help with my mills black cherry reel strips and payout Please

[junkman]

I need to know what number strips I need for my mills black cherry is there a book that shows this or if someone can tell by the picture of payout card that is pictured. The strips that I have on it now pays out 5 coins when it should be 3 and I also added a picture of the number strips that's on the machine now. Can you tell me if this is right. Thanks guys

[Jackpot]

This sounds like more of a payout problem with the vertical payout fingers that go though the index disk holes. The 3 pay finger is the outside one or the right one if your looking at the mechanism fingers, the second from the right is the 5 pay finger and it or the 3 pay finger may need adjusting, sometimes the 5 coin finger can bounce on the horizontal fingers and cause a five coin pay when it should of been a three coin pay, if this is the case, you need to bend the five coin finger just a little, so it doesn't hit the horizontal finger on a three coin pay.
Jackpot

The reel disks have numbers stamped on them on the outside edge, each disk has one, but you need to look through a cherry hole to see the number on disk 2 and same with three.

[junkman]

Do the strip numbers look like the right ones for this machine from the picure

[edski]

They do say 3-5 mystery.
3 coin, 5 coin???

[Jackpot]

Check you reel disk's (with the holes) and see if they are metal stamped SP-1 and SP-2 and SP-3. Mystery pay was a name given to the later model castle or blue front slot machine which Mills didn't have new style award cards made up yet for the ones they were selling, and which had a payout amount change, so they called it a mystery pay at first.  The tapes have to correspond with the disks, so I check the numbers on the disks first, then check the combination of reel symbols to the disk numbers, then get the tapes. Disks can have have variations of symbols or symbol changes, operators could plug holes in the disks or punch extras, over lay or cut three symbols with a cut piece of reel tape to change a reel tape symbol. The best way is to check the old tapes with the new ones to be sure the symbols are ALL match, but I know that is not possible sometimes. I posted some links here somewhere for catalogs of reel tapes and parts where you can see the layout of the symbols and the reel strip number before you order them. Is you machine paying out 3 and 5 coins when it payouts on these lower combinations? what are your disk numbers? Once you know that check the catalog for reel tapes with these numbers and them when you find those, check the symbol shown in the layout of the reel strips to see if your set matches. By your machine photo of your award amount bib, it looks like you my have a Mills Black Cherry machine, and your award bib reads 3-5 pay, and pays on two cherrys, cherry cherry anything. On these old machines the reel bundles can get swapped around on machines as everything else over time, but the disks and strips usually stay together. Also check you disks to see if they have been modified at sometime by seeing a hole plug in one of the holes.
Jackpot

[Jackpot]

Here are the catalog links:

Antique Mechanical slot Machine parts catalog:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4by05r

Antique Mechanical slot Machine springs and parts catalog:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/wpmkzc

Antique Mechanical Trade Stimulators parts catalog:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7swynt

Antique Mechanical slot machine Reel Strips & Award card catalog:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/1ievlm

Antique mechanical slot and trade parts catalog, call him first!:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3sljto

Enjoy, and I hope these are really helpful for you on working on the old mechanical slot machines.

 

Jackpot

[Ken Layton]

Those are some great links! I've saved them on my computer. Thanks for posting those.

[Jackpot]

I just notice something here in your photo's,  (( SP=1 cherry ))  (( CH=2 cherry's )), I see you have SP strips on this machine, and it is a 2 cherry pay, so you need CH strips which are for two cherry pays! So, No to you question, these strips are the wrong ones for this machine!
Jackpot

[junkman]

Do you know where I can buy a set of these in buff white  and what I need to ask for when ordering I'm already into this set 20.00

[Jackpot]

OK, lets take it from the top, first get your disk numbers, to do this look at the photo's I will add, the photos will tell you how to find these. I am assuming that you do not have your old strips, if you did you could compair the symbols display with the old and new to see if they match, but lets say you don't have them. OK copy your disks numbers and call Tom Krahl at Antique Slot Part Company and the link to download his catalog is above in a previous post. When you reach him, tell him you need a set of reel strips for a Mills Black Cherry "3-5 pay" and it's a two cherry anything pay, and give him your reel disk numbers. He will be able to fix you up from there, and you just have to figure out if you want antique buff strips, or white, or shinny, or silver, or gold. His phone number is: 1-920-622-5959 And the link to download his parts catalog is:

Antique Mechanical slot Machine parts catalog:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/4by05r

Now if this doesn't work out right, don't come to me and try to recover your next 20.00. Sometimes these disk's have been modified in one way or another so you could run into problems, but this would be a very uncommon problem to have on most slots.

OK, I took some time to take photo's for you so I trust this will get the job complete, this information should, get-her-done! Good luck on it, installing reel strips without marking a position layout with the old strips, can be very challenging unless you know what your doing.

Thank You

Jackpot

[Jackpot]

Here is a photo showing how to get the disks numbers on the third disk.
Jackpot

[junkman]

First I want to say thank you so much jackpot for your help with this issue. I took the bundle off the machineand if you take a loo k at the pictures I have a sp1 sp2 sp3 on the disc so I'm asuming I have the right strips just the wrong reel  bundle for the machine or can I make the sp disc work or do I need to find ch reel bundle I guess what I'm asking for from a expert what would you do? Thanks Terry

[junkman]

And 3

[Jackpot]

OK, now we are in the soup here, now it's like trying to guess the combination on a combination lock. So, Now we have to take it from the start and this is not easy, not having it on the bench. We have to know what you mechanism is capeable of paying. This one cherry and two cherry pays and sp and ch strips and disks are just part of finding the right combination. So we need to know what your machine will pay out, what coins does it deliver for the smallest payout and how many to the next larger payout, 2/4 or 3/5, we just need to know these two amounts first, then we will know what the set of payout slides are, next we go to the vertical payout fingers, the second one from the right to be specific. But first the coin amounts for the two lowest payouts. If you can't acheave this by just playing the machine, try cycling the mechanism and as it is spinning you can stop the fan blade on the clock to suspend play, then find the lower horizontal payout fingers and just hold the bottom one over over against the spring tention, so just the bottom payout slide will be allowed to be pulled back and pay it's coins, then let the clock spin to finish the cycle and see what it pays off is for the bottom slide or the lowest payout. Now try it again by holding the two lowest fingers over and see how many coins the second slide will pay out. We need to know if your mechanism and slides are made for a 3/5 pay first, before we go any further on it. Man....., this is not going to be easy, if it's on my bench there are several things you can do to make the payout amounts right, and the machine to also payout on one "cherry anything anything" or to make it only payout on "cherry cherry anything", and also several ways to go about this, and it can get very confusing very easy. Right now we don't really know if your mechanism is wrong or your reel bundle is wrong, or your vertical fingers are also right or wrong, so at this point we need to start somewhere, so we see what the payout slides are good for first. I think I need a drink, maybe several!

Jackpot

 

[StatFreak]

Jackpot, I already gave you a K+ for posting links to the catalogs, so I'll have to owe you another  for the help you're giving junkman.


Stat

[Jackpot]

Well Thank You! I just hope to see him get it fixed up right so he can really enjoy it.

Thanks
Jackpot

[prarire]

Look at Bernie Bertin Slot Springs on the Internet.  You can look at his book of Reel Strips & Mills Parts.
             good luck...