Hi There, New to this community.

[westyfan]

Hello everyone! I am still excited from finally getting my old Westinghouse upright fixed after two years of being out of service! I decided I would join this forum since I have always been fascinated with vacuums since I was a wee lad. I don't really collect them per se but enjoy using the few that I have and really appreciate any appliance that has stood the test of time. My house has all kinds of weird stuff from way back when. My co workers think I'm crazy, half of my friends do too. The other half think I'm right on the money!

Anywho, I'm going to post a few blurry (sorry) pics of my newly finished westinghouse. Not a professional job by any means but this is the first vacuum I have ever worked on. I greased the front bearing and soaked the rear pourous bearing in oil for several days. I also had to replace the brushes. This is where I hope I am not damaging the poor old girl. I had to sand down some larger brushes that were almost the same size. I also had to cut the springs so that they would fit. One side turned out perfect. The other has too little spring and barely comes out of the holder. I assembled it and it runs nicely though! Bearing noise is gone but I think there is some brush noise from uneven brushes due to sandfing them down. Is this something to worry about? Am I hurting the slip rings? Please let me know, I love this little guy and don't want to hurt him!

Also, doing anything about the short spring will be hard as the bakelite cover for the brush cap broke as i was tightening it making it impossible to get a screwdriver back on it.

 

[bvac6]

Welcome

Welcome to the site, you'll love it here! It sounds like you did right on the bearings, what oil did you soak the other bearing in? Dont worry about the bakelite cap, I have several like that. The material gets very brittle over the decades. But, what lies beneath the bakelite is the brass cap itself so using a pair of pliers to grip it will unscrew it. As for the brushes I would be more concerned that the short spring will eventually allow the brush to make gappy contact with the commutator and cause arcing which can damage it. If you have the original brushes lying around, measure them (i think in millimeters) and match the size up to a carbon brush supplier. I managed to get nearly the exact size brush for my old Air-Way and it works marvelously. I have customized brushes by sanding them and the unevenness wont hurt as long as it isn't extremely uneven. They should be as close to the originals as possible so the commutator bars wear down evenly. Cool machine though, its very similar to the Eureka of that era that came in maroon or blue/gray.

 

[westyfan]

About the brass cap

Thanks for the quick reply bvac6! As far as the oil that I soaked the rear bearing in, I used non detergent 10 weight oil. I also used lithium grease for the front ball bearing.
I'm worried that I won't be able to get the brass cap back out even with pliers though since it is in a tight recess with almost no room on the sides. I will go by the local motor supply today and see if I can get an exact match on the brushes. I didn't think about arcing! Glad you mentioned that. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

 

[super-sweeper]

Welcome! I do the same thing, my house is covered in vintage goodies, and they all get used! I think it's a great lifestyle 

 

[Vacuummania]

Looks awesome!

Welcome fellow weirdo!
Nice to have a new face!
I've always loved the style of those Westinghouse vacuums. Congratulations on a job well done.

 

[hygiene903]

Welcome Fellow Westinghouse Lover!

I have 3 of them myself. Think my upright (model F1-46) is a little older than yours, but not much. I also have an SC-1 canister that belonged to my Aunt, and an H-10 hand vac. I also have a Westinghouse fan, percolator, broiler-frypan, and iron. Although Mansfield, OH was the headquarters for the Westinghouse Appliance Division, the vacuums and fan were made in Springfield, MA, but the kitchen appliances were made in Mansfield, in the Westinghouse plant were I worked for 6 months in 1977. By the time I went to work there, the small appliance lines had been sold to Hamilton Beach Scovill, and they were only making washers, dryers, and ranges at the Mansfield plant. I worked on the dryer floor, which was on the 4th floor of the complex.
Here are some pics of my Westinghouse vacs. And remember, "You can be SURE...if it's Westinghouse!"
Jeff

 

[westyfan]

Thanks Jeff!

