Mills Dewey Restoration Part 3 by Jenny Creekmore



Dewey Upright Cabinet After Stripping

Don and I are slowly restoring our Mills Dewey antique slot machine.  When we have some time, which isn’t very often, we try to do a little work on the machine.  The first task was to take all of the metal off of the machine that needed to be copper plated.  I am pleased to say that this task has been completed and looks phenomenal.  The next big task is to begin the woodworking of the cabinet.

For some reason, back in the day, someone decided to paint this upright slot machine with a very heavy beige paint with burgundy accents.  Goodness...  I wanted to take every precaution when working on the wood, because we just didn’t know if the paint contained lead.  We finally found a respirator that filters out any lead particles. 

So let the stripping begin! 

Well, I am pleased to say that after lots and lots of paint stripper, you can finally see the wood.  I knew this was going to take a lot of time and elbow grease to get this paint removed, but it took a bit longer than anticipated.   That old paint did not want to come off the wood.  However, I am pleased to say, the machine has been stripped of that ugly paint and is now ready to be carefully sanded.   And even though the machine hasn’t been sanded, I can already see the beautiful wood. 

As I progress with the sanding I will post some photos on Facebook.  Stay tuned as we continue to make progress on the Dewey.