Leaderboard

Just finished this lil guy! Factory finish was shot so I sent it off for powder coat. Thanks to Korey Kreitman for the new motor housing nuts. Tony Clayton custom wire for the head wire and power cord. And thanks to Mark Olson for the rewind on the field coils.

Needs a few things... The original pin striping is there! Needs a few pieces but I think Paul Graves has them in a drawer somewhere in his shop!😊😊

Turned out pretty good. Had issues with rotor making a loud thumping noise, so I replaced it with a 77646 rotor. Runs smooth now. I had some white paint so I painted it white with blue felt to match the badge.

Got this little guy done. It's a 8" Made-Rite one speed with SB/SC. The base is cast iron, the motor housing is stamped steel. I powder coated it a tractor green. Powder coated the cage and blade chrome. The coupler ring I spray painted it a black wrinkle finish. I added an inline power switch for convivence. I want to thank Louis Luu for making the badge file. I think it came out pretty good.

Last week, we had two visitors to the Museum with an old fan in tow. They were brothers, both retired, and had found the museum online. I figured they were wanting some info on it so I had them bring it back to the shop. I recognized it immediately as a 1908 GE BMY, but what really caught my attention was it's condition. Other than being a bit dirty and dusty, it was in remarkable original condition, right down to the ragged head wire and cord with Benjamin plug. As I examined the fan, I explained to the owners what it was, it's place in the GE lineup and where it fit in. I asked what their intentions were for the fan and they said they wanted to sell it. I gave them price ranges that this model fan has sold for and showed them the examples in my collection in the museum. I made them an offer and they accepted. It is a 1st variant BMY that was made later in production with a serial number of 342973. It has the improved centrifigal start switch. Even with a sketchy cord and head wire, it fired right up and ran smoothly on all three speeds. After a bit of cleaning, replacing the wiring and installing new oil wicks, it will join my other 12 inch 1908 BMY with the plunger type start switch in the Museum time line. A nice survivor that is good for another twenty five years.

Friends: I have long admired Dave Cherry's artistic eye for creating lovely settings for his fans. Larry Brand sent me this picture which is also very attractive: With both gentlemen to inspire me, I found a little box (seems quite old) on eBay for $41. It arrived yesterday. It was quite rickety and fragile so I applied some glue, here and there, and clamped it to improve the structural integrity. It was just the right size to house a six volt commercial battery, the DRoc buck converter and a push button switch (so that the buck converter doesn't drain the battery by being constantly on). It may not be as nice as Dave's or Larry's settings, but it certainly cleaned up the arrangement. What do you think? Thank you to both Dave and Larry for their inspiration and creativity. What fun!

I’m feeling better after selling my old 1975 Ford pickup yesterday to “fuel” my fan obsession. (Gosh, I loved that truck). Right as I was putting the new Kim Frank made struts on my new 1903 Pancake, here came the UPS man dropping off a 12666 Emerson from Trevor Soundararajan. He did a stupendous packing job! Check out the pics below 👇

Good news! I am in the big time now! Royalty actually! I made the back page of the second section of the Carroll County Comet!! 😅🤣😂 And I was not in the police arrest report "this week" and I was not in the obits either! So I got that going for me!!

And this is the Peerless....

Good morning to everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know here that myself and Robert Grove have settled our issues in regards to the sale of the HC and ECK fan. We have recently spoken on the phone and had a wonderfull talk, between everything that was going on we have finally settled this matter between us. And both parties are very happy, Robert had expressed some issues that he was worried about on my behalf and I agree with the way he felt, and both for myself. It's a hard battle when parties live on the otherwise of the world. I'm glad I can see that Robert is a reasonable man and quite understanding. By any means I don't think any bad of Robert and would be happy to continue to sell/ buy fans of him in the future. I wish everyone the best with fan hunting!

