I DO like Green Ham and Bags...

[aeoliandave]

on the kitchen table bench being assessed. It's going to be gorgeous. Thank you, Kyle.

Dave

 

[aeoliandave]

Help wanted

Oh dear, I can't find a reference to or picture of the 25 special anywhere.Other than I know Special means rebuilt at the Factory and it says so on the trim band, what can folks tell me about this attractive blue & brown Hoover?

Tucked in with the Kenmore bags was this manual for the Kenmore Canister.

Also, a mystery dusting brush. It's molded of dark red rubber and has a raised ridgeline down the front. It looks familiar but for what brand?

Dave

 

[normvac]

Hoover hose ! What a find

The machine end of the hose your showing with your 115s and
the 25 special. Is for the 115, I have bid on at least 3
of those on E bay, every time I just miss getting it !!
Lucky you !! Dave
Norm

 

[aeoliandave]

Really Norm? And now I recall Kyle did say it was for the 115. I didn't see how it would fit but now I think I see it clamps directly to the fan intake inside the hood for full suction? try it tomorrow.

This is what the 25 special looked like before.

 

[aeoliandave]

Found I had a brown spiral-ribbed Hoover cord with old replacement plug on it so...
took the rubber strain relief in to work and reamed out the excess rubber cord jacket. New cord fits perfectly. Once home I hooked it all up, found a bolt for the bale, gave the hood a quick wash and voila! and it runs nice.
As I surmised through the mud coat there's barely a scratch or chip on it other than on the front face of the handle pole. Someone took care of this cherished Hoover before it got chucked out.
This weekend I'll take the wirewheel to the brushroll, do the detailing and polish up the Bakelite.

I just love the blue/gray knobbletone paint and the surprising light weight the magnesium base imparts.

Question: the brushroll revolves forward, that is brushes the debris ahead of the advancing 25. Is this normal? I really don't know...

and the plea again...what year do we think this is and any other info.

Dave

 

[aeoliandave]

Kyle gave me a brown Bakelite Hoover crevice tool that fits on the hose and I have a pair of spare curved aluminum hoover wands that match the latch. The latch is a spring tab that clicks into a square open hole just like my Canadian 281 so that clues me in to a possible date. (?)

 

[portable]

Dear Dave....

The US 25 debuted in approximately 1937. It was the second in the Hoover line-up behind the fabulous Dreyfus Model 150. The original color scheme was brown base (lightish, similar to the Model 28 that would follow years later). The hood appears to be the original color. The double-bale handle was the last machine with that set-up produced by Hoover. I believe the tool set used was the newer style, one generation after the 150 tool set. I will try to dig up some old ads of the 25. It was a simple but elegant machine. They were real workhorses.
John L.

 

[aeoliandave]

Thank you so much, John. I have the 28 in Canadian form as the 281 and see the similarities - the converter for the 281 slides right in.

Can I assume that the base is that delightful blue/gray to indicate it's a re-build? A lovely colour combo, I think.

There's just over 1/4" of thick bristles on the brushes so it does contact the carpet. Any longer and it would push the vacuum backwards...now about that...can I also assume the debris spitting brush action is intentional?

Well, naturally it won't spit it out if the carpet is laid freely and sucked up to the pummeling beater bars; it's first test run was on glued down carpet. :-(

I have Sunday an Monday off and it'll probably rain. Going to have so much fun running the 281, 5 qnd 115s. Put on my thinkin' cap and figured out the Jr hose attachment. nifty device.

 

[portable]

Well, as far as I know...

the 25 had a rather unique tool converter (unless the slide-in channel was changed at the factory when they rebuilt it). It was a bakelite strangely angled affair. I seem to remember that the 25 was one of only a few machines to have this strange converter. And the tools had a weird different type of latch on them than the usual pushbutton style. I've gotta find some ads.....I wonder if someone could post a picture of this unique converter??

 

[kenmore81]

Ohh Boy Dave!

looks like you had quite the time,I lokve the toasters, the Silex perculator, and the hoovers. The dustette brings back memorys. My faternal grand parrents had one and I got to vacuum the stairs and furnature almost every time I visited,wich was every W/E seeing they were only 2 streets away. I couldnt use the "big" vacuum till I got bigger and I couldnt wait. It was a BOL eureka 3.3 amp in lovely orange. by witch time they got a new one,The Boss and yes threw out the old because it smelled like rubber. Anyway The Dusteete was given to me.

