Learning something new everyday...

[aeoliandave]

When I stopped over in Sarnia on the way back from Ohio, Pete tossed me this nicely coloured Canadian model 1148 Dial-A-Matic, pointing out the loose handle problem. I don't recall if we turned it on or not.

Nonetheless, I think it pretty and under the dirt it's in very nice original condition. So I figured I could do something about the wobbly handle...

On plugging it in it would not run! Curious in that the motor shaft turns freely with no strange noises...

 

[aeoliandave]

So out comes the meter to find where the break in the electrical circuit is. In that process I find out how well assembled the DAM is, in that it seems designed to NOT be taken apart easily and to get down to the various assemblies it all has to come apart.

So I did...

Switch good, motor good, plug & cord good - the break is somewhere between the motor cord and the switch, inside the handle. Mmmmm....How to get the handle out of it's mounting socket.

And it is here that I discovered what many already know - the handle has a plug & socket tucked up inside. It was unplugged. Duh. Perhaps it was loose from a previous repair ( the handle bolt is a brass replacement of smaller size) and finally jiggled itself free.

Should be simple to shim up the handle support ring all stiff & tight again as the plastic is not cracked or distorted. The steel ring barrel with riveted bag compartment/cord hook is held in place with an impossible rivet thang and so that assembly must stay where it is - a job for crack-filling crazy glue to snug up that rivet.

Well, she runs just fine now.

Long night and coming up on bedtime, I'll pack it in the Felix proof box 'til next crack at it. The plastic case parts are soaking in the tub of soapy water getting all clean and sparkly.

Dave - lives to take 'em apart.

 

[camelotshadow]

Ahah

Good Work!

Just as I thought
electrical

LOL

What kind of meter?

I think I need one of those

Will a light tester work?

I knew my filter queen switch wouldn't turn the unit on or off
So figured bad switch

Then again the wires wer off when I got it so thought maybe the wire from switch to motor was crossed so it was always alive

So switched the wires

nope not that

So I took a good switch out of another one & installed it

Yeah sucess is sweet


Now it also need a new LO Hi switch

It only works on low

Since I switched the wires & installed the good switch
it still works on lowut if you move the switch from lo to hi
it shuts the motor off
where as before nothing would happen
the vac would stay on lo

So what did I do

No biggie as I have to get a new hi lo switch anyway
but odd how now switching the motor to hi shuts it off

 

[aeoliandave]

Hope I have explained basic safe circuit testing simply.

Christine, a cheap basic AC/DC Voltmeter from Radio Shack, etc. will have a dial selection for OHMs. The meter's case holds a battery and so touching the plug-in leads together will register a 'completed circuit' without plugging anything into the wall socket such as a test lamp. At a basic level the same thing as a Christmas Bulb Tester. With this as an indicator you can test each and every electrical path that has exposed terminals and isolate the area where the electric current breaks.

For example, touching the leads to the switch terminals in the Off and On positions will tell you is the switch is good or garbage.

Saves biting the tip off your tongue or gnawing through a fingernail as you eliminate the possibilities.

Dave

 

[camelotshadow]

Thanks

Will have to see if I can get one

I still don't know whats wrong with the hi lo

but since the hi button is cracked off
I'm figuring the switch isn't making the hi contact

Just curious as to why its shutting down on hi now
where as before it would be lo on both hi N low settings

Yeah, I wasn't planning on fiving electrical things
but when you got a good machine & it needs a switch or something simple
why not

LOL

Thanks again

 

[camelotshadow]

E = IR

Ohms law
if I recall

I was a physics major
Also learned this stuff at 13 when I got my amatuer ham radio
license

morse code too

I've grown up with this stuff
so here & there some of it snuck in by osmosis

LOL

 

[aeoliandave]

As they say "don't try this at home, kids".

When I was maybe 6 or 7 years old I wrapped a piece of lamp cord around a long spike, connected the ends to a plug and stuck it in the wall socket...

Of course this blew the main house fuses. Mom found me blissfully twitching. This is when Dad sat me down and taught me about electricity and we correctly made an electromagnet - on battery power.

Anyway, I have 'successfully' been giving myself inadvertent shocks for many years now. This may or may not have made me the person I am today. I'm also the kid who just had to lick the chrome bumper to see if my tongue would stick; no one had to talk me into it. LOL Whenever I got a cut - and my hands are a testament to many sharp mishaps - I liked to probe & inspect the wound before the band aide.