I received a request to reproduce a Manhattan fan cage using a sample. When I opened the box, I was met with a real problem. The center piece was a stamped ring instead of a solid ring. I don't have a punch press and tooling to make these, so If I couldn't figure out a way to fab this up, I would have to return the cage and not accept this project. Searching around my toolbox, I found a huge tube socket for the sprocket nut on one of my bikes. It was the right size. I rounded the end of it on my belt sander and radiused the inside with my moto tool. Taking some sheet brass, I measured it up and cut it to size. Using hammer and dolly method, I folded the edges around the tube socket, stopping to frequently anneal the brass so it wouldn't crack and split. At this point I used my drill press to push the center through inside the tube socket. Now I had something that would work. Success. I saved the project. The rest is just like any other cage, with rings and spokes. Cheers, Bill

New home for Rembrandt smoking lamp. Currently fan not working I will have to get in running prior to smoking or use the kisco

This was a particularly messed up cage, so I thought I'd show the process to reanimate this one. Photo pictorial. 5 new spokes required and new flag pole and spear tip. Blade re-wing next. Cheers, Bill

I was fortunate to live in a house with a really big back yard that has been able to host 3 barns / storage buildings, 2 of which were constructed since we bought the place in 1993. My Bride tends to like retiring early, like when the sun goes down. There was a time when I would come home from a fan meet or a weekend search and acquire event and I would arive home just after dark, drive directly to the barns out back, unload a truck load of whatever, then turn around and " come home " with an empty truck. I did get into trouble occasionally, like when we went to one of the early fanfairs in DeSoto TX. We cane down with a carload of fans to use as illustrations in a seminar event. They somehow seemed to attract more fans during the Bourse event & Auction. I had to rent a U-Haul trailer one way to Arkansas to get everyone back home. Couldn't hide those....

I went to the flea market Friday hoping that the good weather and holiday would bring out some better buying opportunities. I was not disappointed, I was able to pick up 3 (and a half) fans of still, undetermined quality. However, I did bring home two Emersons. A 19666 and a 19646. I also picked up a an older Peerless (BB1?) stationary, The half I got was the top half of a 16" GE Loophandle with a busted pot metal rear bearing carrier. Not too bad for half an afternoon spent wandering around in warm and windy weather.

Here it is, fully complete VID_20240324_141451.mp4 and functional. Look for a video in the next few days about this one in greater detail. Man, those Monster Energy drinks are really stimulating my imagination.

Finished cleaning this one up! Had to force patina the blades 😕 I sort of like it though. For some reason after I cleaned the black paint off the guard it wouldn't take the patina ager.. I love this fan though! Runs great 👍

Friends: I just returned from Rochester NY (where my wife and I met at the U of R) to find a package from that master craftsman, Tony Clayton. I had asked Tony to create something special to connect my Edison-Lalande battery to the Edison bipolar fan. I sort of described what I was thinking about but in the end, I asked Tony to use his imagination. Below is what he created for me: Tony's description of this wire follows: "It's rather old era unknown 18AWG GE magnet wire which I braided with a new configuration on my machine which is actually producing a much tighter braid. I then wound the wire on a 5/15 rod to pigtail. The connectors are originally brass ring connectors, reshaped to C connectors to replicate something old. The connectors have four tabs. I stripped wire to long and placed under the forward tabs. I crimped and folded the extra over the top back to the second set of tabs, which were also crimped thereby creating a relief of sorts so that the wire would resist being pulled out if tugged" The wire gives a rather vintage look to the arrangement and ties together the jar and the fan rather nicely. See pictures below. I would encourage anyone who wants this extra special "touch" to contact Tony to discuss what you would like. We are so fortunate to have a fine gentleman, like Tony, who is so willing to share his superb skills with all of us. I'm sure Tony would love to hear your comments if you would care to post. As for me, I am beyond happy!

I took a handful of fans to the meet and was very fortunate to sell more than I expected. Thank you everyone who purchased one. That gave me the green light to nab this Trojan 5320. It’s wired direct and painted blue. Fortunately the switch is there and the motor fired right up. It has a braille tag. I couldn’t find any other examples pictured with that tag. Not very many in the survey. Donna was ready to kill me for bringing another 16” in the house. I explained it was a “good” one. Here’s some pictures.

After years got it going this weekend. Dead stator, burnt speed coil & capacitor. Runs good, need some final tuning.

Getting there! My version of a 10” vortalex pedestal , complete with brass blades & Chrome cage. I’m going to install a new headwire & a 2 speed parts in the base( factory 1 speed) good times!!

I get to show others my meager fan collection and maybe get them hooked on fans too! Geo...

Got the Dayton 31-16 all complete! I love these odd voltage fans. This one is 32VDC. Only thing I repainted was the knuckle and cage. Hardware gun blued. Also gun blued the oscillator wheel for a lil contrast. It's an older repaint, but I think it displays well. Now back onto Emersons! Have a ball motor that needs full buffing then rewire. I'm saving some very special wire for the Emerson!

