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After nearly four months recovering from surgery I am finally back in the shop ready to tackle a new project, a Mills Jockey.

This machine was brought to me by a first time customer looking for just a cosmetic freshen up and preserve as much as possible.

Well it did not take me but a few minutes to burst his bubble and bring him in to reality, the machine has had several bad repairs in the distant past but fortunately the curved glass was intact and the machine was mostly complete with both original locks and keys.

The machine is now going to get a full restoration, some of the things that will need to be addressed are removing the rod that some one has drilled and added to keep the sides together and plugging the holes, removing all the wood putty and refabricating the missing wood on the upper sides of the cabinet, repairing the top and sides that are split in several places, repairing the base on both sides, repairing broken mortise joints, refabricating missing piece of trim on the front next to the play lever to name a few.

It sure feels good to be back working in the shop.

Glad you are back working on machines. The example you have may be the plain version without the trim. I bought a Jockey at Chicago a few shows ago from a prominent upright and gambling machine restorer/dealer who told me it was the plain version without the trim. The finish and decals are original so I'm pretty sure my machine has not been restored and there are no signs of it ever having the ornamental trim. So it would be correct without the trim. Although adding trim would dress it up...

Hi Coinmachines

Thank you for your reply and posting a picture of your Jockey nice original, I have done quite a bit of research and have seen quite a bit of different variations of this machine, it almost seems like Mills used what they had for moldings at the time, an other interesting thing I found is that the divider between the mech and the coin compartment was reused from an other machine or something as it had a pocket cut in to it a spline on one end and two other routed areas.

I do believe that this Jockey had that piece of molding on the other side of the handle as well, as there is a witness area were it looks like a piece of trim could have been and fell off some time long ago since it did not take any effort to remove the rest of the trim as the glue had failed, I would like to hear from Bill has he probably has seen many different variations of this model.

I also would like to know if you have the small coin door on your Jockey as I have seen them with and with out, and if you have the coin box, I am missing the coin box and if I could get some pictures and measurements I can fabricate one, the other thing I would like to know is the marque, the original one been broken off long ago and an home made wooden one was on the machine instead with the original award card and glass, I was able to find a nice recast but it has not been drilled for mounting hardware, could you take a picture of how yours is mounted? If the marque is tapped and the screws come up from the inside or if it just uses a carriage bolt and a nut on the inside, I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Hi Al:
There were several changes made to the Mills "Jockey" during it's life-span. The early models were heavily decked with Gingerbread.
The ornate woodwork had many changes. There was also some slight changes in the castings as well. Also, one of the earlier versions,
carried over the ornate wood marquee, from the Canda models, before they went to the cast iron marquees.
The later models, were more plain, and only had framework trim on the front. However, yours was just a tad before the one shown
by 'coinmachines', as yours is the double frame version, in which it appears you are missing the frame section to the right of the play
lever. They also relocated the tin coin box, to the right side of the case, behind a locked wood door, on the later models. The exact
model that this change was made, I am not sure of. But as my history and photo archives build, I may learn more at a later date.
Yes, I am still learning!
Bill

I finished the Jockey about a week ago and I finally got a chance to deliver it today to a very happy customer, now I just want to post some pictures of the finished machine, I did not want to post any before the customer took delivery of his machine, always feel that the customer should be the first person to see the finish product.

I could not find any pictures of an original coin box so I took a guess on what one would have looked like, aged it some and works quite well, the paper on the back door was quite brittle, preserving it was a must so all efforts were made not to damage it during the restoration of the back door, I had made enough of the molding to replace the missing piece on the front and I used the rest to make a frame for the paper using a piece of acetate to protect the paper I secured the frame to the back door with two sided tape that way no glue or nails were used and the frame could easily be removed.

I would like to thank COINMACHINES for helping out with pictures of his Jockey and Bill for shearing his knowledge on the changes made through out the production run.

Hi Great Job..If Still Interested..I Have Pics of Original Coin Box Box .6 1/2 by 3 by 1 and1/2

Hi SALOONKPR

Thanks for posting the picture and measurements of your coin box, I guessed right on the money on the measurements of the one I made just a tad taller at 1-5/8'' tall, I used a pull ring instead of the handle but works just fine, would you happen to have the paper tag inside of the cabinet of yours? If I cat get a good picture of one I can get one reproduced.

Thanks Al

Hi My # is ( 508 ) 868-4315 I was Fortunate to Purchase A NOS Mills Jockey Years Ago...Has Paper on Back Door...Call ..l I will send you photo...Jon