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Thread: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

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    Tokie Owens Granox's Avatar
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    Default 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Hi all, where do I start hmmm how about at the beginning. I am from Australia and more than 20 years ago I married a young lady from Asia and of course she soon found that the local pubs had an abundance of slot machines. She would head down tothe local pub and spend $20 to $30 a day. This was begining to cause me some serious problems an I had to think of doing something before I was banrupted. I had the idea of buying an old slot machine and putting it in the house for her to play. We I managed to find a a 1960's maching with a 4 ft stand. The machine was an old Aristocraft 5 cent totally mechanical 3 reel unit and cost me $250. Well I filled it up with 5 cent peices and gave my wife about $20 worth of 5 cent peices. When she finished them I would open it and give her another $20 worth. Well she played it for hours every day and finally after 2 weeks she got board and the best part is she had no impulse to go and play the ones at the pub either so she was cured...fantastic. Now hmmm what to I do with the slot machine. Well I loved the fact that it was totally mecanical and thought I should restore it. Ok fast forward to about 5 years ago and I started to dissasemble it. Below is the machine as I got it DSC00122.jpg

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    Tokie Owens Granox's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Well I have a lot of mahogany furniture and I also like the colours black and gold. So I have decided to replace all the timber with solid mahogany and where possible brass plate the chrome bits. So that is the direction I weas headed. Ok first is to I had to dismantle it to have the parts plated. DSC01103-1.jpgDSC01104-1.jpgDSC01105-1.jpgDSC01101-1.jpgDSC01106-1.jpgDSC01102-1.jpg

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    Pachi Puro pachiwall's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Great story! I can't wait to read the next chapter!

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    MacGruber JACKSJE4's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Very cool story!! Your machine is very similar to mine: 1967 Ainsworth Aristocrat Slot Machine -

    Will you restore mine with mahogany as well??

    ~Jeff
    Jeff Jackson, Denver CO

    There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

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    Closet Okie Meathead's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    I missed that thread, Jeff. Awesome find and story to go with it!
    A Hardy har har...

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    Closet Okie Meathead's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Quote Originally Posted by Granox View Post
    I had the idea of buying an old slot machine
    Kindly refrain from referring to anything younger than I am as "old."
    A Hardy har har...

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    Tokie Owens Granox's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Well lets get back into it shall we. @JACKSJE4 so far it has taken 20+ years so I don't think I have another 20+ left haha but I digress. As I said I had to dismantle everything and remove all the parts I needed to get plated. See photos. Now I did do a deal with a friend to get the parts plated but that was a total disaster so I got the back and had them done myself. This actually took me a year to get the parts back and find someone who would brass plate. Also my mate lost a few pieces so I will need to manufacture those...I'll cover that when I get to it.
    ..IMG_0838-1.jpgIMG_0835-1.jpgIMG_0834-1.jpgDSC01143-1.jpgDSC01142-1.jpgDSC01141-1.jpgDSC01113-1.jpg

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    So now the parts are off to the plates and some were too big to fit in the bath so I had them done in black baked enamel. Like I said I like black and gold and I think it will go well with the mahogany.
    My next step was to find some nice mahogany planks I needed 4ft high 19inch wide and 3/4 thick. And guess what you can't get it. I did however managed to find some planks of African Mahogany 1.6in thick but only half as wide as what I wanted. So I bought the planks had them machined down and joined. All up the timber alone cost me over $1000AUD (don't tell the wife)
    I finally got my plating back $600 AUD lighter (again don't tell the wife)DSCN5015-1.jpgDSCN5013-1.jpg As you can see the large front panel had to be baked enamel as did the top section

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    So where next to start hmmmm. I didn't like the perspex panels very much, arr the perspex panels. I have always been a fan of the etched glass of the 1860's so hey, why not I will replace all the perspex panels with etched glass that I will do myself, it cant be that hard, right. After a number of broken glass panels and ugly attempts I finally did it by taping the glass with masking tape cutting out the areas I wanted etched and then sand blasting the glass.
    I etched clubs, spades, diamonds and hearts in both the glass of the coil rotation viewer and the reel viewer and included an edging. Now I didn't like the 27ways perspex panel and though I might replace it with some etched glass, hmm what to etch into it? Finally decided to etch our last name Cherry and this fits into the poker machine theme (three cherries). On the large panel I did like the sunken ship and treasure scene so I cleaned that up and added a 1/16 inch sheet of glass in front with an etched outline around it and included the clubs, spades, diamonds and hearts logos in the boarder. DSCN5037-1.jpgDSCN5336-1.jpgDSCN5337-1.jpgDSCN5338-1.jpgDSCN5340-1.jpg

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Well I had the panels back from the platers and finished the etching so what else was I going to do but put them together and see what they look like of course. Well I did break a couple of the glass panels and needed to remake them during this stage. Rather than clamp them down as the perspex was it is better just to clamp finger tight and a couple blobs of silicon finishes the job.
    DSCN5341-2.jpgDSCN5343-1.jpgDSCN5347-1.jpgDSCN5348-1.jpg

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Ok now it's time to start on the timber but I didn't want it to be exactly the same so I added rounded corners and routered the edges. I even decided all the internal support blocks that were attached to the side panels out of Mahogany as well as the internal shelving. These were originally 5ply painted black. The foot stand hmmm not much of this is seen and the top is covered by a rubber foot mat so do I go for it or what??? Yeah what the hell. The original one was very crudely made so I redesigned it slightly having mitred corners and the top board inset where you can see it. I will do away with the foot mat and screw down some brass strips for wear strips. That way you see the brass and the Mahogany together.

