Larry Buskirk

Geez!!! I goes away for awhile, and things sure look different!!! Just happen to be repairing a friends wife's komputator and figured I'd stop in while I was close to this darned internet thingy. Sure feels weird being on a komputator after 1 1/2 years of not being around. I'll be back!! Larry

Hum Ba Bug.

Gerry, I can relate on a smaller basis. I usually never sell my machines, but I have sold some parts I later wish I hadn't. When I needed them they ended up costing time and double what I had sold them for. I've still got my 1937 Delta 654 jointer to redo. It's the companion for my 1160 "Tilty". Once you've played with a "Tilty" you'll be hooked.

Gene, The only part of the cord that was left was the short piece going from the switch to the motor. I'm only using it for test purposes. I'll be looking into replacing the cords with the same type of twisted wire cord. There is a place on ebay that sells new "old style" cord for about $1.30 per foot. They have several colors to choose from.

Well, "Here We Go Again" Today I cleaned up the old Centrifugal Switch, and Armature Assembly. Here's the "Before" restoration photo, Here's the parts cleaned up a bit, The grungy pieces in the upper right corner are whats left of a cup shaped insulator. The thing in the lower right is what I came up with to replace the insulator. It's made from a piece of brown paper bag that I wet formed to the brass housing next to it. After it was totally dried I sprayed it with several coats of clear enamel to seal it. Here it is trimmed and fit to the brass housing. The spacers go between the armature, and the brass housing. The Centrifugal Switch contacts get secured through the brass housing and spacers with a sandwich of five fiber washers per bolt. If you notice I'm one short of the small fiber washers, I had to replace one that crumbled. I needed to turn one down from a larger outside diameter washer. I added some thin brass washers between the bolt heads, and fiber washers to better support the fiber washers. Here is the armature assembly installed into the motor. BTW, the way the motor is running in the above photo. .............................................................................................................. Yes, I did say running! All is not quite well though, the start winding is a bit weak, I need to give the motor a little kick start to get it going. ( If I make it to 105, I bet I'll need more than a kick start. ) I had the motor running for about 45 minutes, just to make sure it wouldn't overheat. It gets warm, but not so warm you can't hold onto it. Let's check out in the paint department to see how things are coming. Ha, Ha, FOOLED YOU!!! There was no OOps!!! I'll be trimming out the lettering, and borders on the front cover in brass paint. Here's a view of the fan partially assembled. Hmmm, The color is a bit off. It looks more like the maroon in the front cover shot. I'm still working on the paint repairs on the main motor housing.

Thanks Gene, Due to some rather decent weather I've been able to play with this "project". A few posts back I posted that I couldn't get the centrifugal switch, and stator winding loose from the main motor casting and had decided to simply wash the entire assembly. After all, that mud and whatever got inside when the fan was submerged in whatever. So I used the kitchen sink, and washed the entire assembly using Dawn dish soap and an old toothbrush. (Don't tell my wife.) Well here's a couple of photos showing the assembly before washing, and after washing. I also did an ohm reading test on the start, and run windings of the stator windings with the following results. Run Winding= 38-39 ohms. Start Winding= 23-24 ohms. This is in the normal range for these fan motors. Which means,........................... This fan will run again!! Cool!!! I'm in the process of repairing the original finish on the main motor housing. I cleaned the front cover in the electrolysis tank. This process leaves you with a bare casting. Then I went to paint, OOps , Grabbed the wrong can of paint, I was sure that was the primer. Oh BTW, I did find the Brasso! Cool!!!

Thanks John, It's "My Fan Club".

John, I've been working on my "Patriot Picking" pick from last Sunday. This is going to be "Cool"

Gene, I am having fun with this old fan. That's what I found when I searched for the episode. Anyway, a bit more progress, I tried removing the switch contacts, and stator winding from the motor case, but without luck. So I figured I'll try cleaning them in place, in the case. Since the motor got filled with stuff having been submerged at one point, I simply filled the sink and cleaned it with Dawn dish soap. It's drying next to the wood burner now. After it is dry, I'll run a resistance test on the windings. I also got the armature cleaned up. I still have to rebuild the centrifugal switch. Here's an "after" photo of the fans base.

Well now, it's time for a progress report. So get your popcorn, or coffee sit down and have a looks see at what's happening! I've been informed that this is one of the rarer, (Sought after) fans by collectors of early Emerson fans. (How cool is that? ) It appears that this post might also serve another purpose. (Other than me getting a cool old fan. ) This fans motor is of the split phase variety which was also used in some of our old machinery, so I figured I"ll give a tour of the insides of this split phase motor. First off I had to get the blades off of the motors armature shaft. The blades hub is a left hand thread onto the armature. Since this motor had been submerged at some point in its past it will require a total cleaning/restoration to get things working again. Split phase motors use a centrifugal switch which controls the motors start winding. The switch cuts the start winding out when the motor reaches speed. The switches contacts can be seen in this view. Well that's about it for now, I've got some more cleaning to do. I'll post some more photos later.

Gene, I'll try to find it. John, It will be far from being a doorstop when I'm done.

Well it appears this fan was under water at some time in it's long journey to find me. I found water inside the oscillating mechanism. So, that just makes things a bit more interesting. I still believe I'll get it back to running though, it will just take a bit more work. Well now, it wouldn't be one of my projects if it was going to be easy.

Capital None.

John, Who do you think is taking the picture?