Vintage Royal Vacuum project

[lesinutah]

That

Is the carbon brush housing. Leave the housing in. If you have a soldering iron put the soldering iron where it's soldered on and the wire will come loose.
I'd take degreaer spray it in the housing and all the parts and power spray everything.
Make sure to shoe reassembly pics because my model 98 is exactly like yours and I've not got to the restore yet.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Here are a few additional photos

 

[lesinutah]

Its

The carbon brushes housing. They break easily and removing and reinstalling them.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks I will leave them both in and remove the wires as you suggested. I’m taking a lot of photos as I go and will keep posting here for reference.

 

[royalsuper]

Ben ,do not try to remove The carbon brushes housing they are coated with a kind of electrical insulator ..even by putting oil and gently tapping on it they will not come out and at worst the insulation (plastic?) will break! it's things are much too old to be out of their housing .

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks guys, I did not remove them, I heated up the solder and pulled the wires from inside. I am cleaning the housing now.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Upon further inspection, I’m thinking maybe the handle switch is original but I’m not sure if it’s complete. There was a piece of green material that someone attached at some point to go around the switch. I’m not sure what the reasons for this was. It seems like there was a decorative cover around the switch that went missing.

 

[mivintagevacs]

[No message]

 

[mivintagevacs]

Well disassembly is pretty much complete, next step will be refinishing most of the parts. I think I will leave some original patina on a few select parts but the long portion of the handle is pretty rough and will probably need sandblasting and repainting gloss black. I think I will leave the wood parts as is, just clean them up.

 

[royalsuper]

you can remove the rust from the suction nozzle attachment system and paint in chrome color !many parts of the royal standard were painted black
https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=23/08/hdb8.jpg
https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=23/08/d7o1.jpg

 

[mivintagevacs]

I was debating removing that piece from the nozzle so that it could be nickel plated with the other parts. I have a rivet tool for installing vintage solid style rivets like these. I would just have to source the same style rivet that was used on the nozzle. Painting it would work as a backup plan, I just don’t think it will hold up very well on that part.

 

[mivintagevacs]

I've been working on the reproduction badge using adobe illustrator and photoshop. I'll be looking into producing it on brass. I would really appreciate any verification on the month in the bottom left corner. If anyone out there has a vacuum with this badge, it would be a huge help! The photo I referenced was very blurry. I really enjoyed this part of the project and it definitely gave me greater appreciation for the artwork that went into these nameplates. [this post was last edited: 3/2/2023-07:18]

 

[royalsuper]

Ben ,it's very impressive it looks like an original plate ! (dysonman1) Tom Gasko must have the same plate on his royal vacuum cleaner

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks Romain, I will try to reach out to Tom if he doesn’t chime in. I agree I think his machine would have the same plate. I also need to source a set of number stamps so that I can stamp it with the numbers on my fan housing when finished.

 

[huskyvacs]

That nameplate mockup you created is fantastic, Ben! If you can find a company that can make that onto real high quality tin you'd be in business!

If you can make a tutorial on how to get a vacuum's model tag into a digital format like that some time, I'm sure many of us would appreciate it. I have no idea where to start.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks huskyvacs! There are illustrator tutorials on YouTube, but I started by tracing the location of the holes on the casing and tracing the other badge I had. Then I scanned the tracing in and overlayed the image that I had. I had to do some warping of the image to take the perspective out of it and flatten it out. Then in illustrator I path out all of the graphics for the crown/ banner and Royal type. Here’s a photo of it mocked up on the housing to check the scale. The screws that attach it aren’t in the best shape. One of them is okay and the other is quite mangled. I will have to try to clean it up or replace them both. Not sure where to buy such tiny screws! [this post was last edited: 3/2/2023-17:51]

 

[mivintagevacs]

I will tune it up a bit more but I will wait to order it until I can hopefully verify it against a clearer image. [this post was last edited: 3/2/2023-17:04]

 

[lesinutah]

Make

Sure to put a model number on it. CNC shop with the right software could make a model plate.
I will say very nice mock up. You don't want the plate to out look the vacuum.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks Les, I plan to stamp the numbers into it from my housing. I’m going to look into this company to make the plate

https://etched-metal.com/brass-copper-nameplates/

 

[lesinutah]

Nice

That's awesome you found a producer. When you get a quote maybe email me how much it cost. That is way cool.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Sure Les, I’ll let you know what the cost is. They say there is no minimum quantity. I will be prepping the file to send for a quote today.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Well I was able to get a quote from that company and I was shocked by the cost. They say no minimum quantity but they wanted $360 to make one badge or $217 each to make 2 badges! That is well beyond what I’m willing to spend to reproduce this badge so I’m going to try etching the brass myself. The process looks pretty straight forward and I ordered blank solid brass 4x2 plates 1/16” thick. Lots of great YouTube videos showing the process!

I was also able to reach Tom Gasko today and he was kind enough to send me a photo of the badge on his early Royal. He said that his is a 1921 model and his badge looks different from the one that I’m replicating. The badge I’m reproducing is definitely a later badge because it has more dates and some later dates reaching to the end of 21. Seeing Tom’s badge gave me more confidence that the badge that I’m making is correct for the 1925 models. .

It would still be great to see Jeff’s 1926 badge to see if it has any differences. Here is a photo of Tom Gasko’s 1921 Royal badge. I don’t think he will mind me sharing it in this thread as we try to differentiate the early Royal badges per year.

 

[lesinutah]

Link

The link is to my model 98 royal. It's pretty close to the.model you have maybe the first model where they moved the bag to the right.


https://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?36756_28

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks Les, yeah that is probably too not much newer than mine. It seems like at a certain point they changed to a slimmer badge with more straight lettering. Do you know what year your machine was produced?

 

[lesinutah]

Iiirc

1926-1929.

 

[mivintagevacs]

It seems like they changed to the slimmer, rounded badge on the models where they updated the fan housing and changed bag attachment to the Left side (looking at the front)

 

[royalsuper]

tom's ROYAL vacuum cleaner is a model H made from 1920 Ben yours is a model J
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/384386732352
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/324471086175

 

[mivintagevacs]

I actually bought that owners manual on eBay for the model J!

Does anyone know the owner of the Royal vacuum featured in this video? It sounds like he goes by compact9. I would like to connect with him if possible.

 

[repairman]

The guy speaking at the beginning is Alex (vacuumdevil on Vacuumland). His channel is Performance Reviews. Try contacting him. compactc9 is Reggie.

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks, I’ve emailed them!