Speedy Stapler

What kind of student doesn't have his own stapler and has to constantly steal his sister's in order to turn in assignment?

So I got myself a cool stapler. Unfortunately, the lady who shipped it to me send it in an envelope package and the top was shattered during transit. So I had to break out my trusty JB Weld and put the bakelite back together. I hope it stays together. The action is really smooth so it should be gently on the bakelite.

I'm not sure if I want to leave the top alone or try to sand it down a bit to take off the extra little bit of JB that got smashed out. We'll see after I use it a few times.

Barcol Fan

I got this the same day as the Arvin. It works quietly and didn't need any cleaning. Just throwing it up here for something to look at. It now my desk fan (like intended) for the hot weather we're about to get down here.

Arvin Heating Fan

Well, its been a busy day today since I've started this blog. I had to post up about the Breakfaster which I did about a month ago, but then also made the headphones this morning and posted it. However, since it's snowing again here, I got stuck inside and decided to tackle this old Arvin fan that I picked up yesterday. I was poking around an antique shop and found this guy:

It didn't have a price tag and the owner plugged it in for me to see if it worked. Well, it turned on the fan with a bit of a battle cry, slowly building speed but not really getting anywhere. Then I kicked on the heater and the fan stopped moving and the heater came on an burned off at least 20 years of dust. Bit of a scary moment as I though I was going to burn the guys shop down with this thing. He shook his head and said "I'll sell it for 5 bucks, but I'm not responsible if your house burns down." Hell, for 5 bucks I took it just for the sake that it still looked cool just chilling in my garage. 

Onward and upward, I started taking this thing apart since it was so filthy. I figured if nothing else I can clean the motor and see if that helps with the lag. The front grill was a bit banged up so I took it off first and showed it affection with a hammer. 

A lot of the hardware was showing it's age. Took off most every bolt and nut and let it sit in WD-40 for a while before hitting them with a wire brush to knock off the bulk of the rust.

Removed the heating unit to get it clean and get underneath on the shroud.

Flipped it to start getting at the motor.

Think there is a reason it was struggling to generate power?

Inside the motor housing.

Inside the base to get to the controls.

The start of cleaning up the motor.

I forgot to take a pic of when I actually got the motor and coil cleaned. It was actually in really great shape and just needed to have all the old muck cleared out. You can see how shiny and bright the coil is inside the plastic, the whole unit actually was in decent shape. I cleaned the motor gear/wheel/block whatever you call it and put some bearing grease in to give it that clean motion and quiet it down a bit.

I cleaned the metal pieces to get the dust and old grime off. I didn't go crazy with the scrubbing as this had a bunch of old paint spots on it that I actually really like. Gives is that studio/garage feel of something that has actually been used like it should have been. I really like the paint splatter on the blades.

I'm very glad my sister is tollerant of me destroying the house with my projects. Everything from antiques to motorcycle parts to electronics, I explode objects and use every facility in the house to get what I need done, including the kitchen sink (which took a bit of scrubbing out today).

Reassembly. Always take lots of pics just so you can look back at how the thing went back together. I can never remember...

And here she is, running like a top!

Got the heater working with the fan, it comes on very quickly now and has plenty of power to run both. This thing is a lot quieter than I expected, its pretty silent. So far, my house hasn't burned down. The heater isn't all that hot, but as you can see the wires are glowing red so I can't expect much more from that. Just old technology. Still a fun little fan and I'm sure it'll come in handy during the summer while working on the bikes in the garage. It gets pretty warm here. 

The Breakfaster

So this one is a quickie (sorta). Just a clean up job so that I could actually use this as it was intended. This is whats called a Breakfaster from 1938-ish. It was made for people living in apartments that had limited kitchen space in big cities back in the day. The little door on the front is a toaster oven of sorts where you put food (like toast, duh) and the top square acts as a hot plate. I've used it to heat up my tea a few times now. I personally am rabidly in love with the old machined metal and style of this little toaster. Industrial!

Here is what it looked like when I got it.

Mmmmmmmmm, put toast on that slab...

So here we got, time to tear it down. Flip it over.

First, we're removing the handles. The handles are made of Bakelite, which is the predecessor to plastic. It's a cool material that has a semi gloss finish to it and is fairly light. Unfortunately it's a little on the brittle side, so you have to be careful with it. I love the look and feel of Bakelite though, so those handles are gonna get a good cleaning! There are only four bolts holding the handles on, which run the whole heights of the unit, meaning those bolts hold the whole thing together. Be careful you don't drop everything and bruise up your table when these heavy metal pieces come down.

Expose the cord connection and remove carefully. The cord is attached to a ceramic column which acts as the resister for heating the unit. 

Here is a better shot of the column and the heating plate that sits at the top of the unit. That top plate is ceramic as well, and this one was crunched up. However, due to the wire that runs through it, it hold together when the sides and top are put back on. Just be very careful when pulling it out and put pressure on all sides when pulling it out and you can keep it together while moving it. I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures of pulling the insides out, I got busy and it just slipped my mind. 

So the next steps I didn't deem necessary to take pictures. All I did was sand the heck out of the surface to remove the rust and pitting. I started with 400 grit to remove the big stuff. I didn't want to take off too much material, so I was careful to only go down deep enough to get out the majority of the pitting. Next, moved to 600, 800, then 1000 grit to get it shiny again. This was flat out elbow grease. It was a work out, but made it all that much better when it was done. I did this to the outside housing (I know, leave the old patina, but I wanted it so leave me be with my shinies!) as well as the insides where food was going to sit. I wanted it clean as I'm actually going to use it.

So, bolt it all back together and here she be!

I love this thing. I have to admit it is one of the cooler items I own, and I love the fact that it is 70 years old and still works like it should. It heats up quick, stays hot, and doesn't burn anything internally. Food you have to monitor as there is no timer, so you have to just do it till you feel its right and then pull it out. 

This thing is great for cheesy toast...

 

Hi

This is just a place for me to put my photos of antiques I fix up and restore (somewhat). I just like cleaning up of stuff and sticking it in my house, or building something new out of them. I just want a place to show some of my work and projects. So here we go.