CoinOpCollectorForum.com

For the restoration folks.

I have a 10 stop Mills machine that has steel reel strips in it, in poor condition with considerable fading. The strips were added by Rockola who knows when. It's the only reference to Rockola on the machine, otherwise, it's an ordinary Mills Poinsettia.

My question is, should I try to resurrect the steel strips, or replace them with paper equivalents? I'm leaning towards custom made reproduction strips. Installing the steel strips involves virtually disassembling the reels which are clamshelled together with screws; installing paper strips would be relatively simple in comparison.

Either way they are going to be reproduction strips so I would go with paper. I do not believe that reproduction steel strips would add anything to the machine. JMHO

Not sue about your refrnce about clam shelled and screwed together, the strips are crimped in place the tin strips are more difficult to work with than paper, in my opinion you can always replace the strips at a later date,

My thought would be as to how bad are the original strips as when I do a restoration I do everything I can to maintain the full originality of the machine by gently cleaning and buffing of the casting and light paint touch up if possible as well as maintaining the original cabinet look and if the reel strips are original sometimes keeping the original patina is desired by the purchaser when the slot machine is sold.
Overly restoring an antique slot machine in my opinion makes it look to new, like it just left the factory and in some cases with particular machines that have been reproduced almost makes it look like a reproduction.
Restoration while leaving a little original patina is what I find my customers want most.
IMHO!

This machine had the strips crimped into place, and each reel is made up of two halfs, held together with screws. Once you loosen the screws, the strips are released from the reel slots. Trying to take the strips out the conventional way would tend to kink the metal.

They are in poor condition as some of the symbols are almost completely gone. It's going on a Mills Poinsettia that has apparently been resold by Rockola (the name is printed on the strips) so it's already been thru the revamp process far as I can tell. I'm pretty sure the original strips from the factory would have been MILLS strips.

Otherwise, the rest of the machine is OK, but the castings can use some polishing up as well as some of the painted front. I suppose it would be more of a "cleaning-up" rather than a restoration by the time I do the strips. I don't understand why they'd use metal strips in the first place.

MONTI wrote:Overly restoring an antique slot machine in my opinion makes it look to new, like it just left the factory and in some cases with particular machines that have been reproduced almost makes it look like a reproduction.
Restoration while leaving a little original patina is what I find my customers want most.
IMHO!

I thoroughly respect the opinions put forth here on the forums from all of the long-time experts. I'm very new at this stuff, find it an undeniable obsession, and right now my mind is a big sponge. I"m gonna do my best to keep the fever going with these old machines. I do like the patina on these machines, and have resisted the urge to go wild restoring the looks of the machines I own now.

Ramegoom:
The Mills "Poinsettia" had many different casting changes during it's production years.
Some so slight, that you would have to have the two machines side-by-side to notice
the differences. Usually when another mfr. like Rockola, installed their reel strips on
a Mills machine, there was a definite change in the lower front casting. When this was
done to a Mills Operator Bell series, it was usually a total revamp, with the addition of
a jackpot. But being as all Poinsettia's came with a jackpot, this may have been a very
slight casting change, or maybe not-at-all. Does your machine also have Rockola decals
on the sides of the case? That was usually common practice, when changing the reel
strips. Can you post a photo of your machine? I have a separate photo-file of Poinsettia
variations, and would like to see if yours matches any of them.
Thanks, Bill

There is a mills decal on one side, and on the other side, no decals. The one that may have been there appears to have been removed since the patina on that location is somewhat lighter in the area.

Here's the machine as I received it:

Looks like a Mills Poinsettia to me. Some one may have slipped in a Rockola reel bundle at one time.

oldslotman wrote:Looks like a Mills Poinsettia to me. Some one may have slipped in a Rockola reel bundle at one time.

I agree, as far as I know, Rockola never did anything with the Poinsettia slot machine, but I could be wrong, my wife tells me I am all the time!