sort you out in a timely manner indeed, for that particular machine.

You can be lucky at times and see on ebay UK a collector who has bought from the same US supplier a bulk load of springs and other items to satisfy their current needs and then they will keep back a % for themselves for use in the future and then sell the rest on Ebay in small quantities that are ideal for someone in the UK who either doesn't want or need to buy in bulk. (These type of items tend to be springs/decals/reeltrips etc.).

GP

[marktol]

There are some guys in the US who sell slot parts regularly on ebay ive emailed them with requests and they have been pretty good. One seller in particular thebentcoin - Fred is great. He pulled together a selection of springs and bolts for me and sent them over and their prices are very reasonable. He also often sells random assortments of spring collections as auctions too.

[gameswat]

Keep an eye on US eBay for machine springs in bulk as they do turn up. Someone in Canada sold me a box full of various NOS pre war pinball machine springs, operators would buy from the manufacturer or dealer to fill their tool boxes back then with spares. Must've been 300+ springs and all just the right size for machines. And he had 4 or 5 boxes! Also got some rare NOS carbon rings from that guy used under the bumper springs as contacts on 1930's and 40's pins.

Another great way to build a collection of springs is to find a scrap dealer and strip them from junked machinery. Or buy pre-existing collections from old mens sheds! Garage and boot sales are great for this kind of stuff if you can be bothered. And while you're there look for locks, keys, motors, relays, nickel bolts and screws, Bryans' Bumpers, old glass, machines etc etc. Never know where the next useful part will turn up. So much easier and relaxing when restoring a machine to be able to search your own parts bins and find most of what you need to keep going. Sucks when you have to slow down or stop a project for the stupidest little thing.