mills qt smoker ??

[zbiker]

hi all
well im new here to this forum, and im sure you,ve seen/heard the story before. the better half AKA "brains of the outfit" went to an auction and picked one of these up. she paid an unbelieable 250.00 for it and after a good cleaning and oiling it seems to play perfectly. it was very scratched up thou so i am refinishing the cabinet so i have a couple questions.
heres a pic that is a match to my machine except mine has ciggerretes on the wheels instead of the fruit.
http://1930s.com/coi/gallery/slots/QTGe ... Award.html

part of the fun of this machine was finding the coins inside, some were victory nickles, some buffalo nickles and somewhere along the line somone put a 1943 zink penny in it

the sides were pretty dark compared to the wooden front, is this normal for this machine or should the front and sides be a closer match ??

ive attempted to access the on line price guide but i must be doing somthing wrong, i dont seem to be able to get the prices im no computer gienus for sure, anyone have any thoughts what the price should be.

the one guide that we found from the 80,s says this is a rare machine , but ive heard that story before , is this thing a rare duck or just a good starter machine for my new hobby/ collection ??

thanks in advance all
buck

[Dave]

While the QT Smoker is not what I would call a "rare" machine. It is one of the harder QTs to find and usually brings a premium.

Regarding the online price guide, you need to purchase a subscription in order to get the prices. They do have a short term subscription rate which is aimed at people who just have one or two machines that they want to get the values on.

FYI, $250 is a steal for that machine.

Dave

[zbiker]

thanks dave
that news will relieve her a little, althou she dreads me getting into collecting one more thing she thinks this hobby is pretty cool as i do as well.when bidding it this unit they thought it was simply a trade stimulator since they didnt see the hidden payout door, hence the great price. luckly i am quite handy being a hd mechanic as well as a clock and radio fanatic and an antique furniture restorer i should be able to put these skills to good use in this hobby.

right now im in the middle of putting together a key jigging tool to reproduce the key thats missing for the front panel lock, i had good succes making the key for the back lock but the front has a tighter pin slot so need to make a few mods to my set up, wish me luck

buck

[Dave]

thanks dave
that news will relieve her a little, althou she dreads me getting into collecting one more thing she thinks this hobby is pretty cool as i do as well.when bidding it this unit they thought it was simply a trade stimulator since they didnt see the hidden payout door, hence the great price. luckly i am quite handy being a hd mechanic as well as a clock and radio fanatic and an antique furniture restorer i should be able to put these skills to good use in this hobby.

right now im in the middle of putting together a key jigging tool to reproduce the key thats missing for the front panel lock, i had good succes making the key for the back lock but the front has a tighter pin slot so need to make a few mods to my set up, wish me luck

buck

Good luck on the key.

Let me know if you want to sell it and double your money

[zbiker]

i suspect we both may have quite a scrap on our hands trying to get her to go for that one, she's short and cute, but tuff as *(%$### plus she was pretty proud of herself once she figured out what she had.

thanks for the offer thou

buck

[zbiker]

i suspect we both may have quite a scrap on our hands trying to get her to go for that one, she's short and cute, but tuff as *(%$### plus she was pretty proud of herself once she figured out what she had.

thanks for the offer thou

buck

[zbiker]

hi dave
well im just now finally finishing up with the restoration on this qt, it turned out fairly well i think so i thought i would share some photos





heres what was left of the warped origional base



and here is the new base i duplicated



i see in my photo i forgot to remove the new key i made for the front panel of the machine, im also waiting for my new repop mills sticker to arrive in the mail, so im not quite finished but pretty close it plays great now that its been cleaned and refinished and im thinking its a keeper

thanks for the info on this little machine dave, and everyone have a merry xmas

buck