Jennings Mechanical Dime Slot Help

[barbarossa]

I am hoping to get some insight and suggestions regarding this Jennings slot machine. It has been in my wife’s family for at least 50 years, but none of her living relatives know exactly how her grandparents acquired it. She got it from her uncle a few years back, and he had told her it did not work so it sat in a corner collecting dust. I decided to take a look at it to see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. Well, I dropped a dime in and pulled the handle and found to worked fine-ish. Now I’m trying to figure out anything I can about it.

In researching online, I’ve gathered that it’s an Operators Bell slot machine, but I was wondering if there is a specific model this?

The keys, if the family ever had them, did not make their way along with the machine., but the locking lever for the back panel was not engaged so I was able to open it up. I took the front lock off from the inside and took it to a locksmith to try and have a key made (hoping the key would also work on the back cashbox cover). Unfortunately, the locksmith returned a baggie full of parts and told me that the lock broke in pieces when he opened it up. He happened to have a used Yale lock that was almost identical, and provided that as a replacement. I ended up taking the base plate off to access the cash box area and removed the bottom lock from the inside. The lock is a Yale lock (pictured) with “ODJ 186” stamped on the plate. The broken one has “ODJ 548” stamped on it, so I assume the keys would not have been interchangeable anyhow. All of that backstory was to help my questions…
I’ve seen that there are a lot of key collectors out there…does anyone happen to have the “ODJ 186” key in their stash?
The lock I received from the locksmith is also a Yale. He said he wouldn’t be able to rekey the lock I have to match the one he gave me because of how old they are. Does that seem legitimate?
If I can’t find a key for the ODJ lock, I would like to replace it as well. Does anyone know where I can search to find a replacement lock set?

Other questions…
The mechanism clunks pretty hard when the arm is pulled. Is that normal?

There was no cashbox in the bottom of the machine when I got it open. Are they pretty similar across Jennings machines of this style? I don’t know exactly what to search for since I am unsure of what the model of the machine is.

Anyhow…thanks for reading through this and I look forward to any insight you all may have.

[oldslotman]

I would try a different lock smith. They should be able to rekey that lock you have but the key would not match the other key you have. Yes the machine will clunk a bit since it is a ten stop machine, meaning that it stops on every other symbol . There are twenty symbols on a reel strip but that machines only stop on ten of them. That machine did not originally come with a jackpot. It has been revamped to add the jackpot. That was done by putting new front castings on the machine with a jackpot.

[barbarossa]

I would try a different lock smith. They should be able to rekey that lock you have but the key would not match the other key you have. Yes the machine will clunk a bit since it is a ten stop machine, meaning that it stops on every other symbol . There are twenty symbols on a reel strip but that machines only stop on ten of them. That machine did not originally come with a jackpot. It has been revamped to add the jackpot. That was done by putting new front castings on the machine with a jackpot.

Yeah, I might need to expand my search for a locksmith. My wife had called around to those around us and most wouldn't touch it.

As far as the clunking noise...It isn't so much as when the reels are spinning. It is right as you complete the arm pull.

I've read that some of the earlier machines had jackpots added after they became popularized. Is that something was done by individual owners/casinos, or by Jennings? Does that make it impossible to tell what model the machine is?

Thanks for your response by the way!

[oldslotman]

Many revamps were done by other companies like Pace and Rock Ola and some others.