Waran is our newest member. He is currently working on a Meccano Mechanical One Arm Bandit. He says:
Currently a work in progress, but fully functional and very reliable. I wanted to build something fast operating to mimic the originals, the electric versions are great but can be fairly slow and not truly random.
This is all mechanical and uses standard Meccano parts, the only modern parts used are plastic spacers and pivot bolts from the modern sets - they are extremely useful. It uses a total of 21 Meccano springs to operate and has a self replenishing coin pool. It will pay out on cherries and bars, 2p for one cherry, 6p for two cherries, 12p for three cherries and 25p for three bars. It uses a modern 1p piece to operate, and so a true penny slot.
I have to finish/modify the case, also, there a few areas of the design I want to tweak to help improve long term reliability. I must have played this hundreds/thousands of times and wear and tear have taken their toll on certain parts. Hopefully, I will be available to bring it along to the next meeting.