Mills Slot Machine Restoration

Introduction	Mechanism Disassembly	Mechanism Reassembly
Jackpot	The clips are excerpts taken directly from the DVD. The video has been highly compressed and may appear grainy. This is not the case on the actual DVD. Click on the play (right arrow) to view the clip. To adjust the volume click on the volume icon. To pause the clip click on the pause button.	Reel Bundle
Escalator	Cabinet and Castings	The Final Result

Table of Contents

	Contents	Total Duration	Price
Disc 1	Mechanism Disassembly Includes discussion on how to clean the parts	96 Minutes	$29.95
Disc 2	Mechanism Reassembly including how to lubricate all the parts.	125 Minutes	$39.95
Disc 3	Cabinet Disassembly/Reassembly Castings Disassembly/Reassembly Discussion on how to refinish cabinet, strip castings and paint castings.	93 Minutes	$29.95
Disc 4	Reel Bundle Brakes Gold Award Includes Disassembly and Reassembly	93 Minutes	$29.95
Disc 5	Jackpot Disassembly / Reassembly Escalator Disassembly / Reassembly Finishing Touches End Result	100 Minutes	$29.95

If purchased individually, the price for the entire set is $159.75 + S & H. If you purchase the entire set, the price is $95.75 (a savings of $60).

If you want the media on a thumb drive then Discs 1 - 5 of the restoration series will be delivered on a single high capacity thumb drive. In addition, the thumb drive will be organized by chapters so you can easily get to the area you are interesetd in.

In addition, I have put the entire restoration videos in a private area of YouTube. When you purchase the restoration media I will email you links to all the YouTube videos so you can start viewing them immediately. If you have already purchased the DVDs and want to see the YouTube videos then send me an email and I will send you the links.

Due to demand, until further notice, I am only selling complete sets of the DVDs.

Please add $4.95 for shipping (First Class USPS) and handling. The $4.95 is the S + H charge per order, not per DVD / thumb drive. The total amount for the entire 5 DVD / thumb driveset is $100.70.

Money Back Guarantee: If you purchase the DVDs / thumb drives and are not satisfied, just return them to me within 30 days and I will refund all your money (except S & H). Refund will be made via PayPal so you must have a PayPal account. To date, not a single person has requested a refund.

A limited number of DVDs will be made. Once they are sold out I don't know if I will make more. When the original VHS tape was made, they sold out quickly and it was 16 years later when I decided to do the DVD project. I tend to focus on a project, do it, and then move on to something else.

Availability Update: The demand for these has far exceeded my expectations. The VHS tape sold out immediately (16 years ago) but I had no idea what the demand would be for the DVD set. Every time I get a batch made they are sold out after a couple of weeks. Please see above for availablility.

If you have contacted me and confirmed they are available then you may order them here.

In order to keep my costs down, I do not order hundreds of sets at a time. That way my I don't have a lot of money tied up in inventory.

If you are interested in the restoration DVD set then you might also be interested in a DVD which documents how to fix common jams on the most common style of antique slot machines (Watling, Mills, Jennings, and Pace). Click here for more information and to check availability.

Click here to go back to my home page if you want to learn about other projects that I am working on.

Current Promotion

If you purchase the DVD / thumb drive set, then you can also purchase the DVD / thumb drive which describes how to unjam most models of slot machines for only $15. This is almost a 65% savings. Go to http://www.ibuyoldslots.com/howToUnjamASlotMachine.html for more information.

As of 9/2/2009 our next DVD / thumb drive has been completed. This DVD is about Roulette machines. It includes the Caille Roulette, Caille Aristocrat, and Mills Roulette. As an added bonus, footage of the Watling Derby is also included. Detailed footage of mechanism is included for the Caille Roulette and Caille Aristocrat. The Roulette DVD sells for $39.95 but you may order it for $20 if you order it with the Restoration DVD set. This is a rare opportunity to see the internals of these unusual machines. Go to http://www.IBuyOldSlots.com/videos.php for more information and to check availability.

As of 9/25 the DVD / thumb drive on Mechanical Dice machines has been completed and is now shipping. This DVD shows detailed footage of a Mills Dice as well as a Buckley Bones (including the mechanism and a discussion how the machines work). Total running time in 1 hour 20 minutes. This DVD sells for $39.95 but you may order it for $20 if you order it with the Restoration DVD set. Go to http://www.IBuyOldSlots.com/videos.php for more information and to check availability.

In addition, you will also receive a complimentary 14 day subscription to the online slot machine price guide (http://www.antiqueslotmachinepriceguide.com). This is a $39.95 value. You do not need to purchase the unjam DVD / thumb drive in order to get the free subscription to the price guide.

I am running this promotion as an experiment. It may end at any time.

Background

Back in 1994, my wife was traveling on business and out of town for a couple of weeks.

During that time, I thought it might be interesting to document the complete restoration of a Mills Castle Front slot machine.

So armed with an 8mm Sony camcorder, I went out to the shop and painstakingly documented the complete restoration of the Castle Front.

It was an incredible amount of work, but the end result was an 8 hour VHS tape which documented the entire process.

I made dozens of copies of the tape and sold them through the Coin-Op magazines that were around at the time (all are now out of business).

The tapes quickly sold out and I never made any more. I received many requests to do the same for Watling, Pace, and Jennings machines. People especially wanted the sections on mechanism tear down, and, more importantly, mechanism reassembly. Unfortunately, I have no plans to do this. You would not believe the amount of effort that went into making the first tape. In reality, if you know how to tear apart a Mills machine then you should not have that much difficulty with the other brands.

I mainly did it to see if it could be done and never intended to make a lot of money off of it. Both goals were met.

Anyway, I periodically still get asked about that video tape from people who would like to purchase it. The answer is the same, no plans on making more copies.

However, a few weeks ago, I was cleaning the office and came across the master tapes. Being somewhat of a technology geek, I wondered how much work it would be to take the master tapes and digitally re master them and save them to a DVD.

Well, one thing led to another, and after spending hours on the computer working with the tapes, they were finally all re mastered.

I now have all the segments of the documentary in digital form. They actually turned out very well, the videos and the sound are amazingly good quality (if I do say so myself). I wish I would have held up as well as the tapes did.

I am now in the process of organizing the segments and the end result will probably be a set of DVDs.

Anyway, there are fewer people around now who restore machines than there were 14 years ago when the original tape was made. I am not taking on any more projects myself because I have enough stuff in the pipeline to keep me busy for the next 5 years.

I get calls every week from people wanting a machine restored or a machine put back together because the husband tore it apart and all the parts are now in a bucket and he cannot figure out how to get it back together again. This call is usually from the wife who is disgusted with her husband.

Needless to say, there is some demand, albeit limited, for this product.

Just out of curiosity, I wondered if I could take the new masters and convert them to a format which will work on my iPhone. As it turns out this is very possible and the entire documentary can be viewed on an iPhone. Not sure how useful this is but it is definitely interesting.