Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly - How does it work?

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slotjunky
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Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly - How does it work?

Post by slotjunky »

Hello I have a 1931 Mills War Eagle and ran into a lever assembly which I have not seen before and I do not understand for what it is needed for.
The springs are missing as you can see but even if I would attach some it still makes no sense to me. The lever goes into the coin tube. It seems to check if coins are up to that level.
Does anybody have a picture how this should look like when it is hooked up correct or can somebody give me some hints to get it set up right. I have the feeling some lever is missing since there seems to be no further connection to any other linkage.

Here the picture what I am talking about.
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coppinpr
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by coppinpr »

What you have there is the proudly named "check tube level detecting lever and hub assembly" (part number MLB2789A), It connected to the even more grandly named "coin tube shutoff lever assembly" (MLB2788CSP) which might still be on your machine but most likely not. I can't see from the photo. This system was not a success. The idea was to shut the machine down if the coins in the tube dropped below a certain level. This had the potential to take the machine out of use too often, and operators usually disconnected it. It was dropped from later models.

When you consider that the coin tube almost never drops that low, it makes you wonder if this system was put there to shut down any machine that was paying out too much so that it could be checked by an engineer before going back into service. dirtdog
slotjunky
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by slotjunky »

Hello coppinpr, that is good and very interesting news! Thank you. I assumed it had something to do with checking the coins in the tube but I had no clue what the details around it were!

Also your comment at the bottom is really interesting about the „reason“ why it was fitted.

I assume since the linkage has had already been removed in the early days that they are probably hard to find today. Í'd like to try to find one and mount it to the machine. If it works that’s fine, if not, I can still remove it. I would like to go as close as possible to original if possible during the restoration.

Has anybody a picture of the whole set up?
grains
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by grains »

I had an earlier Mills mech which I think had a detector lever in lower part of the tube, this is only photo I have but it might be of some help.
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coppinpr
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by coppinpr »

here is a photo from the "Mills operators companion" the part is marked 2788 CSP
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slotjunky
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by slotjunky »

Thank you for your input. i will keep an eye open for the parts.
slotsoffun
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by slotsoffun »

The detecting lever mech was an interesting concept by Mills, removed in later models as it caused more problems with coin tubes running out of coins!
The idea for this check lever was to ensure the jackpot was filled as quickly as possible once paid out. Although Mills had the reserve jackpot, this did not fill the jackpot on display fully! So once a jackpot was paid and dumped, on the next play the check detector lever moves forward. If it is prohibited by the presence of coins in the tube then the coin tube shut off lever moves over the top of the coin tube to deflect all coins to the jackpot, and is locked in forward position (your photo shows the lock part). Each time the machine is played all coins are now diverted directly to the jackpot as the machine assumes that as the coin tube is over half full, it can survive several payouts without the need to be topped up yet!
However, if the check detector lever was allowed to move forward (indicating that the coin tube was less than half full) the coin tube shut off lever does NOT lock forward, thus allowing regular operation of coins dropping in to the coin tube. I had this mechanism complete on a Mills Roman Head I owned. Attached photo of the parts (before restoration!!!!). Hope that helps.
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badpenny
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Re: Mills coin tube detecting lever assembly How does it work?

Post by badpenny »

Thanks for posting that.
Your explanation makes much more sense than shutting a machine down because it was low on coins for paying out.

BP :cool:
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