    DSCN5115-1.jpgDSCN5117-1.jpgDSCN5294-1.jpgDSCN5299-1.jpgDSCN5300-1.jpgDSCN5116-1.jpg Now of course all there were measured and cut and routered without a single mistake...yeah right. I made heaps of mistakes but luckily they were all recoverable.

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Also I wasn't happy with the stain as it was too light so I went back to the paint shop and they added some black to it ...perfect. I also chose a satin finish polyurethane to coat it all. Now I'm almost to the point where I am actually at and I will be posting updates as I move along over the next month or so...lets hope not much longer than that. I'm happy to answer any questions so let them fly.

    DSCN5312-1.jpgDSCN5335-1.jpgDSCN5332-1.jpgDSCN5318-1.jpgDSCN5315-1.jpgDSCN5314-1.jpgDSCN5313-1.jpgDSCN5306-1.jpg I have also stained and varnished both sides of all timbers.

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    MacGruber JACKSJE4's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    I must say, this is an absolutely AWESOME restoration/modification to your slot machine!! I totally love the etched glass look, and the mahogany cabinet is perfect!! I will be watching this thread closely to see what the final product looks like.

    Thanks for you posts and pictures. Threads like this are what make this site so awesome!!

    ~Jeff
    Jeff Jackson, Denver CO

    There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

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    Tokie Owens Granox's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Well I have just put the final coat of varnish on all the inner timbers and so soon it will be time to start putting all the cabinetry together. After some deep thought, who knew I was capable of that, I have worked out that all the positions of the internal shelving and brackets must measured from the top edge of the side panels. The reason for this is that the top machine section is set to the top of the side panels and therefore all the mechanics have to line up with the pull handle and glass windows in the front of the machine which are a set distance from the top section. I will take photos as I go through this step and make the relevant postings. I hope what I am doing is enjoyed by everyone. Oh and by the way @meathead I'm older than this machine also. I really wanted this restoration to have that all important WOW factor and as such I still have some magic touches I haven't told you about yet and I'll reveal those as I go.

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    I decided to replace the back panel completely and luckily for me I had a perfect piece of timber to do it a 5 ply piece of Formply. It is like marine ply with a had black coating on both sides. This machine has it's own built in trolley complete with handles and wheels which fold up when not is use, a brilliant idea.
    So I removed these cleaned them up and gave the a nice new coat of matt black paint. Measured out all the bolt holes and mounted them on the Formply. I then attached the major support brackets inside and a little glue, some bolts and some brads and the first side was on. All of the internal metal brackets are bolted on to the side panels with a special threaded bolt and a Helicoil type fitting into the timber. I tried for a year to find something for this and finally came across the inserts shown in the attached photo. You need to drill a starter hole and screw them in with an Allen key. To ensure the hole wasn't too deep I slid a piece of pneumatic tubing over the drill to stop the drill at the right depth, wouldn't want the hole to go all the way through. Then you need to get all the shavings out of the blind hole so the insert can go all the way in and another piece of pneumatic tubing came in perfect for this a little blow of air and the hole was clear.

    DSCN5303-1.jpgDSCN5358-1.jpgDSCN5359-1.jpgDSCN5360-1.jpgDSCN5304-1.jpgDSCN5305-1.jpgDSCN5306-1.jpg
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    With both sides and the foot stand on it was time to mount the top and front section. Not as easy as it sounds. The new side panels protrude about 3/16 inch further forward which meant they obstructed the hinge of large front panel and the door wasn't able to be opened. Slotting the holes on the mounting side of the hinge solved the problem and not before a lot of swearing was heard. So now we have it starting to resemble a slot machine.

    DSCN5364-1.jpgDSCN5370-1.jpgDSCN5371-1.jpgDSCN5367-1.jpgDSCN5366-1.jpgDSCN5369-1.jpg

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Nice work! Thanks for the posts!
    A Hardy har har...

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Absolutely LOVE the mahogany cabinet!!!
    Jeff Jackson, Denver CO

    There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

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    Pachi Puro pachiwall's Avatar
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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    That is looking great! Not a big fan of modifications...but a beautiful upgrade it has become!I have been checking in on it after work each day to check progress! Keep up the great work!

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    Default Re: 1960's ARISTOCRAT 3 REEL SLOT MACHINE COMPLETE REBUILD STEP BY STEP

    Well the day was spent putting all the timbers, doors and covers on and there were some considerable issues getting them to line up properly but with a little perseverance I managed to get there. So here it is with most of the timber work completed. I think the real fun will start now with getting all the mechanics cleaned up and lined up and well as mounting and lining up all the various shoots.


    DSCN5372-1.jpgDSCN5376-1.jpgDSCN5373-1.jpgDSCN5374-1.jpgDSCN5375-1.jpg

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