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I have a few questions in regards to these slot machines,. I have a Cadet and what I have found is there is very little information regarding these slot machines and for that matter any Caille slot. I'm wondering the reason that all the other brands of slots are much more readily available with more information. Are these just crappy machines nobody wants or is there other reasons they are so hard to find? Is the issue just the Cadet and Comander?

I too have Caille Sphinx, Superior and a Commander the one book I found was Slot book 1 it helps also parts are hard to find and usually expensive I have been preety lucky so far.

I have a 25 cent Caille and the manufacture was not in many casinos. They were not in business a long time like Mills and Jennings. I think the coin escalator was a weak link for coin jams. That is what I see with my machine. See photo.

Caille was one of the Big Five slot makers and there is quite a lot of info about them available.

What I think you're seeing is that, just as Mills dominated the Big Five in production, Mills dominates the literature even among collectors today.
Like Mills, they were around from the start but after the golden age of slots, they didn't last as long and were gone by 1940 or so.

For info, recommend you search this site for a wealth of info; a lot of guys complain about the Dough Boy line of slots, mostly centered around the hydraulic pump, but I had a Cadet that ran smoothly in occasional home use for decades; don't even remember if it ever jammed.
For history, get a copy of Lemons, Cherries and Bell Fruit Gum; covers the rise and fall of Caille (Mills and the rest too).
For Cadet info to help tinker with your slot, get Coin Slot Guide No.3.

Since I got mine, I had to weld the coin detecting bracket, rebuild leaky pump, replace main glass, replace jackpot glass with plexiglass, readjust vertical pay fingers and lube, lube, lube. I have been working on it so much that I'm actually getting pretty good at troubleshooting. With all these issues, maybe thats why they are not popular.

Not really; what you describe could apply to any 80 year old slot; they are usually found in various stages of disrepair, often horrendous rust buckets.
In the right hands, they are often returned to smooth running machines, just go to any car or motorcycle show and talk to those guys;
the rest is mainly personal opinion.

Of course any specific model may have acknowledged design flaws/ Achille's heal, including Mills machines; deal with it.
Looks like a you did fine.

Caille did produce manuals, they are just hard to find. I have a multi page manual for the Caille Center Pull and the A.C. Multibell which is an 8 1/2 by 11" booklet. Did they make one for the Caille Superior, don't know, never looked for one but I would imagine they made something. I think your complaint is really with the Fuller Company who bought out the Caille Brothers and produced all of those mid to late '30's machines, Cadet, Dictator, Commander, etc. Because the Caille family sold the name, they could no longer use it but they felt they had 1 more machine in them, that machine was the A.C. Multibell standing for Adolph Caille, the father and founder.

If you want a company that produced almost nothing except for instruction sheets glued to the back door, that would be Watling. Based on letters that have survived, if there was a problem, they wanted you to write to them and tell them the problem. They would then send you a letter describing what they thought the problem was with a photo of a mech and the problem area circled in red. If that didn't help they wanted you to ship the mech to them via Rail Way Express. A few of these letter have survived.

George

Why Plexiglas got to a glass cutter and do it right

BALTMANHD103 wrote:Why Plexiglas got to a glass cutter and do it right

I was at a buddy's house and he had the plexiglass and cut it. It looks great and it was free.

I'm not looking for repair manuals but just wondering why there's none for sale on ebay and very limited videos on YouTube. I have my Cadet running really good and I'm thoroughly enjoying working on it and playing it. Working on it keeps me out of my wife's hair and is quite therapeutic.