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1950s? Sears Kenmore Box Fan Aquired Today!


Levi Mevis

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Greetings everyone, today I went to the local antique mall which is in an old factory from the turn of the last century which is not air conditioned and doesn't have any openable windows so they use a bunch of old fans (ranging from 1950s to the late 1990s) and they had in one of the rooms a 1950s vintage Sears Kenmore thermostatically controlled 3-speed boxfan mounted in a rollabout stand that apparently quit working the other day and so they threw it out to the "back dock" and so I had talked to the owner of the store and she said that she had a couple of old fans that had quit working that were going to go into the dumpster and since since she now knew that I worked on old fans that she would allow me to take the fan with me free of charge to see if I could get it going. 

Well it turns out that what was wrong with it was that the bearings on the motor were dry and also the shaft on the blade assembly was free-spinning on its axis so I oiled up the motor (which was bone dry as it took almost a quarter of my Zoom! Spout bottle to get it oiled up properly again) and then I used some silicone glue to make it so that the shaft on the blade assembly didn't free-spin anymore.

One thing that has me concerned and I want to make sure this isn't the case with this fan before I put it to regular use in my new house, but this fan has a GE Motor in it and I know that GE made a motor that was notorious for catching on fire and I want to make sure the motor in this fan wasn't one of those motors. The motor on this fan is a General Electric Motor that was from their Fort Wayne Plant (Formerly FWEW.)

Pictures of the fan and aforementioned motor in question are posted below.

A side note, the reason why the fan doesn't have the blade or front grille attached is because the glue I used to repair the blade shaft takes 48 hours to fully cure out and so I'm trying to make sure the glue has a chance to cure out properly before I install the blade back onto the fan so I know for sure the blade shaft isn't going to come detached from the blade assembly.

Sears Kenmore Box Fan.jpg

Sears Kenmore Box Fan 2.jpg

Sears Kenmore Box Fan 3.jpg

Sears Kenmore Box Fan Model Number Tag.jpg

Sears Kenmore Box Fan Motor.jpg

Edited by Levi Mevis
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Anyone here have any information on this fan? 🤔

Is the motor on this fan one of the notorious "fireball" motors?

Edited by Levi Mevis
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LEVI IT DOESNT LOOK LIKE THE FIREBALL TYPE, THAT ONE IS ACTUALLY MORE ROBUST APPEARING IN DEPTH AND  AND ALTHOUGH THE VENT HOLES LOOK SIMILAR TO THE FIREBALL THE BEARING "HOLDER" DOES NOT ... WHAT KIND OF WIRING DO YOU HAVE BETWEEN SWITCH AND MOTOR? IS IT DRY AND CRUMBLY? THE ISSUE WITH THE FIREBALL TYPE WAS THE 3 SPEED REVERSIBLE HAD A MIX OF COPPER & ALUMINUM INSIDE AND THIS WAS NOT A GOOD COMBINATION.. YOURS APPEARS TO BE A 3 SPEED SINGLE DIRECTION WHICH I DONT BELIEV E IS PROBLEMATIC...THAT IS A GOOD FAN IF RUNNING WELL! 

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On 9/7/2022 at 8:58 AM, Tom Zapf said:

LEVI IT DOESNT LOOK LIKE THE FIREBALL TYPE, THAT ONE IS ACTUALLY MORE ROBUST APPEARING IN DEPTH AND  AND ALTHOUGH THE VENT HOLES LOOK SIMILAR TO THE FIREBALL THE BEARING "HOLDER" DOES NOT ... WHAT KIND OF WIRING DO YOU HAVE BETWEEN SWITCH AND MOTOR? IS IT DRY AND CRUMBLY? THE ISSUE WITH THE FIREBALL TYPE WAS THE 3 SPEED REVERSIBLE HAD A MIX OF COPPER & ALUMINUM INSIDE AND THIS WAS NOT A GOOD COMBINATION.. YOURS APPEARS TO BE A 3 SPEED SINGLE DIRECTION WHICH I DONT BELIEV E IS PROBLEMATIC...THAT IS A GOOD FAN IF RUNNING WELL! 

Yes, this fan is a 3 speed non-reversable fan with its original rollabout base. yes this fan works great yet, the reason why the antique mall owners got rid of it was because it quit running and the only reason why it quit running was because the motor was bone dry (it hadn't been oiled in years), and also the fan blade shaft had come loose so that the fan blade assembly freewheeled on its shaft when you turned the fan on so I re-secured the blade assembly to its shaft so that it didn't freewheel anymore.

The fan moves quite a bit of aire and I currently have it installed at my new house to help move aire around in the house since it doesn't have Central Aire right now. 

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IF IT HAS A PLASTIC GRILLE IN THE FRONT AND METAL TO THE BACK, THE GRILLE UPRIGHTS ARE ANGLED SO YOU CAN FLIP IT AROUND FOR A "WIDE" AIR DISTRIBUTION OR A NARROWED CONCENTRATED ONE CIRECTLY IN FRONT ..CHECK IT OUT...GOOD LUCK WITH IT ! 

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On 9/9/2022 at 12:08 PM, Tom Zapf said:

IF IT HAS A PLASTIC GRILLE IN THE FRONT AND METAL TO THE BACK, THE GRILLE UPRIGHTS ARE ANGLED SO YOU CAN FLIP IT AROUND FOR A "WIDE" AIR DISTRIBUTION OR A NARROWED CONCENTRATED ONE CIRECTLY IN FRONT ..CHECK IT OUT...GOOD LUCK WITH IT ! 

Both front and back grilles are metal, just like my old Eskimo box fan, but mounts very similar to how my old Signal box fan's front grille mounts where it uses spring clips. 

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Unfortunately I was using this fan at my house I just bought and the glue I used to hold the blade shaft to the blade assembly gave out on me and the fan started making a horrible racket again, so it looks like I'm just going to have to take the old Liquid Nails Silicon Adhesive I used off the blade assembly and use some JB Weld to repair the blade assembly shaft.

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  • 2 months later...

I just got the same fan today, except mine is painted in a light blue color (I think they call it Robin's egg blue).  Mine does not have the stand and is missing the knob for the speed control switch.  I will post pictures in the next few days.

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16 hours ago, Ken McClead said:

I just got the same fan today, except mine is painted in a light blue color (I think they call it Robin's egg blue).  Mine does not have the stand and is missing the knob for the speed control switch.  I will post pictures in the next few days.

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures! 😀

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