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I'm a Fan of Old Fans! =3
12 years ago
Stupid title...
But for those of you who don't follow me on twitter, and to the people who do, I wanna share a project I was working on this past week with my friend
damianshadowpaw
Those of you who know me know I have a certain thing for vintage items. I've been a sucker for the past in every way whatsoever, but it's only recently I started a small collection of such items. After buying an old Travler radio from 1939, my interest switched over to vintage electric fans. All the ones I found at shops and online were rather expensive...and I spent many weeks searching for something that looked awesome AND still worked at a cheap price.
Then, two weeks ago, I stumbled on this little guy:
http://i.imgur.com/vJPvxtk.jpg
Found him in an antique store down the road for $30, and it worked flawlessly: completely smooth, completely silent. I scooped it up and took it to its loving new home. After doing some research on it, I stumbled across images of the same fan, ones that people restored to like-new condition. I decided then and there that I wanted to restore this fan. I had very little invested in it, so it wouldn't be a loss if I completely screwed it up, right? Perfect candidate. So I asked Damian for his help with electrical stuff and overalll know-how, and we took on the task of sprucing up this little Polar Cub fan.
http://i.imgur.com/8x9G8XM.jpg
Stripping paint on the left, de-rusting on the right~
http://i.imgur.com/gY2YirS.jpg
All the parts looking shiny and new~
We stripped the paint, splashed on a new coat of paint, cleaned out the motor, re-oiled the motor, and rewired everything. Overall, the process was a lot smoother than I thought it would be. Damian did a great job helping me with the wiring, painting, and making sure nothing got royally screwed up. The end result was a work of art. I swear, the most beautiful thing ever~ <3
http://i.imgur.com/SutGhBS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VoeiAE0.jpg
With everything all cleaned out, it runs so much smoother than it did when I first got it. And to think...just two weeks ago...it was a rusting little piece of sketchy wiring. I think this fan will run smoothly for another 80 years and beyond. Let's see how far this little thing can go, yeah? Thanks for all the help, Damian! <3
Oh! And one more thing!
http://i.imgur.com/DwJeuWh.jpg
Got this one yesterday. No plans to fix it up though, as it's beautiful and in wonderful working order as-is. Maybe rewiring, but nothing more. Love it~ <3
Talk to you all soon~ =3
But for those of you who don't follow me on twitter, and to the people who do, I wanna share a project I was working on this past week with my friend
damianshadowpawThose of you who know me know I have a certain thing for vintage items. I've been a sucker for the past in every way whatsoever, but it's only recently I started a small collection of such items. After buying an old Travler radio from 1939, my interest switched over to vintage electric fans. All the ones I found at shops and online were rather expensive...and I spent many weeks searching for something that looked awesome AND still worked at a cheap price.
Then, two weeks ago, I stumbled on this little guy:
http://i.imgur.com/vJPvxtk.jpg
Found him in an antique store down the road for $30, and it worked flawlessly: completely smooth, completely silent. I scooped it up and took it to its loving new home. After doing some research on it, I stumbled across images of the same fan, ones that people restored to like-new condition. I decided then and there that I wanted to restore this fan. I had very little invested in it, so it wouldn't be a loss if I completely screwed it up, right? Perfect candidate. So I asked Damian for his help with electrical stuff and overalll know-how, and we took on the task of sprucing up this little Polar Cub fan.
http://i.imgur.com/8x9G8XM.jpg
Stripping paint on the left, de-rusting on the right~
http://i.imgur.com/gY2YirS.jpg
All the parts looking shiny and new~
We stripped the paint, splashed on a new coat of paint, cleaned out the motor, re-oiled the motor, and rewired everything. Overall, the process was a lot smoother than I thought it would be. Damian did a great job helping me with the wiring, painting, and making sure nothing got royally screwed up. The end result was a work of art. I swear, the most beautiful thing ever~ <3
http://i.imgur.com/SutGhBS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VoeiAE0.jpg
With everything all cleaned out, it runs so much smoother than it did when I first got it. And to think...just two weeks ago...it was a rusting little piece of sketchy wiring. I think this fan will run smoothly for another 80 years and beyond. Let's see how far this little thing can go, yeah? Thanks for all the help, Damian! <3
Oh! And one more thing!
http://i.imgur.com/DwJeuWh.jpg
Got this one yesterday. No plans to fix it up though, as it's beautiful and in wonderful working order as-is. Maybe rewiring, but nothing more. Love it~ <3
Talk to you all soon~ =3
That was an awesome restoration!
I barely know much about them. Heck, that Westinghouse already seems infinitely more complicated than the Polar Cub! XD
If it oscillates, I would advise taking apart the gearbox, removing the old grease, and adding fresh automotive wheel grease to it
That should be it.
I assumed as much with the gearbox...and I know where it is. BUT...I don't know where to oil the Westinghouse. The Polar Cub had a little thingy to drop oil in and oil wicks too. The Westinghouse seems a little more secretive XD
Some resources and forums that I also use that may help: http://www.fancollectors.org/ and http://dtvintagefans.org/
And now we rewired that one. Fun times! But yeah. Got to cleaning it out some while we were at it. It was suuuuuuper dusty in that motor casing.
I'm planning to use this Westinghouse regularly though. It's such a nice fan <3