 

[aeoliandave]

A few more pictures to round out the weekend trip.

Here, the Owners Guide for the Eureka 'Ham' Canister 1000 Series. I post these scans because, like me, there may be a few more fellers that would like to print them out. With just a bit more time splitting pages and editing one can convert them to double sided booklet form and create a stapled version like the original. Sometimes I will carefully remove the staples and scan them that way which saves the steps of re-arranging the pages yourself. But not this time.

Note that the date blue-penciled on the cover is my and Fred Nelson's birthday, March 2. So, I was 15 years old in 1968...

 

[aeoliandave]

pgs 1-2

Here we go, folks. Eureka Style "L" or 1000 Series bags to be used - not the same as the contemporary available Eureka Style "L" bag...not the least bit compatible.

This Guide covers all the 1000 Style canned hams. My green ham has only one exhaust outlet on the bottom and this is the only vent - must have blown unpicked-up dust hither and yon across the floor. LOL

 

[aeoliandave]

pgs 3-4

Ahhh, the broad range of accessory nozzles, including the infamous clattering ruckus Vibra-Beat.

 

[aeoliandave]

pgs 5-6

Interesting to me that Eureka made no changes or improvements to the peculiar swing arm generous capacity bag support system used since its 1958 (?)introduction. But it is a slim compact cleaner packing a very powerful motor that glides along behind you on its 3 wheels. There is definitely room beside the motor to add the cordwinder reel as mentioned for later models.

 

[aeoliandave]

pgs 5-6

Interesting to me that Eureka made no changes or improvements to the peculiar swing arm generous capacity bag support system used since its 1958 (?)introduction. But it is a slim compact cleaner packing a very powerful motor that glides along behind you on its 3 wheels. There is definitely room beside the motor to add the cordwinder reel as mentioned for later models.

 

[aeoliandave]

No grass growin' under my feet...

It is growing out on the lawn since it's raining and thundering and as dark as Dorothy's Kansas today. Also a major heatwave has swept in so if it wasn't for the AC I'd be working naked and wiping my forehead a lot...however...currently 86 F and rising fast, from yesterday's mere 64 F.

Nothing for it but to deep-spa the 25. What fun since all the parts are intact other than the original bolt for the bale position lever. Found a suitable bojack bolt, with a 1/4" sleeve washer that rides nicely inside the grooves and stops.

That done, I turned my attention to the rusty brushroll and belt grooves on the motor with a wirewheel on the drill. A lot of packed dirt, mud and insect carcasses caught in cobwebs everywhere but a bristle brush, water, and a Kenmore vacuuming cleaned that up well enough. We're not talking a re-paint here.

 

[aeoliandave]

brushroll installed with new belt, lets flip 'er over and work on top.

 

[aeoliandave]

Took me a while of pondering to get the motor cap off - one bolt in the front under the band, who knew? - and as expected needs a real good cleaning. The Bakelite hood and band have been waxed and polished.

 

[aeoliandave]

It's a real joy to find a machine in this complete but sadly neglected condition, as the re-furblement just gets better and better at each step.

I'm off now to get a 25 watt bulb as 15 watts is just too dim and unsuitable...

At work I found a perfect brown/red match for the handle paint...leather shoe paint, LOL. For now I have painted the rusty switch plate and sealed it under a matt clearcoat. The handle pole is not that far gone that it wants a painting but the yoke will get it.

I found evidence of the original light tan paint in a corner of the base. I really like the Hoover rebuild blue, tho. The hood band has a lovely transparent blue glaze that gives that blue glow to the lettering. yes, I know the cord is probaly too light a brown but it's the only one I had in the cord partz bin, dammit. The vintage rubber replacement plug looks good, I think.

 

[portable]

You done right, Dave -

I think you were wise to leave the rebuild blue as-is. It was actually a rarity to see these 25s as rebuilds, so preserving what the factory did to it is important. Come to think of it, since the factory is no more, preserving any of the Specials is taking care of a part of Hoover's past...