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One day last week I got a phone call from one of my buddies at a local vac shop. He said, his voice trembling a bit, "We just got something in on trade that you're really gonna want. I hid it in the back -- you better get over here quick before the boss sees it!"
Well, I wasn't about to miss something so amazing that it made a vac-shop repairman's voice quiver! I had no sooner hung up the phone than I was at the store. My friend was standing at the repair counter in the back. When he saw me, he motioned for me to come there.
He led me back to a far corner of the back room, behind the repair counter, where there's a mountain of trade-ins and parts.
He opened a closet door and reached in and grabbed something. When I saw it, I had to sit down, because I nearly fainted.
Continued below.......
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[NOTE: PLEASE DON'T SCROLL DOWN AND LOOK AT THE PHOTOS! LET YOURSELF BE FULLY SHOCKED!!!]
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And here's why.
I have NEVER seen a 500-series Kirby like this one. Have any of you? I can't imagine it's something that someone rigged up on their own. It's just too professionally done.
The model plate identifies it as a 560 and every detail points to that model except the long rug nozzle and the earlier-style belt lifter.
But about that belt lifter ... it's not a belt lifter at all! As you'll see in the photos, it's just a cap that attaches to the front and is held in place by a pair of spring-loaded clips.
The rug nozzle is somehow attached permanently -- I'm guessing bolted onto the fan housing from the inside. It doesn't come off, and there's no release lever for it on the top.
The one big "ARRRRRGGHHHHH" ... the brush roll is missing. And it's a real oddball size. It's two inches longer than a Heritage-II or Legend's standard nozzle. It -might- be the same length as a Classic nozzle, but I don't have any Classics or parts for them, so I can't check that out. Not that it would probably help if I did, given the non-standard fittings for the end-caps.
The bumper for the rug nozzle is a little different than the standard one -- it's somewhat taller in height and has a different shape -- instead of what basically is two tubular pieces stuck together like the standard bumper, it's flatter and has two ridged lines running along the bottom. It almost looks like a Classic bumper but it's not that tall. Its height is somewhere between the standard 500-series bumper and the Classic bumper.
It runs great; the motor sings sweetly and winds down with no bearing noise or armature vibration whatsoever. I'm just dying that the brush roll went missing!
My guess is that it was an early version or a prototype for the American Lincoln, Janitronic & SuperSweep machines -- standard Kirbys in every way but with wide nozzles and painted in garish (dare I say ugly?) colors and with design elements that looked like haphazard afterthoughts.
One might wonder why it doesn't have a special Model number or name. On the other hand, the Heritage II & Legend II machines had three different rug nozzles the user could choose -- the "standard" Heritage/Legend nozzle, a smaller 500-series-style nozzle, and a larger Classic-style nozzle. So if this was just an optional commercial-use version of a Kirby without attachments, they might not have felt it was important to give it a special model designation.
But I really have no idea.
Sometimes I have weird dreams where I'm in dark, creepy basement-type rooms where there are vacuum cleaners in all sorts of strange sizes and/or odd proportions, bizarre attachments, etc. It's almost as if this Kirby materialized from one of those mysterious dreams. I've just never seen another one like it. Ever. Anywhere. Y'all should have seen my chin hit the floor when the guy at the vac shop fetched it out of its hiding place in the back room.
See the photos below. There are 20 of them, showing the machine from different angles, a few shots comparing it to a standard 500-series model, and some detail shots.
Oh, and, CAN YOU IMAGINE ... I had no sooner loaded the machine into the back seat of my car than the boss (owner of the store) pulled up in the parking lot. If I had gotten there just as couple of minutes later, this machine would have ended up sitting in a corner of his very cluttered and discheveled office. I am just beside myself with elation that my friend called me in time!
Now don't get me wrong -- it's not that my pal did something wrong in giving me this Kirby. The owner has no interest whatsoever in old machines and has told the crew there that I can have any old trade-ins that I want, for the same amount as they gave the customer for the trade-in. "It's less crap for me to climb over," he says. But he's probably right -- given its oddball status, the owner very well might have wanted to keep it.
Okay, so any of y'all who might have an American Lincoln, Janitronic or SuperSweep, could you take some photos of the bottom of the rug nozzle and the brush roll so I can determine if this machine takes the same size and type of brush roll? And then, if so, Oh Dear Lord, please FIND me one!!"
So ......................... what y'all think??!
