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GE Vortalex Fan Restoration
11 years ago
Welp, I did it again guys!
I restored another old fan! ...and to those following me on twitter, this is old news (but I took new and better pictures, so look below!)... But for those who don't follow me, all you watchers out there, I wanna show you a little project I took on for myself a few weeks ago~ <3
~~The Story~~
So, I went to an antique store a few months back and noticed a little GE Vortalex fan form the 40s. Here's the thing, I've always thought the Vortalex fans were neat. The blades, the body design, all of it. But this fan was in pretty rough shape. The cage was completely rusted, the blades would hardly budge, it was missing the nut on the oscillation arm. On top of that, when I plugged it in, it only worked on one speed. I decided not to get it...but...it was on my mind for weeks after...still. A few weeks later, the week before FWA, I was out in that area again. I decided I wanted to see the fan again and have another look. It was still there. I expressed my concerns to the kind, old ladies who owned the store. I told them I restored them, which really excited them. I showed them my past work, and they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse on the Vortalex. And I took it home!
This is what it looked like when I got it~
http://i.imgur.com/k3nOi6r.jpg
Suspecting the speed issues might have come from debris and horrible lubrication for decades, I dropped a little bit of oil in. Turns out, I was correct. It was barely moving on Low speed, but it worked! However, the oscillating was another story entirely. When I took the fan apart and got the grease out of the gearbox, I found the oscillating gear's teeth were completely destroyed. That meant it needed a new part...which, on a 70 year old fan, would be a little tough to obtain.
Regardless, I went ahead. At least everything else worked, right? I sanded and stripped the paint off, got all the rust off all the way to a silky-smooth, metal surface. I busted out the black and brown tones for this one...since that's the color scheme of my bedroom. I chose a nice brown for the base and motor casing, a satin black for the cage, and a champagne color for the blades, finishing it all up with a black, braided cloth wire for a vintage feel. And lucky for me, I was able to locate an identical fan in an antique store last Monday, which I promptly bought and took the oscillating gear and arm nut from. The gear from that fan was in perfect condition, so I swapped them out.
After putting it all back together, it runs as smooth and as quiet as it was new...oscillating and everything. AND IT LOOKS SUPER AMAZING!!! I have to say, I'm so very proud of this fan...and I love it and cherish it for forever. Here's to another 70 years of service and beyond, GE Vortalex! <333
Here's some pictures for you all. Have a look! ^^
http://i.imgur.com/6PCev0b.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WA7xmjN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8k6GSPP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ngaVMBP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zqHeVqc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ueXx3Oc.jpg
I restored another old fan! ...and to those following me on twitter, this is old news (but I took new and better pictures, so look below!)... But for those who don't follow me, all you watchers out there, I wanna show you a little project I took on for myself a few weeks ago~ <3
~~The Story~~
So, I went to an antique store a few months back and noticed a little GE Vortalex fan form the 40s. Here's the thing, I've always thought the Vortalex fans were neat. The blades, the body design, all of it. But this fan was in pretty rough shape. The cage was completely rusted, the blades would hardly budge, it was missing the nut on the oscillation arm. On top of that, when I plugged it in, it only worked on one speed. I decided not to get it...but...it was on my mind for weeks after...still. A few weeks later, the week before FWA, I was out in that area again. I decided I wanted to see the fan again and have another look. It was still there. I expressed my concerns to the kind, old ladies who owned the store. I told them I restored them, which really excited them. I showed them my past work, and they gave me an offer I couldn't refuse on the Vortalex. And I took it home!
This is what it looked like when I got it~
http://i.imgur.com/k3nOi6r.jpg
Suspecting the speed issues might have come from debris and horrible lubrication for decades, I dropped a little bit of oil in. Turns out, I was correct. It was barely moving on Low speed, but it worked! However, the oscillating was another story entirely. When I took the fan apart and got the grease out of the gearbox, I found the oscillating gear's teeth were completely destroyed. That meant it needed a new part...which, on a 70 year old fan, would be a little tough to obtain.
Regardless, I went ahead. At least everything else worked, right? I sanded and stripped the paint off, got all the rust off all the way to a silky-smooth, metal surface. I busted out the black and brown tones for this one...since that's the color scheme of my bedroom. I chose a nice brown for the base and motor casing, a satin black for the cage, and a champagne color for the blades, finishing it all up with a black, braided cloth wire for a vintage feel. And lucky for me, I was able to locate an identical fan in an antique store last Monday, which I promptly bought and took the oscillating gear and arm nut from. The gear from that fan was in perfect condition, so I swapped them out.
After putting it all back together, it runs as smooth and as quiet as it was new...oscillating and everything. AND IT LOOKS SUPER AMAZING!!! I have to say, I'm so very proud of this fan...and I love it and cherish it for forever. Here's to another 70 years of service and beyond, GE Vortalex! <333
Here's some pictures for you all. Have a look! ^^
http://i.imgur.com/6PCev0b.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WA7xmjN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8k6GSPP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ngaVMBP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zqHeVqc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ueXx3Oc.jpg
Meanwhile, I have four vintage fans now, the newest being front he 50s, oldest from the 20s...and they still run PERFECTLY!
Spend a lot of time making old things work again XD
And some aren't vintage, just stuff that didn't work before I got it, but does now
I think one of the more interesting things was a super old GE fan, similar to yours
I didn't repaint it but I got all the parts working
I fixed a neat old ceiling fan too... it was probably cheapie when it was new, but I liked it X3
There is this really old strange looking mechanical jack I fixed too, it still needs TLC to make it work, but it works now X3
It matches my room very well, actually~ <3
Not that I'll ever put a jewel like this on the floor where they can go "OOH-SHINY!!!"
Its hard to cool a trailer any other way besides move air through one end and out the other XD
It's my favorite one of all though. Got the AOU for next to nothing in fantastic original shape. ^^
I knew where another cheap Vortalex was, so I got kinda lucky, yeah... ^^;
Nice work, dude. :)
Now here's the thing. I could think, "Oh, that oven from the 50s is really cool. I wanna buy it." But then, what would I do with it? Fans are a great item for me to collect not only because they look cool, but because I can fix them up (or restore them) and put them to use. They don't just sit there and look pretty all the time, I flip the switch and turn them on as I would any normal fan (in fact, I'm using this very fan right now to keep my room cool). It gives me something to do too, given how much I enjoy tinkering with mechanical things.
Just to further emphasize my point, take the old radio I have. It's from 1939, in perfect working order.
I mentioned earlier about being fascinated with the potential history of the item. This radio was built at the outbreak of WWII. I mean, how cool is that? Can you imagine the broadcasts that came over this radio in just its first couple years of service? Breaking wartime news, FDR's fireside chats, classic radio shows...who knows! THAT's what's so fascinating.
But functionality? It's a big clunker of a radio, and it looks pretty. Sure, you can turn it on and listen to the radio...AM radio. What comes on AM radio anymore? Not a whole lot, really. And this is why I wouldn't want many more radios than this one. It takes up a lot of space just to look pretty. This is where fans win. XD
And well...being a guy myself, I can relate to loving fans--got two of 'em in my room and it always gets warm in here so they certainly come in handy especially if no one lets me put on the central air-conditioning. :P