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I’ve noticed that when I hit wins of 8 or more on my Mills FOK Vender the payout is short one coin. So, two cherries pays 2, two cherries then lemon pays 4, three oranges pays 7 ( should be 8 ) three plums pays 11 (should be 12) etc.

Any idea where to start to troubleshoot this? Please explain like I’m 5. I’m new to vintage slots and I still have a long way to go to learn what everything is called and how the mechanism works. I guess this is a good place to start.

Here’s a couple Imgur albums from when I had the mech out of the box:
https://imgur.com/gallery/4F3XXdH
https://imgur.com/gallery/iwchkg7

Thanks!

The payouts are paid by thickness. If you are using newer nickels it can affect payouts. Older coins are a bit thinner.
There is probably an older thread on this topic.

It does make sense that the payouts go by thickness. Are newer quarters thicker than their 1920’s counterparts? I forgot to mention that it’s a quarter machine.

Also, is this adjustable? Or just something that we must accept if playing with modern coins?

I use old buffalo nickels and then the pay outs are correct.

Rich

Not sure if new quarters are thicker. Quarters of the day were silver and wore down faster. It might take a bit of investment filling it with older silver quarters. Ones with the dates worn off would be cheaper.

kentdun wrote:Not sure if new quarters are thicker. Quarters of the day were silver and wore down faster. It might take a bit of investment filling it with older silver quarters. Ones with the dates worn off would be cheaper.

Yes, I believe modern quarters are thicker, because I get shorted on the "16 for 1" payout on my Mills Dice machine: only 15 quarters come out. Also, my 25c Caille Grand Prize runs toward shorting the higher payouts in much the same way as the OP describes, though it was explained to me that that could be due to the machine possibly having been originally manufactured for the French market (the 1 Franc coin being the same diameter, but thinner, than the US 25c piece). So I don't know what to do about fixing payouts on old 25c denomination slots-- aside from buying lots of the now-very-expensive antique junk silver quarters as suggested above. But I have found a strategy for getting proper payouts on old nickel machines, by mixing in some really old, flat "V" nickels with the modern coinage: one oldie in every four or five nickels played results in correct payouts.

^^ Solved! Change the payout numbers on the card...!

Some payout cards listed a range of payouts. 2-4 , 7-9, etc. Covered the operator for short payouts.

kentdun wrote:Some payout cards listed a range of payouts. 2-4 , 7-9, etc. Covered the operator for short payouts.

Which may have been a necessity because, by 1939, any slot player would likely have been carrying a random mixture of the three varieties of five cent coins shown here. Look how our money has grown! For an orange/ten payout, there was nearly a 1/8" cumulative difference across 25 years for the coin slides to accommodate. I hope someone possessing a nice collection of original Washington quarters (1932-1964) will post a similar comparison with the post-1964 equivalent... I've only got three of those junk silver quarters handy.