Owning a vintage slot machine is one of those fun yet daunting ideas. Many old school one-armed bandits are beautifully designed and instant conversation pieces. Plus slot fans who own a machine don’t ever have to worry about losing money to the house.
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Charles August Fey, a Bavaria-born inventor, was living in San Francisco when he invented his first gambling machine in 1984. His games grew to be so popular at local bars, he quit his day job and opened a factory to start mass producing them, most notably the Liberty Bell machines in 1899. A lot of the functionality from that early game remained in place through much of the 20th century. Watch this video to see the seven mechanical actions set into motion when you pull back the bandit’s arm. The inner workings are probably a little more complex than you expect.
Given that a lot of old slot machines are hand built, it isn’t surprising that coins can get jammed on their way through the mechanism. Big warning: If your machine jams, don’t force the arm or you can break, twist or damage a part inside. Different models and makes tend to have common jam points. The Mills model shown in the above video can have coins stuck in the “elevator” section that displays the last five coins dropped into the machine. Getting the slot working again can be as simple as cleaning the gunk off of an old part. You just need to be smart when you’re disassembling and reassembling the machinery.
Okay, there are plenty of more places where a coin can get stuck and the above video demonstrates how to fix a variety of jams. It also explains how to disassemble the major parts of the machine and where common problem areas are.
Curious how an antique slot machine knows how much money a winner gets? This video shows the punch-card like communication that trips payouts and how. If you ever need to replace the reel symbols or calibrate the machine you’ll need to understand how these work. Even if you don’t ever plan on owning a machine, the metallic “circuitry” is interesting to see.
Want to own a modern slot machine? New ones have plenty more bells, whistles and dings, and also a lot more advanced parts. If you plan on getting one, you may want to have an idea of what’s inside. In addition to the classic reels, there are speakers, motherboards filled with programming chips and plenty of wires. Unless you have a way with a soldering iron you probably won’t try and fix it. But in case you do, here’s a clip from Discovery showing what’s inside.
Did you know newer slot machines are smart enough to test themselves when a problem happens? This video shows you the procedure for having the machine check its own system. The host’s desert dry delivery is also enough to make this vid worth a watch.
Perhaps my decision to purchase a coin-operated washer is coming back to bite me. I was out of town all weekend, and came back to a note on my door, saying that the coin slot on the washing machine was jammed, and wouldn’t turn on the washing machine, or pull out. The tenants said that they put in the correct amount of money (they had just gotten a new roll of quarters from the bank, even), and weren’t trying to pull anything (i.e. putting the quarters in pantyhose to pull them back out, or a similar trick like that).How To Repair Coin Slots On Washing Machines
When the washing machine was brand new, the coin slot had been a little sticky, and was fixed by a simple dousing of WD-40. So, I figured that this would be a simple fix.
MORE THAN OIL
However, no amount of WD-40 and jiggling would get this coin slot to budge. One of my guy-friends came over to take a look at it with me and he too was stumped. It appeared at first as though one of the six coin slots was missing its coin — however, after further inspection with a flashlight, we discovered that there WAS a coin in that slot, but it had tipped to the side, and was preventing the coin slot from moving. A nickel?? Some sort of coin-like subway token??
ENTER THE X-ACTO BLADE
In order to fix the problem, we needed some way to push the tilted coin upright. A wire? A knife? There wasn’t a lot of room to work with, but an x-acto blade, slid into the slot next to the coin, was able to move the coin upright. The coin slot went in, deposited its coins, and started the wash.
WHAT WAS THE CULPRIT?
I had emptied the coins from the washing machine while figuring out the problem, so that I could see exactly what had been sitting in the slot, jamming it up. When we pulled out the coin tray… it was a CANADIAN quarter! A Canadian quarter that was a slightly different size, a slightly different weight; just enough to cause the coin to tilt in the slot. What surprises me the most, though, isn’t the fact that my Whirlpool doesn’t accept Canadian quarters — the fact that the BANK is putting CANADIAN quarters in its rolls! Seriously! Aren’t those supposed to be sent back up north, across the border???
Cost To Repair Washing Machine
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