David Kilnapp Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 (edited) Hello again fan friends. I get a little restless when I don't have a fan to work on. That's definitely a problem that leads to too many fans. Rick Powell recently sold me a Peerless front oscillator for very short money. It was missing the badge and the base plate. Below, see what it looked like when it arrived a couple of weeks ago. It came apart very easily including removing the stator in order to replace the yellow headwires. I used the PVC pipe method and a little liquid wrench to carefully remove the stator. As Rick said, the spiders were free with the purchase. I cleaned the outside of the stator on my bench belt sander and also the inside with a dremel being careful not to touch the windings which were in good shape. I used Tony Clayton three conductor headwire to replace the ugly yellow wires. Tony made me some special three conductor wire that was somewhat thicker and stiffer than the usual three conductor headwire that he provides. This wire is heavy duty and looks good on this fan. The japanne on the head case looked like it was worth saving. The base was too far gone and needed Rick Powell's fabulous japanne. Darryl Hudson gave me a tip for removing the gear covers without a spanner wrench, which involves using the non-cutting part of a drill bit and a tack hammer as seen below: The gears were in pristine condition. I degreased everything with Krud Kutter, which is very caustic so wear a mask when using it. The choke coil was in good condition but needed cleaning and the contacts (underneath) needed adjusting. After replacing the headwire and adjusting the speed coil (while I waited for the brass to come back from Ron Bethoney and the newly japanned base from Rick Powell), I always check to make sure that the fan runs correctly so I hooked it up to the speed coil. Oddly, I've never seen any picture of this fan with speed lettering on the base and unlike most of my fans which start with the switch closest to the front of the fan, the switch is off when it is toward the back of the fan. As was said at the beginning of this post, this fan was missing the base plate and the badge. I emailed Chad and Linda at Antiquefanparts.com. At first Linda said she didn't have one but the next day, she came up with the correct badge with the wrong style number. It arrived soon after as seen below. I restored the badge. Darryl Hudson and Russ Huber helped me contact Don Coleman who, I understand, is making me a reproduction badge with the correct style number (FF1 - 10) stamped on it. Ron Bethoney (New England Brass Refinishing) finished the brass refinishing so off I went the next day to pick it up. The newly japanned base arrived today from Rick Powell. Charles Tedrick lent me his Peerless base so I could have it reproduced. Here is a similar one from another Peerless. I dropped it off with a local machinist who agreed to reproduce it for me. He'll be giving me a price for five of them which I will report to the forum, in the event that others need this part for their fans. It shouldn't be too much money I hope. Here is the fan reassembled waiting for the bottom plate. Anyway, let me know if you have a Peerless that is missing the bottom plate (which measures 7 3/4") and I'll pass along the price I get from my machinist friend as soon as I have it. There was general agreement that the struts should have the tab facing front but when I put them on that way, the thumb screw on the badge was hitting the blade so I turned the struts around (tab facing the rear) and the fit was perfect so that's the way it will be. IMG_2677.MOV Edited October 12, 2022 by David Kilnapp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Carmody Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 Very nice David! You go to great effort to put back historically correct and it shows. Dont have a Peerless, so looking at the gear cover and the tool.I’m not sure what’s going on there?It would be nice to have some details.It is of interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kilnapp Posted October 12, 2022 Author Share Posted October 12, 2022 (edited) There are two gear lids, one above and one below the nose that screw onto the gear covers. After 100 years they are frequently stuck and don’t want to unscrew. Each lid has two holes which are on opposite sides of the lid. A spanner wrench fits into those two holes and enables one to exert enough torque to loosen the lid so that it will unscrew. I don’t have a spanner wrench and they are pretty pricey ($70+) so Darryl’s trick is to find the right drill bit that fits snugly into one of the two holes (the non cutting end of the bit) and then tap the base of the bit with a tack hammer and flat nail set in the direction that you want to go to loosen the lid. A couple of taps is all that is needed to get the lid to start turning. It’s a neat trick! Thank you to Darryl for this assist. Edited October 13, 2022 by David Kilnapp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Carmody Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Thanks David!Very clear explanation.One never knows when a Peerless might end up at the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave McManaman Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 (edited) Those front oscillators are beautiful and yours turned out great! Edited October 13, 2022 by Dave McManaman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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