Expert: Rodger Knutson - 1/17/2011

Question
I need to replace the cherries in the middle of my Mills Black Cherry slot. Can I remove it without removing the platform in which mechanism sits on? I see one screw but are there others as I have never tried to remove anything inside?  Thank you for your time on this matter.

Answer
Hi Marshall,

Yes you can do it without removeing the base plate, You have to remove your mechanism, then you may be able to get to the nuts on all the cherries. If not, then you can remove the top casting with just 3 or 4 nuts, driving out the crown head cabinet bolts, and one top screw on the coin chute going to the jackpot, the top screw goes into the top casting so it has to come out. Once you remove the top casting with everything still in it, you can remove the bottom casting via two screws that are hard to find on the lower part of the lower casting, You need a very long stright edge screw driver, then this casting will come off also. This sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't, once you do it this way, you will never do it the hard way again. Your removing both castings from the cabinet with just about everything still attached to the castings. Then you can get at everything very easy. However I would think that you could Change out the 4 cherries without even doing all this. If you don't have a manual, you should have a mills manual that will show you everything about this, you can find it here:

http://jackpot7.freeyellow.com/page21.html

And look for this Manual:

Mills Slot Machine mechanical repair and fully illustrated Manual, The Big One! This is a large manual with lots of mechanism photo's and information. You will be very happy with this manual, nothing better out there.

If you have this manual to refer to, you will never get lost, tons of photo's.

Good Luck!

Thank You
Rodger Knutson
http://www.coinslots.com