The Mead Publishing books are excellent and very detailed with plenty of step-by-step photos. You should buy their 'Owner's Pictorial Guide to the Mills Slot machine'. Worth every penny and then some. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to repair a Mills slot machine. It's also very easy to disassemble the whole thing for major cleaning too. The best selling manual includes how the darn things work (picturing each important part and describing how it functions), trouble shooting, lubricating, servicing, rebuilding and everything you might wish to know about a mills slots. VIEW CUSTOMERS REVIEWS! Holding a Nevada State Gaming License for.

The question we are asked is do you apply Lubricant to old mechanical slot machines? Here's the answer!

No matter what make or model slot machine you own, below are some general tips that will make your life easier and allow you to enjoy your slot machine with the least amount of headaches.
~ DON'T take the coin out of the door!! Inside the door of your slot machine will be a coin comparitor that holds a coin. That coin is there for a reason, it is NOT jammed! The machine compares every coin that is dropped in the coin slot to whatever coin is in the door, hence, removing the coin in the comparitor will render your machine inoperable. It's the reason a quarter machine will not accept nickels, dimes, or pennies!
~ DON'T dump your jar of change into the hopper without sorting through it first. Even 1 nickel in a hopper full of quarters will jam in the hopper! Same goes for any other items that make their way into loose change jars and buckets.
~Clean the outside of your machine using only a damp cloth and Windex (or similiar glass cleaner). When in doubt, use a damp (not dripping wet) cloth.
~ No routine cleaning is required inside of the machine. There is a risk of shock, so unless you are filling/emptying the hopper, there's really no reason to be inside the machine! We have done dozens of repairs due to someone 'just looking around' or 'fixing' something in a machine. If it's not broke...you know the rest, DON'T FIX IT!!
~Always make sure your machine is bolted to the stand it is on, and especially with small children in the house!! Children like to climb, and they could easily pull the machine off balance enough that it could fall/tip over off the stand. A couple of bolts is worth it to avoid injuring someone!
~ Plug your slot machine into a surge protector/power strip and use that to turn your machine On/Off. By leaving the Power Switch in an 'On' position and plugging the power cord into power strip, you can turn the machine On/Off by just turning the power strip On/Off. This eliminates having to unlock the machine and reach inside to turn it On/Off each time you want to play!
For More Tips and Troubleshooting Info On Slot Machines visit: New Life Games
How To Clean A Mills Slot Machine
Mills 25c Roman Head Restored by Nations Attic

How to clean a mills slot machine keys
Roman Head Mechanism Coated In Fine Sticky Dust

Recently we just finished up restoring one of my favoriteslot machines, a Mills Roman Head from the 1930’s. This model epitomizes theearly style of the Golden Age of Slot Machines which lasted from the early 1930’still the start of World War 2.
One of the biggest jobs involved with a restoration isworking on the internal mechanism. This particular Roman Head had some internalparts missing and broken, but it also had another nasty surprise inside –blanketing layers of fine dust, lint and hair on every square inch! Shown below are a few close-up photos of just what I'm talking about.

How To Clean A Mills Slot Machine Keys

Mills Mechanism - Close-Up Of Stuck On Dust!
Nasty Mills Mechanism! - Click To Enlarge Photo
Most machines are going to have there fair share of greaseand dirt inside but this one was different. So how in the world did this particularmechanism turn into a dust magnet? The reason is simple, someone sprayed liberalamounts of a product know as Water Displacement 40 or WD-40 on the mechanism.
WD-40 will indeed lubricate antique slot machine mechanisms;it will also attract dust like mosquitos in a nudist colony! This is why manyold machines simple get bogged down with dust after they have been sprayed overand over with WD-40.

How To Clean A Mills Slot Machine Online

Originally slot machine manufactures would recommend cleaningand lubricating the mechanism with gasoline. With the safety hazards associatedwith that and the fact gas is $4+ per gallon now, the best product to useis good old 3in1 oil. It does a great job of lubricating the small areas of aslot machine and will not attract the dust like WD-40 does.

How To Clean A Mills Slot Machine Parts

As for the Roman Head mechanism that looked like it wasevolving into a small furry dirt creature, after hours of hand cleaning eachpart and a little light media blasting it was resurrected and is now takingquarters as fast as they can be put into the machine!