Just last week my dentist remarked I was a fast healer as the 3 biopsy cuts were utterly gone in a week. The stitches dissolved out in two days.

Dave

 

[camelotshadow]

Hah you sound like my brother

taking my fathers stuff apart
electrifying his door
LOL

He's an electrican now at Rikers

LOL

I fixed my mike at 13
soldered the brokem wires

I just fixed as needed
didn't take apart the whole world

Autopsied my pet rabbit as a teenager

discovered it died because it has part of its intestinal loop protruding thru the adbomenal wall under the skin . the umbilical hernia became closed off because of pregnancy.
Poor lil rabbit.

I caught wind of a lil Dr Mengeler when you were evicerating that poor G4

LOL

My queries were more scientific than technical
Had a microscope instead of dolls

LOL

I now have a leiss WW11 geerman military field microscope
complete w waterprooof metal case

In it old medical kit & slides
some of them real weird things

reportedly taken back by a us military photoghraper when they were inspecting the camps

It sort of gives me the ebgbees

Glad I didn't catch some weird virus when I opened that thing up

I was fixing a coffee pot in college
forgot to take the plug out

lights out real quick
I was fine
guess it was an insulated screwdriver

Wanted to be a vet
then it was astrophysicist

now I am just an apt manager
working for an apt & barely enough to eat neveertheless buy bags for vacs
but I pinch here n there
& somehow I survive

still I don't ever have to go to work
then again I can never go home

LOL

Tppk this pic from a slide in the case
from something they were looking at back in time
haven't the foggiest what it is but its really frilly fluted & kind of pretty

 

[mattl]

DAM Handle

I have a twin to the DAM you picked up, at least colorwise, and I guess loose handles were a problem. If I recall we got the DAM in '68 or '69 and used it for years but the handle got loose. At the time you could buy a bracket that fit over the fitting and stabilized the unit. It worked to some extent but not totally.

My DAM vac has been though lot and still runs fine. It got heavy use in the house till the early 90's, went over to a house I was building, cleaned particle board floors and later carpet, went to an office and used there for years. Now it's up in the garage attic waiting for it's next adventure. You can't kill these things!

 

[aeoliandave]

Christine, you are a delight!

Matt, I saw one of those screw on handle brackets on a machine at Tom's. Ugly but effective...for a time. As Tom said, it was the last fix the machine would get as the screw holes weakened the plastic case even more and when that cracked, it was goodbye.

If only Hoover had continued the handle hole another 1/4" down in to the bag chamber brace.

Since mine isn't yet cracked I'm going to do my clever best to snug it up again. I surmise the undersized replacement handle bolt isn't helping any, allowing the handle to also swivel.

Concerning the later uprights, I asked Tom about Hoover USA's two piece handles in comparison to Canada's one piece-ers. He said the Company liked to pack the whole vacuum in a small box for shipping rather than two. Makes sense. The DAM handle socket with the plug connectors obviously followed this design directive.

Btw, while all the manufacture info is stamped into the brush roll plate I haven't found a serial number anywhere yet? Where would that be???

Dave

 

[aeoliandave]

I've replaced the rotting black foam behind the grill, repaired the cracked grill 'tines' and fixed the wobbly handle, I hope.

The handle slips down into a metal barrel, the bolt passes through and threads into the barrel, tightening around the handle. Didn't wash the case central frame yet so no water woould wick into the repair area.

The metal barrel has a sort of plug washer at the bottom that is riveted through the case into the bag chamber. When the plastic compresses enough through use the rivet's hold loosens, allowing the barrel to rotate as well as wobble from side to side. I wedged the rivet tight with a knife shim, centered the barrel and applied crack filling crazy glue to the hairline gaps. This plastic really likes crazyglue - it melts and fuses the plastic like model airplane cement. Anyway, I tilted the body and used a needle to inject crazy glue into the rivet's hole so some would creep under the barrel. This has created a seat for the barrel's end and the whole thing is now as tight and immovable as original. I hope.

Nothing more could be done other than to drill out that rivet and replace it with a bolt to solve the handle's future wobble trouble.

Dave