I had a little time on my hands and decided to put some parts together. My neighbor wanted to see the process of how I come up with these things, so I made consecutive videos of the work in progress and put them together from start to finish. I left out the drudgery of cutting, bending, soldering, drilling and tapping chores. I've moved on to restoring a 16 inch Verity's Orbital next. Cheers, Bill

Hi Everybody! I hope you'll had a Merry Christimas and a Happy New year! I finished this little guy a few weeks ago, Picked it up at Stan's meet at Lake Houston from a member. I didn't have to do a lot to, The paint is all original just polished it up. I put a new power cord on it and cleaned the switch. I had to make some repairs on cage so I went ahead and polished it,Balanced and polished the blade. That's about it,runs great. O I also installed new rubber feet.

I bought this fan from the last fan fair. Not the most wanted pancake but I think I made it a little more desirable. It has the trunnion style with BB/BC. It runs on five distinct speeds. I powder coated it a pearl white. I want to thank Kim Frank for supplying me with the steel struts and some hardware. Also I want to thank Mark Olsen for the motor coil he made, Tony Clayton for the beautiful wire, Darryl Hudson for the grommets and feet, Darrell Koller for the switch cover plate that he made.

Before: After: A short video: 20231126_131820.mp4

Paul Here are pics of my fan. These are unique fans and run well. I hope this helps. My best to you, Mel

Well after about a year sitting around on the bench I got around to finally finishing the 1923 9 in Emerson Red badge Junior. I needed to weld the cage paint it and beat the crap out of the blade to straighten out the wings. I added head wire and cord, (seven foot rubber heater cord. I balanced and retweaked the wings so it runs at 1550 RPM and draws 49 Watts at 122 volts. What do you think it's worth these days for a 100-year-old fan?

I thought I'd share a tip. I use my moto-tool quite a bit, with sanding drums, and small wire wheels and especially the twist-lok cut off wheels. When working on this cage I used wire wheels to remove a lot of the oxidation and leftover solder. typically, these only last a little while before they start spitting wires all over the place. It's a real pain in the keester. So, I soaked one of the 1 inch wheels in liquid electrical tape, then baked it for 20 minutes in my shop oven. Worked great. The wire wheel is now a bit more aggressive and now I think it will last much longer. I use a neodymian magnet to remove wires from my shirt, but I seem to always miss some. Cheers, Bill

I finally got this fan back together and running. There are a few guys I want to thank for making this possible. Louis Luu supplied me with the four wing blade, cage, handle and 3 struts plus his knowledge of the fan. Bill Dunlap made me an exact copy of the fourth brass strut. Donald Coleman made me awesome replicas of the badge and id base tag. Tony Clayton did a great job on the wire. Jim Roadt had a beautiful white porcelain plug for it. A friend of mine made me two oil lite motor bearings. The Verity has BB/BC, brass struts and hardware. It runs on 220vac. I bought a power converter for it. It runs smooth on 3 distinct speeds and oscillates in an orbital motion. I did the powder coating job myself. Before post: I reformed the handle

Thanks to all who shared pictures of Typhoons installed. Lots of great old buildings! Got a video of testing out Andrew's 'Phoon yesterday! Hope you find it interesting.

Today, I received the reproduction badge for my Hamilton Beach Home motor from Don Coleman, that wizard of motor tags and badges. Don's badge is the cherry on Bill Dunlap's cage and blade! I love it. It's wonderful to look at and runs perfectly as well. Thank you Don and Bill for sharing your talents and time with me. I'm truly grateful.

