Introducing Cascade!

oh joy of joys, it's here! I just received a Bell Fruit Cascade machine from the UK. These came out about 1972 in the UK and I've been looking for one for a few years.

I first discovered pajatso at Fun Spot in NH, where they have (had?) 2 classic Nordic-style pajatso machines. The large ones. After pining for one of those for a while, and not being able to find anyone in Finland to ship me one here (come on, Fins!!) I'm super satisfied with this affordable runner-up machine.

The patent for this machine design goes back to the early 1930s Germany, and quickly took off in Finland, where it was adopted as charitable gambling that would fund the Red Cross for the next 50 years. The Nordic machines got bigger and fancier, but this simple and purely mechanical design was resurrected in 1972 by Bell Fruit, a company associated with slot machines.

So this machine is cheaper than a full-sized Nordic pajatso machine by an order of magnitude at the least, so what was the problem?
Well, namely it was finding someone willing to ship it from the UK to Canada. There does not seem to be any of these machines in North America. They hadn't even come up at American auction houses, in all of the histories I looked at.
Thankfully, I eventually convinced someone on pennymachines.co.uk to take pity on me and trust the mail system. They packaged it up using a large piece of wood larger than the machine itself (to protect the glass,) we insured it, crossed our fingers and toes, and hoped for the best.
Not only did it arrive in tact, but it arrived 2 days earlier than expected!

The most crucial aspect of the machine was that it was all there. Glass wasn't smashed or cracked, all the latches were there, striker piece, all good. It even had an original wooden coin box, which was entirely unexpected. After spending 30 years with the prior owner in the UK, the machine begins a new life in Canada!

coin box!

A few things needed attention though:

The striker (coin flicker) was very stiff and barely moved.

A metal piece on the playfield was in the wrong spot.

The bonus column didn't retain coins.

the coin mech was severely jammed.

some coins that almost entered the shooter lane just bounced right out.

First step was tackling the playfield. Working on these is a touch of a problem because the trips are all loosely dangling off small points, and pressed up against the glass. You release the internal pressure, and if the game isn't leaned back all the latch pieces could fall off.

So I rest the game partly on a pillow and wedged it open with a plank and was able to operate on it, managing to get the playfield unlatched and lowed down into my hands.

I had noticed the metal piece on the right was in the wrong spot. Turns out someone had drilled extra holes and moved it down. With the piece removed you can easily see the extra holes:

with the metal guide removed

Why would they do this? Normally the coins that roll to the right enter the bonus column. When that's full, they fall into the hole just to the left of the bonus column, which goes into the operator's cash box. But the coins weren't staying in the bonus column, they kept falling out, and thus into the player's winners cup! All missed shots would be returned to the player, earning the operator nothing outside of the errant bounce.

So to keep the game going, an operator must have modified it to help bypass bonus column as much as possible. With the metal guide moved, missed coins went towards the out-hole, not the bonus column.

So what was wrong with the bonus column? Check this image that someone had posted on pennymachines:

The chamfered edge must be on the left, and it was not. I flipped that metal piece around and now the bonus column works perfectly. I moved the metal guide piece to it's original position.
I think of it like this: the angle must be such to push the resting coins away from where they want to go.

That's two issues attended to.

Next up was to take on the striker:

disassembling the striker

all the pieces laid out

First I cleaned all the pieces and removed the rust with evaporust. That tiny circle was super jammed and warped, but with a metal file I cleaned it up and got it moving within the center of striker metal.

Next I noticed this:

original orientation

This top metal piece was upside-down, and that angular edge was poking out from the frame. This is what was causing the coins to bounce onto the playfield instead of settling in to the shooter area. Easy fix, but so satisfying!

To minimize the abrasion in the mechanism, I also took the bracket and cleaned it up with a metal file to get rid of the mushroomed edges:

before

after

All cleaned and ready for reassembly

Once it all came back together the striker mech was perfect!

then it was on to the coin rejector mech. Turns out that was just some old tape inside of it, and an old lollipop stick used as a rail guide. cleaned that out and the coins were flowing fine.

Coins came in fine, loaded in the striker fine, were shooting fine, loading into the bonus fine. ALL GOOD

And lastly, I noticed the cabinet needed to be re-joined at the bottom right corner, but that will be taken care of soon enough when I borrow some clamps

wood glue and clamps will secure this joint

I should also go find more British pennies. Canadian pennies seem similar, but why risk switching it up when it's not hard to get the parts that the machine is meant for? Best not mess with things.
Canadian pennies: 2.35g, 1.45mm thick, 19.05mm diameter
British pennies: 3.56g, 1.52-1.65mm thick, 20,3mm diameter