New owner of a QT Sweetheart(1st mechnical)

[TheFatman]

When I have done full restorations, I will use mineral spirits to dissolve the old hardened grease. But with doing this, you will lose you wheel strips if you don’t remove them from the mech. Replacement strips are well made and available. I take note and pics of the strips and mark the wheels where the strips are attached so I will know position #1 of each strip so when I replace them I am a lot closer to them being in position. Depending on the level of the restoration depends on how far you go with it. I would suggest that you being new, take your time with this. Get the mech working with as little disassembling as possible. This will give you a better idea of the working of the slot. The jackpot mech can also get gummed up and need to be gone thru. I use a PB Blaster which I think is available from Home Depot. This I use lightly on the joints that move to help dissolve old grease. Work the mech lightly by hand to get the oil into the joints. That’s what I do mostly when starting a repair / restoration. It is ok to strip the wood and sand and clean. I use Minwax to finish the cabinets. The one I use is the hand rub finish. Takes more work but it leaves the cabinet with a matte natural looking finish. I have a Black Cherry I have been sitting on for more than a year. Its all original as far as I can see. The wood cabinet has its original black paint on it covering the beautiful red oak wood. Still don’t know if I am ready o strip the wood .... kinda like the "all original" appearance the machine has.
Let me know what you think...

You can call if you need assistance.
Dave

[flipper77]

B4U:

To the right of the heart is a raised mound that matches the original Mills Lock. Think it is just there to make appearance symmetrical. It is the same size as a nickel so kind of a neat idea to glue a nickel on it. I have never seen that on any Sweetheart QT. The Chrome QT is cast iron so that front is surprisingly heavy. Yours is probably cast iron as well - is it one of the glitter colors? Made during war so aluminum scarce. Good picture and description of sweetheart QT in Dick Bueschel Slots Vol 4.

flip

[RameGoom]

There is one of these machines up for auction in a couple of weeks on icollector.com starting bid $500.

If anyone is interested, might be a nice addition to a collection.

[BEER4U]

Flip: The front is very heavy. It's a really dull looking
baby blue color. If it had glitter on it, there's not
much evidence of it any more. It definitely needs
a face lift.

Dave F.: I think I will try and keep the wood as much as I can
as is. I like the battle scars. I think they tell a story. I can almost
smell stale beer soaked into it, most likely Yuengling! As I stated above,
the metal portion needs full restoration.

I'll shoot some pics as soon as my camera and I get in the same place
as the machine.

Playing around with it this afternoon, there's a couple of levers in the front
of the mech below the reels. A red tip one and a yellow tip one. Seems like
they have several positions, but couldn't figure out what they did or controlled.

Was able to get most of the moving parts freed up and able to engage the lever,
but the reels don't spin yet. Will continue to work on that.

These machines remind me of a large watch with all the moving parts.
They are so incredible!!

B4U

[RameGoom]

Bump to check the online auction at icollector.com There are several machines that are up for bid, including the QT, and the bidding starts tomorrow on the 14th. Lasts for a day.

[RameGoom]

The auction at icollector.com has a single lot of 5 War Eagle machines, and they are showing the serial numbers on each one. Are they legit or clones? Any experts see those? They are estimating the lot to sell for up to $15,000.
Here's the link:
http://www.icollector.com/Set-of-Five-M ... _i15751809

[neocoinops]

I saw some of the auction results yesterday (unfortunately, I couldn't go to the auction) and the QT sold for only $900 +20%BP. The photo looked good. I wonder if there was something wrong with it, or did it just slip under the radar?

[TJ]

A few QTs, some of the many that were produced. T.J.

[JPCass]

I went back and checked the serial number again on the top
of the machine and although it reads "Z24931QX" the "Z", "1",
"Q" and "X" were definitely added at a later time because
the font,the size, and the depth of those are clearly different
then the "2493". I'm thinking that is the actual serial number.

I think the actual serial number would be something like 24931 - or possibly 22493.

I believe the first 900 in a new series for these smaller machines were used for the short-lived and troubled Junior Silent (with the indian head). The next several thousand were the first QT as we know it now, the Firebird (or Thunderbird). Most of the Chevrons I've looked at, the next model produced in the late 30s and early 40s, have numbers in the 10,000s The Sweethearts were a later 40s machine, so a serial number over 20,000 makes much more sense.

I'm not an expert at numbering, but I made a bit of a study of the QT numbering scheme when I acquired my own fairly early machine, trying to pin down its date. I've seen reference to a series of books on slots, that has a lot of information on numbers, and from what I've picked up there have been a couple of attempts at serial number registries.