Could someone provide photos of a Tom Boland gooseneck mech?

[eo3seven]

Hello, I bought a said-as "Tom Boland's mechanism" for having the opportunity to understand how a slotmachine works by dismounting / cleaning / re-mounting (note: it is a single reel - like Screen Stars). I understood during the process that it clearly misses some parts. I guess I will be able to mitigate some of those missing, but I encounter a first blocking issue: I don't understand how a coin (1D penny size) in the gooseneck can lead to push backwards (red arrow on one image below) the lever which unlocks the playing capability

Could someone send me photos of the front and the back of such a Goosenech mech? I guess it shall be a Tom Boland's single reel mech, because I found detailed photos of other mechs which did not fully help (the Owner's Pictorial Guide for Mills Bell slot machine didn't help me either). I saw it misses at least a spring, but surely it misses other parts.
Thanks a lot
PS: sorry for cases where my English is not correct, I'm French - nobody's perfect.

[coppinpr]

I don't have photos to hand but I might be able to help if I understand your problem correctly. Firstly, you have to understand this is, perhaps, not the best mech to learn on as there will be many parts missing... intentionally; that what Tom did, he took old Mills mechs (and this is indeed old) and converted them. This was originally a three reel mech., so many parts have gone for good.

As to your problem, the arm you highlight with the arrow tries to move FORWARD when you pull the handle, not backwards. The trapped coin stops it moving forward and unlocks the play.
The coin drops to a point in front of the coin detecting rod (B) where it is held by the half hidden arm to the left (A) which should be spring loaded; the rod tries to move forward, can't because of the coin, and the mech unlocks. As the handle moves further down, the small arm on the right (C) moves forward and pushes the coin past the spring loaded holding bar (A).

gn.jpg (31.56 KiB) Viewed 5855 times

If (B) is not starting at the back, clear of the coin entry and then moving forwards at the start of the cycle the problem is lower down, and not the coin entry area, so we need other photos.

[eo3seven]

Thanks a lot coppinpr for your reply . I'm still puzzled since to cycle the mech (with a screwdriver, as shown on many videos), I had to move in the "E" direction of the image below to unlock - which is the opposite direction it should do according to your logical explanation.
Thus I provide another photo of the full side, to see if something else than the spring for the "arm A" might be missing(?) Another thing is that I have no idea on how the handle interacts with this side, since I have only the inside mech.

[badpenny]

Regards to your understanding that you have to pull part E backwards to free the game.

This isn't the opposite of Paul's explanation, it's just forcing the unlocking of the play.
Push down on your screwdriver slowly and allow E move forward gently.
You will see that if you stop E before the screwdriver reaches its limit then play will engage.
You'll have to experiment (probably many times) to find the "sweet spot" but it is there.

If you follow the linkages from E and their interactions with each other down to the handle, you should understand better what's happening.

Good luck

BP

[coppinpr]

I'm sure BP's description has made things clearer. What I suspect you are not noticing is the forward movement before the backward.
As to the handle, its interaction is very simple: it just pushes down on the knob shown in the photo below (H).

Do not adjust anything till you are sure it's wrong, but take note of the coin detection rod (CD). This is adjustable with the bolt holding it in place and moves forwards and backwards to give just the right clearance to allow the coin to drop into its holding place when inserted. It could be the wrong setting for the CD that is stopping you from seeing the forward movement. When at rest, the rod should be just clear of the coin drop to allow the coin to stop in front of it, for the forward movement will not be very great. Remember, although the arm tries to move forward, it's the lack of forward movement that unlocks the machine, which is what you are seeing when you exaggerate the movement of "E".

Referring to your 3 photos:
In photo 1, the machine is, as you say, locked and won't play. This is because "E" has tried to move forward and can, because there is no coin in the way, so no play.
In photo 2, you have simulated what happens when a coin stops "E" from moving forward and unlocked the machine. All you need to do is adjust the CD so it stops "E" moving forward just enough to unlock the machine. As BP says, it's a small sweet spot to find.

[eo3seven]

Many thanks to both of you You were right when suspecting that I didn't catch the 2-steps move.
Now I can go on until the next challenge (which is to replace the pay-slides since it misses one among the 3 which should have been present.

PS: concerning the choice of a Tom Boland's mech as a first experiment, I just took an opportunity on ebay which was the only available and affordable for me at the time I was decided to start the adventure. Surely I would have preferred a three reels machine, since as said on forums, those single reel are not so fun to play... but it's interesting enough to discover, and if it is really a Tom Boland's mech (*), it might deserve to be maintained.
(*) This could be also a false revamp, which is probably partially the case - the coin tube entry seems a patched one, since too narrow to let a 1D penny go through.
Here is what I started from:

[coppinpr]

You have done a great job in cleaning and rebuilding the mech. It is definitely a mech used in a Boland machine and may have been altered by a later operator to run on a different coin, but Tom is famous for altering many different mechs to fit his machines and many different parts to make up his cases. If you're interested in reading a little more about his machines (as well as see some of the great restorations done over the years) take a look at the Tom Boland Collection on my web site, https://www.penny-arcade.info/the-tom-boland-collection

[eo3seven]

Indeed I am a bit proud of my cleaning - performed with white vinegar to remove the rust, and many elbow grease with drilling + steel brush (including dremel for small corners).
Thanks for the link .. that I already visited and coincidentally one of the picture is of my mech

Epilogue for the initial question of this post in case someone else would meet a similar case: the lever (L) was preventing the mech to reach the pictured "reset position" PR, because the lever hole length was not long enough, thus stopping the travel at an intermediate blocking position PS. I lengthened the lever hole (thanks magic drill) such that reset position can be reached.

[eo3seven]

Finally the (transient) end of the mechanism story as pictured

[treefrog]

My word what an art form……I love the stand, a bit of Blackpool Tower or Eiffel Tower to it

[coppinpr]

Love it! The only thing id do would replace the reel strip in this particular case, as you have done a remarkable job in returning the mech to new I think the reel stip should also look new