It's cool that you actually got to help assemble some nice dryers back in the day. Too bad that Westinghouse had already sold their small appliances off by that point. I have always thought that they put out good products, at least from the 60s back. I have a 57 westinghouse fridge that runs beautifullly. It will freeze beer if you crank it up too much! Then there is the rivalry between Westinghouse and GE. Apparently Westinghouse, the person, was very nice to employees and pretty ahead of his time when it came to workers rights and women in the workplace. And he employed Tesla which is cool just in itself.

I really like your vacs! Especially the handheld model. I really want to get my hands on one to compliment my upright. Does it work well? I have pets and need something to get hair off of couches and such.

 

[bvac6]

Westy

Im glad I could help! Try needle nose vice grip pliers to get into the tight space, just try to be gentle as brass can be soft. I ordered the brushes for my Air-Way and my two speed Regina upright from the company I shared in the link.

http://www.carbonbrush.com/brushes.htm

 

[hygiene903]

Hi Westy!

Glad you enjoyed the pics! As for the hand vac, it's not really outstanding but probably as good as any. Westinghouse was a pretty good place to work when I was there, but years before it was even better! At one time they had their own company band, a theater group that put on plays, teams for just about any sport imaginable, and a company store where employees could buy appliances for 1/2 retail. By the time I worked there, these were all gone and the employee discount only amounted to 10% off at a local retailer. They did still have a cafeteria, and on Fridays they served some of the best perch I ever tasted! Your fridge was probably built in Columbus, OH, but refrigerators were built in the Mansfield plant from the time they were first introduced in 1930 until the line was moved to Columbus in 1954.
You might also be interested in knowing that Westinghouse wasn't the only appliance manufacturer in Mansfield. The Tappan Co., known mostly for ranges, was just a block north of Westinghouse, and Dominion, a popular brand of small appliances, was about 2 blocks east and a block south of Westinghouse. Dominion was actually the first of these to close, I think in the early 70's. Most of the Westinghouse plant is gone now, and the Tappan plant was torn down about 1 1/2 years ago. The Dominion building is still there, but I'm not sure what is there now.
Jeff

 

[westyfan]

Update on the Westinghouse...

Thank you Jeff and Robert for your information!

Robert,
I couldn't get vice grip or needle nose pliers on the bakelite cape. However, I noticed from taking the still good one out that the bakelite seemed to go down into a cut groove in the brass cap. Since the bakelite was so destroyed anyways I decided to carefully chisel it off. It worked! It came off and there was a nice brass screw to easily take the cap off with! I even took my Kirby and this vacuum to a local motor shop to have them look at the new brushes I installed (and sanded down) in the westinghouse and the original brushes in my Kirby. He said that both are fine and that I did a good enough job sanding down the brushes in the westinghouse even though they are a little uneven. He said that after time passes the brushes will wear in even and make less noise, I am causing no harm according to him. Since they are so long I shouldn't have to worry about replacing them anytime soon. He even dug up some replacement brushes for my Kirby no charge! Now both are running like a dream!

Jeff,

It is really interesting to hear the history behind the westinghouse plant. I bet that it would have really been a nice place to work with all of those things to do and 1/2 off appliances to buy back in the day! Oh, and I wish I had a trailer because my grandpa from Kansas just showed me some pictures of really, (read: really) cool appliances from his little tiny villiage. One of them is a 50s Westinghouse washer, I think, little old lady who would only choose a washer and hang clothes to dry I'm assuming. It is one of the "laundromat" models. There is also a really cool and pretty rare Regina vacuum of some sort, possibly from the 40s. Oh, and a positively stunning 40s Crosley Shelvadoor refrigerator in great shape withe the original manuals! The house that these are in has been abandoned since the 70s and is about to fall in on itslef so the family is finally, weird it took so long, going through and taking care of business and trying to get that stuff out. My grandpa knows me so well! Now I just need a trailer (and truck) and have to make a 12 hour drive...damn the distance!

 

[super-sweeper]

12 hours?! I'm about ready to gas up the car and go after hearing that!  Vintage appliances AND 40-year-old abandoned buildings!? My kind of place!