Hello fan friends. Recently I purchased an Emerson 1510 at an auction in Western Mass near where my sister in law lives. I probably paid too much for it ($484) but there was no shipping as my sister in law was able to meet with the auctioneer and collect it for me. I had no idea if the fan worked but the cage and blade appeared to be in good shape. I jumped right into the restoration having done a dozen or more Emersons so I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to run into any problems. It came apart easily. I was anxious to see if the japanne was salvageable. I prefer to keep the original finish if there is enough of it to be saved. The front cover was in good shape. The rear of the case is on the left before I started to work on it. The base was in tough shape so I shipped that off to Rick Powell for japanning. I cleaned up the centrifugal start mechanism by replacing the little washers (thanks to Rick Powell for providing) and polished the brass wings and the copper coil. I replaced the headwire with that good Tony Clayton two conductor wire (NICE) and cleaned up the switch. Like my other Emersons of that period, there is almost no difference between the two speeds. Wonder why that is? I cleaned the motor tag but wasn't happy with the result. I removed the tag and repainted it. While I waited for the base to return from Rick Powell, I tried my hand at repainting the gold lettering on the front and back of the case. It takes a steady hand. Darryl Hudson sent me a new rear screw in grommet for the headwire (thanks Darryl) and today the base arrived from Rick. I had delivered the brass to Ron Bethoney (New England Brass Refinishing) and he texted me that two of the struts were broken. He repaired them perfectly. Foolishly, I tried to buff the flat top oiler on my buffing station and the wheel caught the top and sent it off at the speed of a bullet. Luckily it missed me. I contacted Chad Baker and he had the missing part which arrived two days later. Below is the completed restoration. I love that clackety clack sound of the centrifugal start on these fans. I guess I'll put this fan next to the Emerson 1010 and the Emerson 910. These are among the most elegant Emersons in my collection and they are very well made and easy to restore.

Got this from Amazon, wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out to be a nice solid display shelf. Only drawback is the 16" spacing between shelves. Just a little too short for the 12" fans. 😫

I used to have a lathe for this kind of work, but had to let it go due to limited space. I've since had to find new methods to get from A to B. This is one. I use a Jacob's chuck with 1/2 x 20tpi mount and attach it to my drill press table. Using a 1/4 inch mandrel, I clamp it between the two chucks and tighten them with the key. Then I lock down the table so it can't move. Next, I chuck up the stock in the lower chuck, a drill bit in the upper and begin to drill. The end product comes out like this. Obviously, I'm limited to 1/2 inch stock as that's the largest that fits in the lower chuck. However, I could turn down larger stock to 1/2 inch first as a tail to use for chucking it up in the lower chuck. That's all for now. Cheers, Bill

Thanks to Louis and his generosity, I now have a big Verity's. I have a couple of the little guys, but this is my first large orbit fan. I ended up restoring it because it appeared to me to have been restored at some point. It was in pretty good condition aside from the paint and covered in a thick layer of deposits of some kind. Under the crust, the chrome looks nearly new, so nothing has bee rechromed, included the screws. The rubber feet and grommets were nice enough to re-use after soaking in AFT overnight to soften them. A note of caution for anyone going to restore one of these. The paint is near indestructible and withstood soaking in paint remover and my torch. Only soaking in lacquer thinner got it soft enough to remove with a wire wheel. That was a whole day stripping paint. I manage to nail the color with powder coat from Prismatic Powders, also. The speed label I made on my computer. It runs rather slow, I think, even though there is no drag on the parts, it ohms out OK and draws about 10% over the rated wattage. I think it's down to 50 vs 60 cycles. No worries, though, as 16 inch fans typically run too fast to use in my place. So after it warmed up to a crisp 63 degrees this morning, I made a short video of it. Cheers, Bill

Here is a mottled copper model of this fan. I always thought it beautiful. This one is also marked DC.