~
One day last week I got a phone call from one of my buddies at a local vac shop. He said, his voice trembling a bit, "We just got something in on trade that you're really gonna want. I hid it in the back -- you better get over here quick before the boss sees it!"
Well, I wasn't about to miss something so amazing that it made a vac-shop repairman's voice quiver! I had no sooner hung up the phone than I was at the store. My friend was standing at the repair counter in the back. When he saw me, he motioned for me to come there.
He led me back to a far corner of the back room, behind the repair counter, where there's a mountain of trade-ins and parts.
He opened a closet door and reached in and grabbed something. When I saw it, I had to sit down, because I nearly fainted.
Continued below.......
.
.
[NOTE: PLEASE DON'T SCROLL DOWN AND LOOK AT THE PHOTOS! LET YOURSELF BE FULLY SHOCKED!!!]
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And here's why.
I have NEVER seen a 500-series Kirby like this one. Have any of you? I can't imagine it's something that someone rigged up on their own. It's just too professionally done.
The model plate identifies it as a 560 and every detail points to that model except the long rug nozzle and the earlier-style belt lifter.
But about that belt lifter ... it's not a belt lifter at all! As you'll see in the photos, it's just a cap that attaches to the front and is held in place by a pair of spring-loaded clips.
The rug nozzle is somehow attached permanently -- I'm guessing bolted onto the fan housing from the inside. It doesn't come off, and there's no release lever for it on the top.
The one big "ARRRRRGGHHHHH" ... the brush roll is missing. And it's a real oddball size. It's two inches longer than a Heritage-II or Legend's standard nozzle. It -might- be the same length as a Classic nozzle, but I don't have any Classics or parts for them, so I can't check that out. Not that it would probably help if I did, given the non-standard fittings for the end-caps.
The bumper for the rug nozzle is a little different than the standard one -- it's somewhat taller in height and has a different shape -- instead of what basically is two tubular pieces stuck together like the standard bumper, it's flatter and has two ridged lines running along the bottom. It almost looks like a Classic bumper but it's not that tall. Its height is somewhere between the standard 500-series bumper and the Classic bumper.
It runs great; the motor sings sweetly and winds down with no bearing noise or armature vibration whatsoever. I'm just dying that the brush roll went missing!
My guess is that it was an early version or a prototype for the American Lincoln, Janitronic & SuperSweep machines -- standard Kirbys in every way but with wide nozzles and painted in garish (dare I say ugly?) colors and with design elements that looked like haphazard afterthoughts.
One might wonder why it doesn't have a special Model number or name. On the other hand, the Heritage II & Legend II machines had three different rug nozzles the user could choose -- the "standard" Heritage/Legend nozzle, a smaller 500-series-style nozzle, and a larger Classic-style nozzle. So if this was just an optional commercial-use version of a Kirby without attachments, they might not have felt it was important to give it a special model designation.
But I really have no idea.
Sometimes I have weird dreams where I'm in dark, creepy basement-type rooms where there are vacuum cleaners in all sorts of strange sizes and/or odd proportions, bizarre attachments, etc. It's almost as if this Kirby materialized from one of those mysterious dreams. I've just never seen another one like it. Ever. Anywhere. Y'all should have seen my chin hit the floor when the guy at the vac shop fetched it out of its hiding place in the back room.
See the photos below. There are 20 of them, showing the machine from different angles, a few shots comparing it to a standard 500-series model, and some detail shots.
Oh, and, CAN YOU IMAGINE ... I had no sooner loaded the machine into the back seat of my car than the boss (owner of the store) pulled up in the parking lot. If I had gotten there just as couple of minutes later, this machine would have ended up sitting in a corner of his very cluttered and discheveled office. I am just beside myself with elation that my friend called me in time!
Now don't get me wrong -- it's not that my pal did something wrong in giving me this Kirby. The owner has no interest whatsoever in old machines and has told the crew there that I can have any old trade-ins that I want, for the same amount as they gave the customer for the trade-in. "It's less crap for me to climb over," he says. But he's probably right -- given its oddball status, the owner very well might have wanted to keep it.
Okay, so any of y'all who might have an American Lincoln, Janitronic or SuperSweep, could you take some photos of the bottom of the rug nozzle and the brush roll so I can determine if this machine takes the same size and type of brush roll? And then, if so, Oh Dear Lord, please FIND me one!!"
So ......................... what y'all think??!
