Anybody Know About Lubricating Stuck Fans? It’s a Weird One.

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set screw...

That’s certainly what did it. The marks are even in shapes that would be left according to how I remember twisting the shaft out, and they’re in the top, where the screw is.
Not sure how I missed that. 🥴
 
felt washers

Are these used for soaking up oil and supplying it to the bearings or the shaft, or are they used as soft washers for spacing, kind of like packing. Hope I made sense,thanks!
 
I figured the marks in the bearing was from a raised spot on the shaft...

Felt washers for oil retainers, fibre washers for spacing.

If you do press the bearings out, you might as well go all out and clear out the pores if you cannot buy new ones that fit. I have a procedure from the former DT vintage fans site that I can share. It involves soaking them in extremely hot oil (to expand the the pores some and melt the gunk) and then using a compressed air gun with rubber tip and a rubber mat to literally blow the pores out. All depends on how much fun you wish to have. :o)
 
...or you can just heat the bearing until it weeps all its oil out. Then submerge it in oil, in a vacuum chamber, until it stops bubbling. But like I was saying, that'd be a lot of work when a new bearing is almost certainly available.

Felt washers - I have seen some motors use soft felt washers as thrust washers. I suppose the idea is that instead of adjusting the thrust play, they just use a thick squishy felt washer to compensate.
 
I’m Not Goin’ Crazy

I’m not banging out bearings or heating anything.
Everything looks pretty good to me.
I got the old amber grease chunks out with carburetor cleaner and tiny pipe cleaners. It was like cleaning the dirtiest ears ever.
Got a little high (unintentionally). That Gumout’s a trip. 😏
I’m just going to put Liquid Bearing synthetic oil in it, run it a little bit, then put Super-Lube synthetic grease in it.
That’ll be fine. These things are tough. [this post was last edited: 6/19/2020-09:48]
 
Timer Transplant

I pulled this timer out of my donor fan to put in this one.
It wasn’t working. I thought I’d just clean & oil it and jiggle things a bit and it would go, but as it turns out the problem is a short in the wire.
Unfortunately, the short is tight against the plug which is riveted shut.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do at this juncture?
I would prefer to just buy a new... plug-socket thing, but I can’t imagine how to google it. I doubt "plug socket thing" would get productive results. What is this thing called???
I’m sure I could drill out the rivets, but I might not be able to get it back together.

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That plug is very unique - I would certainly drill the rivet out and rewire it.
You can still buy 'replacement AC plugs' or 'quick plugs' but I have never seen one with a socket in it. Check ebay as there may be some old stock of a similar thing.
If you replace it and do not want it, I would - nice bit of electrical history there.
 
Whoops

I probably should have explained-
The cords on these fans are basically like an extension cord, with a female 2-prong plug inside the fan.
The motor has a regular male 2-prong plug.🔌
They just bolted the motors into the bodies and plugged them into the power cords.
On the fans that got the timers, this oddball plug-socket went in between them. The motor plugs into the plug-socket, then the plug-socket plugs into the cord.
When the timer stops, it interrupts the circuit.
Ya gotta love how America built things back then. ❤️
 
Christmas tree lights plugs are like that, however, they are designed as a pass-through, not to have a take-off for interrupting the circuit. Cannot find an equivalent on McMaster. The other option would be to simply have one cord with a plug, and add a second cord with a socket.

Also, the rivets look like they still have the pins in them. Normally, you need to punch those through first, then drill, but who knows if there is room behind them to punch them through.
 
Guess what I found

Was looking for meters in my junk, and found this. The plug looks 100% identical to yours. But it has 2 screws holding it together. The 3 visible rivets only hold on the prongs, so drilling them would be a moot point. Yours actually has screws, I can see them in the picture. They're so filthy and rusted that they're camouflaged.

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MadMan! 😘

Holy crap! I didn’t see those at ALL!
Texaskirbyguy even pointed them out and I still missed them.
Man, I’m slipping. 😒
Imagine how mad I would have been if I had drilled those rivets, then found the screws.
Multiple heads are better than one! (With the exception of Greek mythology and Chernobyl family planning)
You guys are so helpful and encouraging. I really appreciate your time spent helping me.
Thanks again!
 
Wtf

Guys c'mon the cord end is crap. If you have wire cutters I'll keep it some.
Males have plug outside the other is female.
Cut the plug off. Strip about a half inch of the cord plastic. This leaves you with what you attach to the plug shown.
Here is another idea. If you have a lamp with an online switch or you can get one at a thrift store for a dollar. Scrap the whole wire and use the lamp in place of this shoddy plug.
I don't know why everyone is telling you how to take apart the plug.
Just thought I'd suggest an easier alternative.
Les

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Thanks Lesinutah, but...

Call me a purist. I like the original plug.
If the fan was rusty with 3 coats of paint and needed serious restoration, I might be more open to bastardizing it with bulky, modern, dayglow-yellow hardware, especially if I were going to put it to work in a garage or something. But this fan isn’t far from museum quality. It will be used lightly around the house and get plenty of luvin’.
I’m happy to go the extra mile to retain that time-warp experience you get when you see a piece like this. 😎
But thank you for your input.
 
Well, I bet the plug is plenty saveable, however you probably need to replace those two rusty screws. I'm just wondering how the plug and switch thing look so crusty if the fan is near mint?
 
Yeah, that was a head-scratcher for a second. lol
I’m so tired, I forgot for a minute, this fan didn’t have the timer option, unfortunately.
You could buy them with or without.
But as I mentioned earlier, I pulled this timer from another Homart Cooler I bought last year on fleabay. It’s condition was a bit disappointing when I opened it, so my search continued for another.
I thought I’d sell it when I found a better one, but I can’t. I love them both. 😜
So now I have the inside princess and the outside workhorse for the patio & garage.
The princess got the workhorse’s timer.
 
To Anyone Still Interested in This Restoration-

Well, I sprayed the on/off/reverse/speed switch with that electronics cleaning spray.
Strong stuff. It blasted through every nook & cranny leaving it as clean as a whistle before instantly evaporating. It seems like a pretty good product, generally speaking, just not so much for this particular switch, as it left it locked-up, solid as a rock.
I don’t fault the cleaner though. After drilling the rivets and popping it open, I found it to be a rather strange switching mechanism. It’s impossible to describe, so see for yourself.
I worked a little synthetic oil in between those sliding... whatcha-muhjiggers, and let it sit overnight.
Now it seems to be working as well as it ever did, which I suspect was never the responsive pop & click one might expect, but rather more of a sludgy submission to one’s selection. Whatever.
Moving on to the timer transplant. I kinda feel like I’m putting Keith Richard’s liver in 12yr old here.
I sprayed the plug’s screws with WD40 and left it overnight. They came out pretty easily, revealing the fact that I finally needed to break down and order a soldering iron.
While waiting for that, I checked the timer mechanism over and found it to be fairly well stuck solid.
I opened it, pulled the movement out and oiled it, jiggled it, played with the gears, and got nothing.
I see some rust on a couple gear pins. I do not want to take apart the movement and have to figure out how to put it all back together. Forget that. I’m as deep into this rabbit hole as I intend to go.
So I sprayed it with WD40 and put it down for the night.
I’ll see where we are later today.
My paints came already, so once I’m done playing with this timer (one way- or the other🏳️💀) I’ll be moving on to touching up chips, then polishing.

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