My eventual goal, is to provide a source for standard colors used on fans, mixed with automotive paint. I have a local source in York, PA that I’m working closely with to color match common fan colors. They have a semi-retired guy who’s been mixing paint and color matching for 40 years, and darn is he good. I had 2 colors matched today and I think they’re spot-on. He even matches the color’s gloss to what an original enamel paint job would have been. He matches colors for model train collectors, concours auto restorers and custom cycles. I was the first person to drop off fans for him to match. Here’s the situation. I have an account with this company named AFCA. The company contact info is listed later in this post. Anyone can call them and they will ship this paint to you. Of course you will pay them for the paint plus shipping. All you need to tell them is the color that you want to buy and they will ship it to you plus the other components needed. I make NOTHING from this venture and they normally charge for custom mixing but are waiving it for the AFCA and only ask for your sale of the paint. They will not give you the color formula, and the color match ONLY works with the paint listed next. It can’t be mixed into an acrylic enamel, for example or it would have to be a whole new color match. So please don’t ask them. These color matches ONLY will work specifically with the PPG Essentials ESSS series of Polyurethane. This is a single stage polyurethane paint, and requires a hardener and activator. Pot time is about 2 hours when mixed. It hardens to a workable degree in about 24 hours, but then is very difficult to scratch . Unless it has had a “flattener” added it’s a 6:1:1 ratio, and if the paint is anything but full gloss, it’s 8:1:1. I like this paint, it’s easy to use, and it gives great results if you know how to operate a paint gun and have the right equipment. You will need an HVLP gun and compressor for best results. I use about 20psi entering the gun. I have an Iwata gun but usually grab my Harbor Freight detail gun and it gives great results. You will also need a proper respirator and protection to keep it from your eyes and skin. The hardener has cyanide compounds, so it should not be breathed or get on your skin. This is pretty much the same with all auto paints . So there, I said my personal protection speech. And the disclaimer : I make no guarantee to the color match. As we all know, colors vary from the manufacturers, even on the same fan, and all fans have some degree of fading. These color matches are from under a tag, or on the underside of a fan, so they should be very close to a typical new color as they would have looked-not the faded color. Your results may vary. Please don’t complain if they don’t match to your liking. Both the paint company and I are solely doing this for the benefit of the club. The company is BAPS Auto Supply and Paints 2770 Lewisberry Rd. York Haven, PA 17370 717-767–6544. Ask for Justice, she is the manager and tell her you want to order paints listed in the AFCA account. Use the color names shown below as they’re listed that way in the system and are custom color formulas. web: bapspaint.com They have other locations in MA, MD, and VA, so I suppose it’s possible to call the York store to place the order and pick it up elsewhere but I’m not sure. The other locations would not have access to the formulas unless you originate the order at the York, PA store. As I have different colors matched, I’ll post them on this thread. So far they’ve matched the following colors and they’re ready to purchase: “GE Brass Bell Green”(same as 2 star) available in 100% gloss and 75% gloss like orig enamel (Better match than Rustoleum Charleston Green) “Vornado Fan Green-early” (used on “Vornadofan” and jailcage era fans) available in 65% gloss as original. Ask for 100% gloss if you want it. This is the earlier green/grey color, not the later green/blue color (Hope to have the later colors soon) Emerson Silver Swan Bronze ( this is like a metallic root beer color) Currently working on : Emerson Golden Jubilee Vanilla Off White Late Vornado Green and Grey

Making headway now.I went over the whole case with 180 grit to blend in repairs and smooth all bumps and flaws in casting.Next went over the whole unit with 400 grit to smooth out all sanding scratches.I have only painted the inside at this point because there was not a lot of prep.It was not necessary to paint because once grease is in there ,only I would know.But I do.Lightly sanded ,used an adhesion promoter ,then a self etching satin. Yeah the chicken.Well I messed around and knocked it off the desk and shattered the tail beyond repair.The good thing ,the repairs made held.Since it was destroyed I put full force trying to break at the repairs and there was no way.I know what I’m going to use on the next broke porcelain switch base. Moving on next to outside.

Hi Fan Friends! I finished restoring my Emerson 11646. I bought it from Karen at Doc's meet in June. The motor and switch was in pretty good shape,the base and motor case needed to be repainted. I got Jerry Bravi to rewind the blade (beautiful job) and send me a kit for the centrifugal start switch which was perfect! New head wire and power cord. Had a lot of work on the cage straightening, silver soldering and polishing. I had help from members with several problems beyond my expertise. All and all I think it turned out pretty go.

I forgot to show the back,so Cool!

I have completed the restoration, all is perfect. The parameters of speed, temperature, and capacity are standard.

Thanks! I wish I had some wild story but it is pretty mundane. Bought a fan off the internet, the seller messaged about having some other fans but didn't want to deal with shipping etc. Came to an agreement and went and picked up. There were some pretty good fans in the batch including that one. 9 hours of driving that day. or...... It was a dark stormy night and I was trespassing looking thru old buildings. Came across one deep in the woods and once I got thru the briars and brambles managed to get inside. Found a secret trap door into a Speakeasy/brothel and after I picked the 3 locks managed to get it open. Squeezed past the skeletons at the card table with the half empty bottle of bathtub gin.......... tripped over the cone base meston.......

A Jandus C-Frame is a fan I have longed for since I first saw one in person about 5 years ago. Figured it would always be a dream and never a reality. Well, that all changed at this year's Fan Fair. I did not go to Fan Fair with the idea of buying ANY fan, let alone my dream fan. After much consideration, I decided to take the plunge. Thanks to Stephen Sanders for letting me be the next caretaker of this beautiful fan!

I can't help myself From right to left All original just cleaned up Wooden ( black walnut) base, yoke powder coated motor and blade Wooden ( Cherry ) base and yoke. Powder coated motor, blade and housing. DC aluminum original base and yoke. Hand painted with wood grain