SMC Discussion Areas

Greetings, thanks for the approval to join your board.
What brings me here is a recent purchase and the chase to find out as much about that purchase as I can.
It seems like a curse, find something unique and dig relentlessly until you know more about it.
However, you can never know enough.
I appreciate the opportunity to network with a group, that has experience/knowledge in a particular subject.
I will never take that opportunity lightly, no matter what the subject is.  8)

Last sunday my wife and I frequented a local flea market, as we do most sundays when we aren't out touring on our motorcycles. I walked along the row of sellers and a Coca Cola machine caught my eye.
The seller is one I see every week, he had a crowd of people around it, the lid was raised and I could see the chrome slides and coin mechanism shining, instantly brought back some memories for me.
I waded into the crowd, he catches my eye, I ask "how much?", he says $300.00, and it works.
I ask if he is open to offers, he says he has a couple already $225 and $250, I don't doubt him as he's always been rock solid with me.

I walk away for a couple minutes and speak to my wife, Told her I wanted it, would be perfect in my man cave, filled with pop and beer, coolers, whatever. Went back, waded through another group checking it out, we made eye contact again, I simply said "sold'.  :biggrin: There were moads and groans from the other buyers checking it out, I gave him $100 to hold it while I went to get my trailer and the balance of cash.

What I bought was a Cornelius SVM-48E3 - Ser #900205 ...... :happydrinkers: .... went with the trailer to load it up an hour later, he told me he could have sold it 10 times over and hurry up and get it out of here, with a smile.
As we loaded it, people were coming up asking about it, how much, what are you going to do with it, want to sell it etc.

Got her home and checked it out closer, no sign on the top, will probably get a piece of smoked plexi and add a decal if I can locate one.

The top light works and is quite a nice feature. Plugged it in, heard the fan start up, but every time the compressor tried to come on, my overhead light would dim, probable seized compressor?

The dispenser mechanism works to dispense without any coins, so not sure what to make of that. Also the mechanism itself, where it says 15 cents, gets very warm when to the touch when plugged in for 15 minutes, maybe stuck on??

I think the overall condition is good, I will upload pics. When you open the top door, the inside behind the lens is very dirty, how difficult is it to remove the seal and lens, I haven't tried as I don't want to break it, wanted to wait for some sage advice.

No key to the side door, I spoke to a locksmith yesterday, he told me to bring it in and he will drill the lock and install another. That said, I want to get it open NOW and release the slider mech and clean the thing thoroughly, so today I am going to drill the lock. It takes a round type key, probably going to be hard to drill though.
I might even be able to cut the power to the coin mechanism and see if that corrects the warm to the touch issue I mentioned, but can't do anything until I get the door open.

I googled the make and model number, the only hits I received on it was from this site. In my search it appears that 2 members currently own this model, - CDC1960 and Crazzy Canuck - both from Canada.  :smile:

I contacted Cornelius the other day and spoke to a service tech, looking for any information I could get. He put me on hold to go and speak with a senior tech, who may have some knowledge, no such luck. He told me good luck finding anything on it, there certainly doesn't seem to be much information.

Sorry for the long winded intro, glad to be here, great site.   mitch

Wow ! Love that light up lid ! Never seen that before.

Mitch,
   Welcome to the board!  You've come to the right place for knowledge on how to work these machines over and how to do it right without screwing it up.  Looks like you got quite a deal from the looks of it.  Congrats!!  Don't get too impatient when waiting for responses as the guys on here to know a lot don't always make it on every moment of the day, so it may take a couple days before they respond.  Again, welcome!  Look forward to seeing more!!

Regards,
Ken

I have never seen one either...gotta love the light up lid!

        Welcome to the site Brian. Although I live in California now, I am originally from Calgary and have numerous relatives in Vancouver.

        That is a beautiful machine and at a great price so you don't need to feel bad about putting a few more bucks into reconditioning.

         Since yours is a Canadian made machine, most of us will not have experience working on it but the principles of these old mechanical units are basically the same.

       The coin mech is probably getting warm due to a small heater installed to keep the components from freezing in extreme cold. You can eliminate it for home use.

        You said the power dims when it starts which should be normal as it does draw a lot for a second or two, but you didn't state weather it cooled down after that. We are assuming it will, these old machines are die-hards.

        The plexi-glass will be easy to make and you can get the decals from a sponsor on this site..............Funtronics.

        Keep us posted!  :happydrinkers:

What is the measurements of the sign/lighted area? Wondering if some of the signs that go into the square top machines would fit. Looks real clean I think you did well on it.
Welcome to the site...

Neat machine! I've never seen one of those before. Good luck with your restoration!

welcome, great looking machine

Welcome to the site Mitch.........be careful, you'll be dragging home Jukeboxes and Slot machines next!!!!
  TFJ

Great looking little cooler.

Welcome to the site. I am sure you'll find it both interesting and informative. I have been collecting machines for over twenty years now and I still learn new stuff every time I sign onto this site.

 

Welcome to the site!  Very cool looking machine. :smile:

Welcome to the site It's a great place to be.  8)

Make some room....it sounds like your are going to need it...