Gettin' hot in the shop. Time to give the fans some love

..............I really don't understand why the manufacturers don't provide a means to oil the front and rear motor bushings? Have to just about take the whole dang thing apart to deliver a couple drops of spindle oil. Another thing is steel on plastic. Unless it's stationary it's NOT a good combination for moving parts.

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I have 3 of those inexpensive oscillating fans. One became pretty crippled and another isn't far behind. Having that thin steel eccentric arm running on plastic is very poor thinking. A simple thin stamped cap would add years of service instead of an apparent designed in 2 year entire fan replacement? LEFT: You can see the worn out nub the eccentric is supposed to run on. RIGHT: The nub has been removed to it's base.

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LEFT: A cap machined out of some 12L14 in 2 shakes. RIGHT: Installed on the base.

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All hooked up and STYLIN' now. A dab of lithium grease and ready for YEARS of yanking & banking [smilie=l: Gotta figure out somehting for those bushings yet!

................Buckshot

If they made 'em to last they would'nt sell as many. That's really about the size of it.

And here I was thinking I was the only guy do things that that!

Buckshot,

You know those old fans were once built that way with all metal components. I still have a 50's era steel desk fan that still runs perfectly fine. I did have to swap out the cord for a new one as the original started to finally fray out (the fabric-covered cord and 2-prong outlet got converted to a new 3-prong grounded cord from the Hardware store) but it still runs as good as the day my grandmother bought it using her A&P Green Stamps.

Great work on bringing a fan back into operation with a simple part swap.

Bruce

:Buck shot when I grow up I am gonna be jus like you. :bigsmyl2:
I have two lathes and a barker horizonal mill and a central machine mill drill and about enough measuring gizzies to satisfy anyone but just can't seem to find the time to learn how to use them very much or well.

Right now in a dwindling economy I'm peddling the bicycle as hard as I can trying to keep up. But when I grow up I'm going to take some time off and have fun with those toys.
and do neat things like make fans that actually run.
e

I'm still trying to talk him into adopting me!:bigsmyl2: He has forgotten more than the majority of us will ever learn in our lifetimes!!A true Renaissance man!Hats-off to Buckshot!!:drinks:GT27

Buckshot, not having a lathe or such skills, I hit every gov't sale I can find looking for old stuff like decent desk fans. I got two 10" fans like Bruce described when they closed the local Coke office building and liquidated all the furniture. Another guy bought about fifteen 5'-tall filing cabinets for a song at the same auction. This old stuff just needs a good cleaning and some TLC to last another 50 years.

Gear

Rick, want to cool off your shop. Home depot or lowes has 3' diameter fans with two speeds. Cool and cold. I keep one in the garage When I futz around with something. Last I saw they were about $145 or so. Open the garage door and back door to get cross ventilation. And I'm also a scrounger of old office equipment. I have 3 drawer filing cabinets, tables converted to work benches. Lyons is one brand name that I keep an eye out for as they make good solid stuff. Frank

Some things they DON'T make like they used to. Usta be water pumps (on the car) had graphite rope for packing with a packing gland nut. Also a zerk for the bearings, just like solid bronze sleeves on the spring shakles (more zerks) and U-joints, more zerks yet! Maybe designed for a shorter commute and fewer RPM's, but also designed that way because you were supposed to FREAKING MAINTAIN your machine, and not sit in front of the G-D tv all day Saturday and Sunday being mindlessly entertained. You had responsibilities. Growing up I remember quite a number of the family cars on the block on Saturdays out in the driveway. Getting their oil changed, new plugs and points and maybe condensers. Old fabric ply tires getting aired up, and oil getting changed BY THE OWNERS :-)

My cousin Denyse has my grandparent's GE electric fan. It was made in 1927 and STILL works like it was new. Has a art deco fluted heavy metal base with 4 rubber nub feet. The motor housing is bullet shaped chrome steel with a polished cast aluminum 4 bladed fan with a healthy dihedral on the blades. It's behind a chrome steel guard that would give an OSHA inspector the heeby jeebies as you can stick several fingers through it. All it takes is once, and you wouldn't do THAT again. Children learn quickly :-) At each end of the motor housing is a tiny copper vertical tube. These are to administer a drop or two of oil to feed the bushings as the mood strikes. At the bottom rear are 2 exposed BRASS (or bronze) gears that impart the occilateling feature.

I doubt that GE got rich building these, but that was back when things were built for a price, and were expected to last awhile. It still has it's 2 conductor cloth covered cord sporting a bakelite (I suppose) plug sporting 2 identically sized prongs. This before polarity matching became de-rigure. I would imagine that buying one wasn't a casual purchase. But then again, it IS 75 years old, and still does what it was designed to do.

Unless it's all cast iron and works via steam, I can't think of may other things that old, that are still doing what they're supposed to do :-)

...............Buckshot