Well I got a confidence booster one late Saturday night. See here, my grandmother has a slot machine that dates World War II era. About eight and change years ago, I broke the machine trying to cheat it so that I wouldn't have to keep putting nickels in. Even though all I had to do was open the back and remove the nickel collection. Yes, even I'll admit I was very stupid in my younger years. Not only did I not know what the hell I was doing, I then ruined a piece of gambling history...not to mention a family heirloom. *applauds* Aaaanyway, grandma comes up to me, "Brandon, the slot machine sitting in the garage is not the right place for it. Let's fix what YOU broke." Uh oh, I thought as I my memory began to flood with thoughts and imagery of botched "fix-it jobs." I whined, and pleaded that I'm mechanically inept and I'd only break it further. Grandma replies, "Oh c'mon. You can fix anything if you put your mind to it. Let's get it." Which really was the nice Catholic grandma way of saying "Bull****, Brandon. You're fixing what you ****ed up. Now move." Begrudgingly, I assisted in moving all the stuff out of the way so that we can bring the slot machine inside. No way in hell am I working in the garage when it was as hot and humid as the outside (100+ and 40% humidity). So we drag it inside, get the back cover off, and begin my quest to understand the mechanics of an early 1940s slot machine...and remember what lever I touched. Grandma reads me the faded away operating instructions. I had the joy of a night being "Mr. Operator." She mentions to me a superflous number of times that "maybe you should oil it." And I reply with an equal amount of "no, grandma, it's mechanical. Once I fix the machine, I will submerse this contraption in a vat of lubricant.
So here I am pushing and pulling an amalgamation of levers, pivots, gears, screws, ratchets, and claws trying to understand the mechanism of what happens when you pull the handle down. Oh, I should tell you what the problem was. When you pulled the lever down, it would stop half way and not continue. To continue. I spent a good three hours trying to understand it all AND discover my foul play. Finally I see it all as if I were the guy in the smoky office with the slowly turning fan with all the blueprints. I reset the lever causing the foul and lo! the beast clanks away! Being the genuine scientist I am, I make sure to repeat the experiment several tries to ensure accuracy. I insert a nickel and push the main lever down (a ***** of a task I might add). It jams again. I blurt out a string of obcenities. It was just working! So I grab the flashlight, and start looking again. I find that a lever pushes down on a catch and must be done at a certain way. It slides away from the lever. It was not doing such. It was coming down straight which just acted like I put a metal bar in the place. After examining the mechanism, I discover this catch really isn't necessary. So I jerry-rig the device so that the catch always stays down (a screw). So I push the stuck lever down and huzzah! It moves again. I insert several nickels and each went through and through. I fixed a slot machine! Or so I thought. Upon several runs of the machine, I discovered the machine was not paying off. It turns out that the nickels were stucked in some mechanism. But it was 10:30 at night and I was beat. So what do we do next. We get beer! No assortment of tomfoolery here. We decided to celebrate by getting a six-pack of Coronas. Both grandma and I celebrated with good beer.
The next morning after church I resume my task of cleaning the clogged machine of nickels. What I presumed to be a quick repair job turned into 45 minutes of agony. While trying to repair the machine, a spring became dislodged and damaged. Once again, I ramble off a string of obcenities. Good Catholic boy I am eh?
Despite my every attempt to get the spring back on, it was quite busted. So I had to make a trip to the local hardware store to pickup a spring of similar size. I'm surprised I found one that was pretty identical. Anyway, after much toiling, I unclog the machine, attach the spring and put the mechanism back in it's housing. I, once again, use scientific principle to measure success. After about ten turns of the slot machine including several payoffs, I conclude the slot machine is in working order. But I tell grandma, don't use it a lot. It may work now but the aging mechanics may not function after a period of use.
Grandma assures me that the slot machine is authentic and not some cheap knock off they bought at a garage sale. As I said before, it was manufactured during World War II. Exact year isn't know. Grandma couldn't remember. It's definitely post 1942 (we entered shortly after 7 December 1941). I took some images of the device.
The Slot Machine
![[http://public.csusm.edu/bcline2000/imgs/slot_machine/slot_close.jpg]](http://public.csusm.edu/bcline2000/imgs/slot_machine/slot_close.jpg "http://public.csusm.edu/bcline2000/imgs/slot_machine/slot_close.jpg")
And the innards of the device.
![[http://public.csusm.edu/bcline2000/imgs/slot_machine/slot_guts2.jpg]](http://public.csusm.edu/bcline2000/imgs/slot_machine/slot_guts2.jpg "http://public.csusm.edu/bcline2000/imgs/slot_machine/slot_guts2.jpg")
So this concludes my tale of my ventures into mid-twentieth century mechanics and my success thereof. I hope you all enjoyed this. And remember, make sure you buy war bonds! *chortle*
So here I am pushing and pulling an amalgamation of levers, pivots, gears, screws, ratchets, and claws trying to understand the mechanism of what happens when you pull the handle down. Oh, I should tell you what the problem was. When you pulled the lever down, it would stop half way and not continue. To continue. I spent a good three hours trying to understand it all AND discover my foul play. Finally I see it all as if I were the guy in the smoky office with the slowly turning fan with all the blueprints. I reset the lever causing the foul and lo! the beast clanks away! Being the genuine scientist I am, I make sure to repeat the experiment several tries to ensure accuracy. I insert a nickel and push the main lever down (a ***** of a task I might add). It jams again. I blurt out a string of obcenities. It was just working! So I grab the flashlight, and start looking again. I find that a lever pushes down on a catch and must be done at a certain way. It slides away from the lever. It was not doing such. It was coming down straight which just acted like I put a metal bar in the place. After examining the mechanism, I discover this catch really isn't necessary. So I jerry-rig the device so that the catch always stays down (a screw). So I push the stuck lever down and huzzah! It moves again. I insert several nickels and each went through and through. I fixed a slot machine! Or so I thought. Upon several runs of the machine, I discovered the machine was not paying off. It turns out that the nickels were stucked in some mechanism. But it was 10:30 at night and I was beat. So what do we do next. We get beer! No assortment of tomfoolery here. We decided to celebrate by getting a six-pack of Coronas. Both grandma and I celebrated with good beer.
The next morning after church I resume my task of cleaning the clogged machine of nickels. What I presumed to be a quick repair job turned into 45 minutes of agony. While trying to repair the machine, a spring became dislodged and damaged. Once again, I ramble off a string of obcenities. Good Catholic boy I am eh?
Despite my every attempt to get the spring back on, it was quite busted. So I had to make a trip to the local hardware store to pickup a spring of similar size. I'm surprised I found one that was pretty identical. Anyway, after much toiling, I unclog the machine, attach the spring and put the mechanism back in it's housing. I, once again, use scientific principle to measure success. After about ten turns of the slot machine including several payoffs, I conclude the slot machine is in working order. But I tell grandma, don't use it a lot. It may work now but the aging mechanics may not function after a period of use.Grandma assures me that the slot machine is authentic and not some cheap knock off they bought at a garage sale. As I said before, it was manufactured during World War II. Exact year isn't know. Grandma couldn't remember. It's definitely post 1942 (we entered shortly after 7 December 1941). I took some images of the device.
The Slot Machine
And the innards of the device.
So this concludes my tale of my ventures into mid-twentieth century mechanics and my success thereof. I hope you all enjoyed this. And remember, make sure you buy war bonds! *chortle*
Code to the left of him, code to the right of him, code in front of him compil'd and thundered. Programm'd at with shot and $SHELL. Boldly he typed and well. Into the jaws of C. Into the mouth of PERL. Debug'd the 0x258.
I'm glad you got it all working, go you!