1936 Groetchen Twenty One trade stimulator

[special when lit]

Thought you may want to see some pics of my just restored Groetchen Twenty One (not 21, that's a different machine!) trade stim.
As the name suggests, the game is based on Blackjack, with 4 number reels as your 'hand' and the 5th reel as the house's hand. When you push the arm down, all 5 reels spin, but reels 3, 4 & 5 have the windows blanked, so you can't see the numbers. The first two reels are your hand, and you can choose to draw 1 or 2 cards by pressing little levers under the corresponding window, then you press the lever under the 5th window to see if you've beat the house.
There is no payout on this machine, if you won, you'd tell the barkeep & he'd give you a cigar or free drink.
This machine is set up to work on 1d, but also works on modern 2p, which saves me buying 1d's of ebay!
It's not perfect, but I'm happy with how it's turned out. I still need the frame for the instruction card & the gumball door, which fits in the hole bottom left.

[treefrog]

What a great job you have done it looks lovely.

Question, what was the lower unit/box below the pre-restore piccies for? (cash box?)

[special when lit]

Yes, it was an extra cash box. There was a hole cut in the bottom of the machine for the money to fall through.
It looked the same sort of age as the machine, so I don't know if it was an optional extra back in the day, but I asked on a couple of American forums & got no reply.
All the photos I've seen have not had one fitted, so I left it off.
I've kept it safe though, if I ever find out it's a rare valuable extra!

[gameswat]

Hey Specs, nice job! I like these projects too as the changes are so enormous. Was the base made of matching wood or different? Maybe an operators add-on as someone went to some trouble to match it to the cabinet quite nicely. I've seen quite a few of the early cast irons turn up with these added bases so you can imagine the amount of cash flowing in that they needed them!?

[slotsoffun]

Topic merged - Site Admin,

Hi Guys

Don't suppose anyone owns one of these little trade stimulator? If so, I'm trying to find out what they have inside. I have one that works, but it looks empty inside, so was hoping someone who owns one can photograph the inside from the front and back so I can compare.

Much appreciated
I've attached the state of my 21 inside.
I know the springs are missing from the rear, but I need to see pictures of how they attach and how long etc....

[gameswat]

I have one that works, but it looks empty inside,

What the!? If it works then what do you think is missing?????

Confused, Australia.

[special when lit]

I've restored a couple of these. From what I can see, you're missing the springs that control the reel brakes.
Looks easy enough to make, just a piece of flat bar with some holes in it.
Great little machines, although a pig to disassemble as you need to dismantle the case to get the mech out.

[slotsoffun]

Thank you so much. That picture is just what I needed. I am missing the bar!
As for the question, if its working!!! it worked so far as the reels spin, but I knew that it was missing springs but couldn't see where they attach so the reels didn't stop. Hence the picture helps me no end.

thanks again.

[slotsoffun]

OK.. Need help again!
I've attached a picture of a "mock up" of the mech. I've added the springs which pull down on the Reel Stoppers (B), this pressure pushes the stoppers into the cogs on the inner wheel of each reel, thus stopping it from turning.
When a coin is deposited, the handle pushed down, it rotates the twisted bar (A) across the top, which I'm assuming should push down on the top of each Reel Stopper (B) arms to move them out of the way when the reels are kicked into motion.
From what I can see, this bar (A) does not appear to push the stoppers (B) far enough down as I can't spin reels by hand easily. Also, when I let the handle go, the reels are kicked round but almost immediately stop spinning as the bar (A) seems to raise without a pause... surely, like bandits, there should be a delay in releasing the Stop Arms (B) to allow a few spins of the reels.... Or am I not getting it!!!!

Any more photos or advice much appreciated.

[special when lit]

The whole mech is timed by the pump, which is the cylindrical thing in the lower left of the photo.
Usually these are all gummed up with old grease, also the adjustment via the air bleed screw is very fine.
A strip & clean and some fiddling about with the adjustment should sort the problem.
Cheers, Gaz.

[slotsoffun]

Just wanted to update you. Cleaned the pump, and all is working fine. Just need to make a back door for it as it was missing.. but I guess as I only paid £20 for the item at a car boot sale last weekend I can't complain! (I don't think anyone at the Boot sale had a clue what it was!!!!)

Thanks for your help, Special When Lit

[slotsoffun]

thanks for all the offers for the item, its now been sold.

[mx5]

Topic moved & merged - Site Admin.

Hi.

I'm restoring a Groetchen 21 and need some help please. The machine is missing parts from the gum ball section. Can anyone please post some pictures so I can see what is missing.
I'm also missing the instruction card on the front of the machine - a picture of this would also greatly help.

Appreciate any assistance.

[ilovemyjukebox]

I have one somewhere. Mine was minus the gum ball bits too. There was a chap in the USA about five years ago that was making the parts. I think he has stopped now.

When I get home tonight I'll take some pictures.
He also did the award card (mine was missing that too).

Dave

[mx5]

Thanks very much. Apparently it's quite common for the gum ball parts to be missing. I read somewhere that they took the parts out as they got fed up having to refill them. I don't know how true that is but from my experience on checking on the net, a lot of these machines seem to have these parts missing.

Regards

Paul

[gameswat]

I read somewhere that they took the parts out as they got fed up having to refill them.

My father operated machines for many years and loved removing anything ancillary to current requirements! Often my job. Save weight and less problems on site. Sadly this ruined the originality of many machines. Luckily for us, most were from the '60s, '70s and '80s eras. Since the gum was purely to get around gaming laws I'm sure when the laws changed in that locality later on many of the machines were simplified for the above reasons and to save costs in gum.

[mx5]

All of what you said makes a lot of sense now. Bet they were sick to the teeth with gum balls and happy days when the law changed
Only prob now is trying to find the parts that were thrown away.

[safetyman1005]

I recently bought this trade stimulator off EBay.

On stripping it down I found it to be a Groetchen Twenty One, but the gum mechanism was removed and professionally blocked up as with the coin inspection hole (the holes were not drilled or tapped). The button holes below the reel glass were also blanked off. As it only had 3 reels instead of 5, I decided to restor to my own spec, by blanking off the two outside reel windows.

It works on old 1d coins, my only problem is that the coin chute was badly damaged. I tried to repair to no avail, so I intend to fabricate a new one from brass. I renamed it 'Double Six'.

Hope you like.

[special when lit]

That looks great. I've restored a couple of those myself, they seem to be quite popular in this country.

[safetyman1005]

Very nice machine. What I like is the simple mechanism inside.