I picked this project up at the Novemeber 2006 Kane County Show. It was sitting on the ground looking lonely and a bit rusty. I ended up picking it up for $40.
A little history on the use of this particular box. This model, the 4400 Series, was orignally made to be used on the electrical version of the Vendo 83 using either a National Rejectors Electric Coin Mechanism or a Coinco 9400. It was designed to handle the price change of Coca-Cola from 5 cents to 6 cents and then from 6 cents to 7 cents.
After getting home, my first hurdle to jump on restoring this box was to replace/re-key the lock. Luckily, the box was unlocked when I got it so I had easy access to the backside of the door to remove the lock as on integral peice instead of drilling it out.
I took some measurements and called my friend, Roger, at Crow River Trading Company. After a 1/2 an hour phone conversation and a few emails containing pictures of the lock-in-question, I shipped off the keyless wonder to Roger so that he could work his always amazing magic. He found a key for me and within a week or so I had my lock with key back ready to install.
In the meantime, I had removed the coin mech/rejector from the box and shipped it off to Tom (Collecture) out in Arizona for some re-plating and restoration. I got an email from him letting me know that the mech that I had sent him could be configured to accept 1 cent or 2 cents. We talked it over and decided that it qould pretty cool to have a 2 Cent Box instead of the usual 1 Cent Box.
After deciding to convert the box to the not-so-common 2 Cent version, I was again facing a dilemna. Where do I get the proper decal from? Soda Jerk Works reproduces the 1 Cent version but doesn't have the 2 Cent version. I can't really blame them. There probably isn't much of a need or want for them! I thought about my options and then it hit me....Call Roger!! After talking it over with him and settling on a price, I sent him a copy of the 1 Cent decal that I already had and a photo of the cover of my original box for reference and he set off to make me a 2 Cent decal.
A month passed and I was getting curious and gave Roger call to see how thing were coming with the decal. He informed me that his plotter/printer that he used to make his decals had taken a major dump on him and that he was currently troubleshooting the problem and that he would ship the decal to me as soon as he had the printer woking again. He said it might take a while, I didn't have a problem with that seeing as how I had some other things to take care of in the meantime.
I called him a couple of weeks ago to see if he was able to get his printer working and he had great news! Yes!! he got his printer working! And he also had just got done throwing my package containing my new decal in the mail!!! He apologized for the time delay and told me that because I was so patient he was giving the decal to me for free!!! Not only did I get the new 2 cent decal and my original 1 cent decal back but he had also included another 1 cent decal absolutely free!!! Roger up at Crow River is awesome!
In the time between sending and receiving my decal I had a chance to bead blast the box and paint it, send off and get back the chrome and reproduce the interior schematic for the box. I haven't put the schematic on it yet but everything else is done.
Big thanks to Roger and Tom!!!!!
