Long stored Mills mech reels don't spin

[tammy]

Thank you special when lit. I was going to give up and wait to find someone to sort it... but your pictures are clear and encourage me again, so will have a go in a day or two!
The rest of it runs well as they were in really rusty seized state when I bought them. I have put two pictures on of the two I bought. They literally took me days and days and after a long time I nearly used to wish I hadn't bought them and took them on.

[tammy]

Oh, thank you Special When Lit for your two pictures. I was putting the part where the screw goes in the wrong way 'round. No wonder I couldn't get the spring on. I used the spring puller then to hook the spring in... and it's going, and paying out well... Very addictive to keep putting old pennies in.
Thank you yet again, as I thought this morning it was a 'lost cause'!
tammy

[tammy]

Just need two of the pull handle screw on knobs has anyone got 2 spares to sell me?

[badpenny]

snooker balls

Drill an 'ole and glue 'em on.

[tammy]

Thank you badpenny, but think I will wait to see who has some originals hanging about from stripped salvaged machines... Don't fancy trying to drill holes in snooker balls!!

[coppinpr]

so those two machines are Boland machines?

[badpenny]

Only the mechs are Mills type.
Here's one I moved through the Coventry auction some years back. It was the most basic of case construction and reminiscent of Aristocrat design of that time.

The single reel looks Tom Boland'ish, except I've found them to be far more decorative in looks.
Like this one I moved through the same auction .....

BP

[pennymachines]

I reckon these brutalist bandits may have been Tom Boland's last gasp before turning his attention exclusively to operating machines in the 1970s. The single reel example lends weight to the theory. We already discussed the slightly earlier-looking Spinning Reels type which sport a 'Deluxe" name tag in the same font as Tammy's bandits.

Removal of gaming restrictions in 1960 allowed an immediate growth of new manufacturing industry and the consequent collapse in demand for converted machines. At this point Boland returned to operating machines and in 1973 was at 284 Elland Road. In 1980 he remained resident at 33 Gipsy Lane, Beeston, Leeds.

The point being, Tom Bolland was still active in the business very late on. Why would he turn out a single reeler in the '70s? Maybe he was left with some unsold converted mechs to shift when the rules changed.

[badpenny]

I remember being offered a van load of those.
The majority of them had no cash tray, but evidence of originally being mounted in a console type stand.
Also sporting badges that said "Pace". Which as we know was a much abused and altered name up until the late 60s.

BP

[tammy]

Oh thanks for that info'. Boland and Mills mechs does now seem to sound right! I remember in the early 1960s at the Hull Fair where the vintage machines were always in great numbers, they not only used the existing buildings but also purpose penny arcade structure buildings. They even used to have some vintage machines fastened to things in the open... Towards the bottom of the long Walton Street where the fair is, running along the side of the park, a long tin-structured building was absolutely full of all the popular 1940s, '50s and '60s machines, even many of the electro-mechanical sorts, including 3d Jockey Derbys, Lester Pigot, etc.
Quite a few of these two machines that I have were in there. Cornie Island or something similar they called that long arcade.
I remember playing on them thinking at the time they have been made in slightly cheaper cases but great fun they still are!... Happy days aye!