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Hi all, I know very little about slot machines but have come into possession of one.

From quite a lot of looking around the net, looking at lots and lots of photos I have decided it's definitely a Mills machine, however it doesn't match any I have found through my searches.







The main casing matches the operator bell, however the window in the middle looks like the one found on the Mills poinsettia machine.

I'm assuming by the hand written scorecard not the regular rectangular operator bell type that it's some sort of aftermarket modification rather than a factory version.

Also the colour, would it originally have been polished and decorated or did they do more plain colour scheme versions for different markets?

I know nothing about it other than it has been sat in a summerhouse my entire life ( 40 odd years ) and probably several decades before that!

Many thanks to anyone who can provide any information on it.

Hello and welcome,

Not an expert on 20’s or 30’s bandit, but my first reaction was that this was a Firmans conversion, who often took old Mills machines making up new items from old castings and even making their own castings and jackpots. As you say looks like a Poinsettia top and Operator Bell lower with a add-on jackpot screwed in the middle.

If you look at below thread on Firmans you will see the variety they produced, also below picture of one close with screwed in jackpot top right.

Also is the machine in some kind of console cabinet, which looks bigger than the machine. Machines shipped to U.K. were often painted single colours by the operators from the polished and painted panels of original.

Firmans

Would make a nice project. Do you think the console ever reached all the way to the floor or has it always been counter-top style?

Many thanks for your replies.

I'm quite mechanically minded, and having read various threads on here including the one linked above I am certainly tempted to try and return it to decent working condition.

Mechanically it all seems to be there so hopefully a thorough clean up would make a big difference.

The machine is in a cabinet, I had guessed that this wasn't original to the machine. However it seems nicely made specifically for the machine, as the standard machine sides and base panel are still attached, with the base recessed flush in the cabinet, rather than just being sat on top of something generic.

It's floor standing with the top of the machine approx 5ft tall.

Don’t know much about them but I do know it’s beautiful keep us posted with your restoration

Could we see a few more photos? Full length, from the side, inside, please.

I imagine this is a mid to late 1920s Operator Bell. Slightly earlier models had an open award card but also a square slug checking window under the coin entry. Later they used an oval slug checking window like yours and a divided score card. They probably just cut out that score card division when they added the jackpot. The Poinsettia used the same top casting later on so they often get confused with the earlier Operator Bell versions.

Ah, I just noticed the two cast bars between the reels, so then the top casting probably is from a Poinsettia after all!

Must admit, I hadn't noticed that difference between cases before. Good spot, I was just focusing on the decoration.

I've not yet brought it home so will take some more photos when I'm next there.

Couple of pictures. I took a tape measure in with me but forgot to take any measurements. It's a comfortable height for me to play on and I'm 6ft tall.

Excuse the state of it and the mess surrounding it!


Lock mechanism is still there, but no key, so just the later add on lock bar.


All the mechanism looks to be there, I've got things to click, whirr and spin, but obviously there's quite a lot of light corrosion and some of the small mattress style springs have seen better days.

Looks like a mouse had made a nest in the bottom compartment as I had to clear out a lot of leaves and straw. Only thing missing seems to be a money box / draw.

20-stop numbers on a 10-stop mech.
I'm guessing it's on a British coin?

Is there a jackpot mechanism inside? This may help origin, as the Mills type of this period would be part of the front casting. Given you have a bolted on front, maybe a Firmans jackpot in there.

Hi, it would be interesting to see if there's any jackpot mechanism behind the window! I suspect not, and originally probably just had a few coins showing in the window. Anyway, the good news is it looks all there and will polish up to be a nice machine. All the springs and things are still available. There's more than enough help on here if you get stuck - just depends what your trying to achieve.
Good luck.

I now have the machine home, ( a surprisingly heavy thing! ) and have had a few minutes to play around with it.

Watched a couple of videos found on here which showed how easy it was to get the mechanism out, removed it and removed several jammed coins. Gave it a light oiling in a few places which looked a bit corroded / sticky and it now cranks, spins, whirrs and clicks nicely.

There's definitely some sort of jackpot collection bin behind the window with a weighted arm, which emptys into the coin tray. Not entirely sure how that section of the machine works, as there were lots of coins stuck in the bottom pieces which I think is where it needs some mechanical attention.





It has definitely had a busy life at some point as a lot of the screw heads around the coin slot are very well worn.

a surprisingly heavy thing!

you just confirmed your new to the hobby
Well it gets more interesting as we go along, That has to be one of the simplest jackpots ever and was most likley the product of the British refurbisher . The jackpot door simply seems to be held in place by the top slide,when the slide moves back on a win the door opens...simples. I guess the weight on the JP arm resets the door once the coins have dropped and reduced the weight on the arm,all coins seem to go to the jack pot once the coin tube is full then when it overflows they go to the coin box,I bet it was prone to jamming.Some part seems to have been removed from just above the jackpot arm. As mentioned earlier this machine has 10 stops and 20 symbols,do you understand what this means? Being new to the game perhaps not, Unless it is an unusual mech (we cant quite be sure from the photo) 10 of the symbols never come up as the machine can only stop in 10 preset places

Yes, 100% novice! The limit of my knowledge is a few hours casual browsing around this forum over the last month or so.

As said in my first post, I'm quite mechanically minded / good with my hands and spend most of my spare time pulling cars and computers to bits. Never delved into anything this old before.

I gather most of these machines were 10 stop but it was quite common for uk machines to get 20 stop stickers to make it look like you were more likely to win?

I haven't entirely figured out the jackpot, it is counterbalanced with a little weight on the end of the arm, but not quite sure how the slides work yet also don't know whether there's anything missing which it needs to work properly. As you say, there are holes and a ghost mark from a bracket or something on the inside of the casing above the jackpot arm, but there's no sign of any spare parts inside which might have worked loose and fallen off.

The famous Mills fruit symbols were 20 to the reel even before 20-stop mechs were even thought of.
Mills opened-out the reel window so as to expose three symbols on each reel, rather than just the ones on the payout line. It gave extra excitement, because it produced the 'just-one-off' factor.
It was the biggest boost in 'playability' until Tic Tac Toe came out.

The first thing to do is get the mech working, which from the sound of it won't take much IF everything is there. It most likely is. Remove the coin tube, the slide cover and the slides and clean them well, do not oil them in any way, check the springs on the slides. They have to be good but not particularly strong. Replace the slides in the correct order and cycle the mech outside the case and see what happens. Rreport back if it fails and at what point and we can help sort it.

I did suspect the slides were supposed to run dry, I have just used some penetrating oil just to free them up initially and see what is going on before I strip it for a proper clean.

Just wondering is there's a tool or certain method I can use to work the mechanism outside the case a bit more easily as it needs quite a lot of pressure to do it without the lever.

I made this out of an old pinball machine playfield support, but a big screwdriver works just as well.