Parts - Antique Slot Machines, Parts and Restoration. Now in your cart. Antique Slot Machines and Stained Glass are the passion and livelihood of this Michigan man who buys, sells, restores, and collects these vintage old time slots. Pictured on our website is a restored Roman Head antique slot machine from 1932.

Mills M Head Slot Machine
Mills Vintage Slot Machine Parts
Antique Mills Slot Machine Parts
Parts For Mills Vintage Slot Machine

Once you have your antique slot machine mechanism disassembled, it is absolutely mandatory to remove all of the old dirt, grease and oil from the various parts. In many cases you can restore life to a dead machine by simply disassembling it, cleaning/degreasing the parts and then reassembling it with fresh lubrication. This won’t always work, particularly if there is rust on your mechanism, but it’s an important step in any restoration.

The subject of degreasing vintage slot machine parts is not a complicated topic. There are several ways to go about it depending upon the equipment at your disposal, but essentially the basic process is the same. You need some sort of solvent, a way to immerse the individual parts, a couple of hand-held wire brushes and some good, old fashioned elbow grease.

There are a ton of commercial degreasing products that you can find at your local hardware or auto parts store, and they all generally work pretty well. In a pinch you can use spray-on oven cleaner or even dishwashing detergent, but typically the commercial products will be both cheaper and more effective. You can often buy the degreaser in a concentrated form and mix it with water to the strength needed for your particular job. Many modern degreasers are also biodegradable, making them easy to dispose of once the job is done.

For small parts, carburetor cleaner is an ideal solvent for removing old grease, and you can get it in a paint can with a built-in parts basket. Carburetor cleaner is pretty toxic stuff, however, and you may end up with a disposal problem once it is loaded up with grease. Generally you cannot pour it down the drain safely.

If you have access to a parts washer, that’s most definitely the easiest way to go. The photo to the right is one of the basic models from Harbor Freight. Just a note about Harbor Freight: Many people dislike Harbor Freight because of their cheap, imported tools. Although I don’t shop for heavy-duty tools at Harbor Freight, they are a great source for inexpensive (read disposable) tools and miscellaneous supplies. If you have one of their showrooms near you, pay them a visit and check out their stock. They generally have at least one parts washer on display. With one of these washers, you can load up the basket with many slot machine parts, then use the built-in pump to recirculate the degreaser/solvent over the parts while you do something else. This is a very easy and effective way to go about degreasing, and the washers come in multiple sizes and prices with small models starting at less than $50.

If you don’t have a parts washer, though, you can still get the job done. Get a large plastic tub or bucket, drop in your parts and then cover them with degreaser. Let them soak, stir them around from time to time, and use a wire brush or a stiff plastic bristle brush to attack the grease. This may take a while, but it works just fine.

After you’ve gotten rid of the grease, it’s usually a good idea to rinse the parts thoroughly, and possibly even clean them with mineral spirits to get rid of any residue left from the degreaser depending on your next course of action. Generally you are going to follow up your degreasing processes with some sort of rust removal and rust protection, and you certainly don’t want any residue interfering with your rust prevention efforts.

Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated
Industry	Slot machines, vending machines and jukeboxes
Fate	Divestment (jukeboxes); divestment and merger (slot machines); and acquisition (vending machines)
Successor	Mills Novelty Co. Restores & sells violanos and other Mills products
Founded	1891 (as M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company)
Defunct	1948 (jukeboxes); 1954 (vending machines); and 1980s (slot machines)
Headquarters	Chicago
Herbert Stephen Mills (deceased); Robert W. Brown CEO
Website	millsnovelty.com

The Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated of Chicago was once a leading manufacturer of coin-operated machines, including slot machines, vending machines, and jukeboxes, in the United States. Between about 1905 and 1930, the company's products included the Mills Violano-Virtuoso and its predecessors, celebrated machines that automatically played a violin and, after about 1909, a piano. By 1944 the name of the company had changed to Mills Industries, Incorporated.^[1]^[2] The slot machine division was then owned by Bell-O-Matic Corporation. By the late 1930s, vending machines were being installed by Mills Automatic Merchandising Corporation of New York.

Family[edit]

The origins of the business lie with Mortimer Birdsul Mills, who was born in 1845 in Canada West (today's Ontario, Canada)^[3] but who later became a citizen of the United States, resident in Chicago, Illinois. Mortimer Mills would have 13 children.^[4] One son, Herbert Stephen Mills, was born in 1872 when his father was about 27.^[3] In 1892, Bert E. Mills, the youngest of Mortimer Mill's children was born.^[4] In about 1895, Fred L. Mills, the first of Herbert Mills' sons, was born.^[5]^[6] Ralph J. Mills, Herbert's second son, was born in July 1898.^[6] In about 1900, Herbert Mills, the third son of Herbert Stephen Mills was born. His younger brother, Hayden ('Bill') Mills, was born two years later in about 1902.^[6] The Mills brothers were raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and continued to live in that area until at least the mid-1930s.^[6] In 1929, Herbert Mills had died aged 57, leaving a fortune to his wife and eight children.^[7] The business was continued with Fred L. Mills, Herbert's first son, taking over as president^[8] while his three brothers, Ralph, Herbert, and Hayden held other top management positions.

History[edit]

Mortimer Mills was granted United States patent 450,336 on 14 April 1891 for an improvement in 'coin-actuated vending apparatus'. The improvement allowed the purchaser to select the product being sold and manipulate it so that it was carried to the point of delivery.^[9] Focusing on the devices covered by the patent, Mortimer Mills founded the M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company sometime between 1891,^[3] and 1895.^[4] Over half a century later, the company would promote itself as having been founded in 1889, two years before the date of the patent, and by H.S. Mills rather than his father.^[10]

Mortimer B. Mills's patented 1891 contribution to cigar vending

In 1897, the company launched the Mills Owl, which was the first mechanical upright cabinet slot machine. The machine's design included a circle of owls perched on a lithographed tin wheel. The machine was a great success and the company would later adopt an owl motif as its trade mark.^[11]

In 1898 [1], Mortimer Mills sold a controlling interest in the company to his son, Herbert S. Mills,^[4]^[7] and the name of the company was changed from M.B.M. Cigar Vending Company to Mills Novelty Company, Incorporated.^[3] At that time, the company was located at 125-127 West Randolph Street, Chicago.

In 1904, Mills Novelty Company was an exhibitor at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Its pavilion was run by Ode D. Jennings, who would later establish a competitor to Mills.^[12]

In 1906, Bert Mills lef

Vintage Mills Slot Machine Parts