That 70’s Fan

I picked up this fan at the OSU sale a couple of months ago. Unfortunately when turned on it did not oscillate but the fan blade did pump in and out about 1” as it rotated. So I put it on the fixit pile.

One Jeff Rusnak in this thread has a bit of information on the fan:

“These Westinghouse fans were from the very late 60's to right around 1970.Ray Hane has a brochure I looked at a few years back and it was dated 1970 and showed these fans along with other Westinghouse fans being made at the time.Westinghouse was still manufacturing the Riverias but they were made of metal and used the later plastic blades,and the Mobilares were also being produced.As for the desk fans they were made by Knapp Monarch/Jack Frost and the only Westinghouse parts were the blades.Very strange HUH ? The 16"looks much like the 10" & 12" but the guard is different and looks like the old standards,and the blades look like the standards,just a very thin plastic.The 16"s are 3 speeds and use the resistor.Yes it does get hot,and kinda glows on low.The very last of the Westinghouse fans.I have all 3 sizes 10" 12" & 16".The Livelyaires ran up until about the very late 60's,maybe about 1968 or 1969 before being dropped from production.”

And a Tom Dreesen in the thread points out the patent:

“Interesting, patent assigned to Knapp-Monarch in 1967”

This clears up a bit of a mystery about disassembly.

The oscillating shaft is completely frozen. That’s a left-hand thread on the amplitude adjuster knob (?). I like it better without the plastic knob, but I may find another plastic one for safety’s sake. You can see the 80% hole in the housing that the strain relief  goes through to hold the fan halves together. There’s a matching one on the other housing half. I pulled the strain relief out with pliers, carefully. Finally found the setscrew for the fan blade under all that hair and dust. This bushing just sort of fell out. It was a pain getting that spherical bearing off the shaft, completely varnished on so that the fan was rotating in the sheet metal cup rather than in the bearing itself. I had to file away the rivet heads holding the cover on the gearbox as they were integral to the bottom casting. The recalcitrant shaft. I had to carefully press it out and it was solid with dried lubricant (AKA varnish). Fitting it together and thinking. I drilled and tapped the bottom casting for #4-40 screws. Seems to be fine. Fitting the front bearing back in place. Darn. This is why I hate items not designed for repair. This works fine. All of the screws I used came from the estate sale I just posted about, because they were close at hand. And it works! I’ll clean off the labels and be ready for summer. Now to find some matching avocado appliances.

Another Panavise Bonus

So I won that Panavise contest again! You guys really should enter it. This time they sent two vises that are similar to the PV Jr. vise. Plus the speed handle and the rubber jaws for both.
This is an interesting idea. Vise Buddy Jr. is held in your bench vise. I’ve already used it a couple of times. 
This is their Vacuum Base PV Jr.Much better than the old style vacuum base vises they used to make. I can’t remove it from my surface plate once it’s activated. I wish I had more smooth work surfaces, but I can see it coming in handy. 
Thanks Panavise!

Scrap Wood Treadmill Desk

I’m out of shape and need to exercise more. A cousin of mine has a treadmill desk and lost a pile of weight by walking slowly while working. So I figured I’d whip one up and give it a try. I made it out of pieces of wood I had laying around (most of which were bought cheap at the local salvage place or Habitat’s resale store.) The top is a kitchen cabinet door that my friend Kent gave me from his junk wood pile. As you can see I already have PC set up, but it was just for watching video from Netflix and Hulu while using the treadmill. And it seems stupid to just walk and watch when your hands are idle. Devil’s workshop and all that.
Seems to work fine but will take some getting used to.

A Pile Of Pictures

Just cleaning out my latest picture folder. What I’ve been up to since the last catching up post a month or so ago...
We had a record storm! The most snow since we moved here back in the ‘90s. It lasted for days and completely paralyzed the Willamette valley.
 The power went out one morning as the weather transitioned from snow to rain and trees fell across lines. We coped by playing Qwirkle.  
  Henry made a FM radio with his Snap Circuits Kitso he could listen to the radio while waiting for the power to come back on. Not a bad emergency plan I suppose.

The next weekend or so I went to the hamfair with my friends Gregg and Bill. They are crazy hams. I was on the hunt for test equipment and vintage computing stuff.

Gregg and I filled his Prius trunk. Bill was completely disciplined and bought nothing. 
  I bought this lovely fluke bench multimeter.

An audio sweep generator, multimeter (broken but I will have a post about fixing it soonish) and an EMF meter to drive my hippie friends crazy with.

Gold! I paid a quarter a piece for these lovely vintage CPUs.
  Heathkit and Zenith together.
  My new Color Computer II!
And a pair of Micro Color Computers, one of which is broken.

I was getting the Continostat out (long story for another post) and found this micrometer hiding under a bench.

 
Then it was the weekend of the Benton County Friends Of The Library Sale. I was extremely disciplined and only bought this small stack of books. This is hilarious considering what comes next.

The next weekend had an estate sale for a man named Chris McGlothlin. I don’t know anything about him other than that I wished I’d met him when he was alive. Nobody I know knew him, and the internet has no mention of him (other than being listed as “missing” in a picture of some EE’s at OSU). Anyway over two days I bought piles of electronics components, kits, parts and tools…and books…
A function generator

My new favorite thing. An extremely nice power supply.
  Way too many books. But many good books.

And a very important piece of history.

But this is where I will impart a life lesson (beside the obvious lesson about hoarding):
At the sale on Friday I talked to a young guy who had just bought a hot air soldering station at the sale (wish I had seen it first, but he wished he had seen the power supply before I did as well…as such things go). Anyway when I got home I found that among the random parts I had bought in a box of crap were some tips for his soldering station.
The next day (yes, I went back as they were willing to make very good deals, hence all those books) I was talking to a woman who mentioned that her son had bought the hot air station. So I told her to tell him to email me so I could give him the parts (they would do me no good). Turned out she was the landlady of the house the estate sale was at…

You see where this is going don’t you?

Yes, I met the young fellow a few days later and gave him his parts and he let me take all the books (all the books I wanted)  that were left in the house, as they had been abandoned by the family.

The lesson? Pay attention and be nice. I should do that more often.


Let me just say that Felice is very understanding.

I got a little hardware as well.
  I told you it was funny that I was so disciplined at the book sale…I am a book magnet. I did get give away a pile to Gregg almost immediately, so it’s not quite as bad as it looks. Ok, it is as I also got a bunch of Nuts & Volts and other electronic hobby magazines.

And finally, I fixed a spatula (turner). I don’t know where to get these style anymore with the thin springy stainless steel blade, so I fix them when I have to.