Vintage Royal Vacuum project

[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!

 

[mivintagevacs]

Were there any differences between the model H and model J? If so what were the differences? Thanks.

 

[royalsuper]

No, just small aesthetic differences in the color of the bag, the ROYAL logo written differently and the handle painted black and some small parts.sorry Ben I don't have high resolution photos

 

[mivintagevacs]

Thanks for that info Romain. Do you know what years the model J was offered? The ones in those photos look like they might be a bit earlier than mine with that bag graphic design vs the Royal Standard bag on the 1925 model year.

 

[royalsuper]

the J model dates from the spring of 1925, the ROYAL logo is written in large letters on the bag, in the fall of 1925 the K model appeared with the air outlet on the left the J model became the ROYAL standard and the K model becomes SUPER ROYAL for the end of year celebrations 1925
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/362783970712

 

[mivintagevacs]

So since mine was produced in 4-25 it would have had the Royal bag with larger lettering not the Royal standard graphic. This is great info since I’ll be working on the bag soon.

 

[royalsuper]

yes, at the beginning of the year 1925 the letters of the ROYAL logo were still attached ,and in the spring of the same year they changed the inscription on the bag and painted the handle in black ,many changes in ROYAL vacuum cleaners from 1925...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373945151508 here is the last advertisement for the model H at the beginning of the year 1925

 

[mivintagevacs]

Okay Romain, so now I’m thinking that the badge on my vacuum should indeed be identical to Tom’s model H badge. The image of the early 1925 model J appears to have the same badge as his with only two rows of text under the main Royal graphic. I am thinking I will adjust my badge design to match this version.

 

[royalsuper]

it is all the more complicated to know that there have been many vacuum cleaners that have been reconditioned either at the manufacturing plant or later at private dealers...the great depression of 1929 accentuated things !

 

[mivintagevacs]

Yes it is really difficult to say for sure which of those two badge designs would have been used as they seem to have been used almost interchangeably on the h and j models. It also looks like one of the 1926 versions of the Royal Standard was not polished. Even in that advertising photo you can see that it was a more dull finish than the others.

 

[mivintagevacs]

This badge does have a serial number that is really close to mine, where most badges I’ve seen of the other style have lower serial numbers. This badge says 342168. My housing says 341543.