Just Acquired a super early 16" Westinghouse PowerAire and need help with resurrecting it.

[Levi Mevis]

Greetings everyone, today I picked up from a gentleman in South Bend, Indiana an early 1930s or perhaps one of the very first production model Westinghouse PowerAires of the "Darth Vader" Variety that has the old Westinghouse "Tank" style speed coil assembly and it currently isn't in running order and I opened up the base half expecting to find an old capacitor in the base but instead I found an old diode wired up in the base installed in the middle of the speed coil.

Anyone have any information on how the really early Westhinghouse PowerAire Fans were wired up and how they worked compared to the later "Darth Vader" PowerAires?

Thanks for your help. 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Levi Mevis

[Levi Mevis]

EDIT: IT IS A DC MODEL! 110/120V DC on the tag! 🤯  I blame it on bad lighting in my house... 😑

Edited December 7, 2023 by Levi Mevis

[Levi Mevis]

UPDATE: I figured out the probem, there was a spot on the headwire where the wire was worn through, and also I checked the brushes and the brushes were worn completely down. 

What size of brushes does the 16" DC Westinghouse PowerAire use?

[Levi Mevis]

Anyone have any info or can tell me what size of brushes I need for my fan?

[Russ Huber]

18 minutes ago, Levi Mevis said:

Anyone have any info or can tell me what size of brushes I need for my fan?

Measure the brush holder channels. Darryl Hudson has brushes. McMaster has brushes. Ace used to have brushes.

[Levi Mevis]

4 hours ago, Russ Huber said:

Measure the brush holder channels. Darryl Hudson has brushes. McMaster has brushes. Ace used to have brushes.

It uses the square shaped brushes, and that's all I know, I'm not sure how long the brushes need to be because there was absolutely nothing left of the original brushes in the fan and they have about 5 different sizes of square shaped brushes that use a spring (I still have the springs from the original brushes and they are quite long) other than that I don't know if I need long brushes, short brushes medium length brushes, or whathever because don't want to get too short of brushes and I don't want to get too long of brushes, because both conditions are bad for a brushed motor.

[Levi Mevis]

Also how rare are the DC PowerAire Fans of the "Darth Vader" variety? I know as it sits an AC Powered 16" "Darth Vader" fan is quite rare but I imagine that a DC version would be even rarer to find these days... 🤔

[Russ Huber]

27 minutes ago, Levi Mevis said:

Also how rare are the DC PowerAire Fans of the "Darth Vader" variety? I know as it sits an AC Powered 16" "Darth Vader" fan is quite rare but I imagine that a DC version would be even rarer to find these days... 🤔

It is not something you find every day, Levi. But don't plan on quitting your day job if you sell it. 

Back to the brushes. You can measure correct dimensions off of your brush holder and order them. They should be roughly half the length of the brush holder under compression spring pressure. If they are too long, and there is too much brush pressure on the commutator, you simply use a piece of wet dry sandpaper and rub the brush back and forth until it is the correct length. It really is that simple. The carbon brush will slowly form a crescent shape on the commutator over time.

[Evan Atkinson]

They are unusual. A friend had a 12” DC example. This is the 16” DC desk model? Post a picture of it, will you? 

[Levi Mevis]

yes it is a 16 inch version, it is currently torn apart right now because I had to repair the headwire and screwed up when putting it back together and forgot to feed it through the strain-relief hole in the back cover so I need to take it back apart to do that so I can put it back together. 

I do have a picture from the Facebook marketplace listing that I could post and then the back cover showing the ID tag.

[Levi Mevis]

9 hours ago, Russ Huber said:

It is not something you find every day, Levi. But don't plan on quitting your day job if you sell it. 

Back to the brushes. You can measure correct dimensions off of your brush holder and order them. They should be roughly half the length of the brush holder under compression spring pressure. If they are too long, and there is too much brush pressure on the commutator, you simply use a piece of wet dry sandpaper and rub the brush back and forth until it is the correct length. It really is that simple. The carbon brush will slowly form a crescent shape on the commutator over time.

OK, Thanks. I was asking because I've only dealt with brushed fan motors one other time (the staghorn oscillator) and that one still had good brushes in it yet so I didn't have to deal with actually ordering any brushes that time thankfully. I'll see if I can measure the brush opening Width and Height with a small 6" ruler I have and then just order the brushes that come closest to those dimensions. 

And I wasn't planning on retiring on it but I definitely wanted to try and fill out my collection with some of the more unusual and less common fan types and models, and this would fit the bill.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Levi Mevis

[Russ Huber]

30 minutes ago, Levi Mevis said:

OK, Thanks. I was asking because I've only dealt with brushed fan motors one other time (the staghorn oscillator) and that one still had good brushes in it yet so I didn't have to deal with actually ordering any brushes that time thankfully. I'll see if I can measure the brush opening Width and Height with a small 6" ruler I have and then just order the brushes that come closest to those dimensions. 

And I wasn't planning on retiring on it but I definitely wanted to try and fill out my collection with some of the more unusual and less common fan types and models, and this would fit the bill.

Levi, sorry, I was just jerking your train with the not quitting the day job comment. Yes, DC versions of this nature are far and few between. I can think of two people off the top of my head that may be able to advise you with the brush size.  Tony Clayton and Duane Burright. Good luck and enjoy your toy.

 

[Michael Rathberger]

You can find brush variety boxes on eBay, I have two different makers. They also included a variety of springs. Sometimes cheap, good to have on hand. As for length, I almost always have to trim them or the spring back. It's about the right tension with the spring against the commutator. I asked a motor expert at fan fair once and all he said was "it felt right." Not very scientific. All the springs I have are really light tension too, don't substitute a ball point pen spring. 

There's a collector in your area who knows a few old tricks taught to him by Fred from union mills. You've probably met him, Kevin k., super nice kid.

[Levi Mevis]

On 12/7/2023 at 12:29 PM, Russ Huber said:

Levi, sorry, I was just jerking your train with the not quitting the day job comment. Yes, DC versions of this nature are far and few between. I can think of two people off the top of my head that may be able to advise you with the brush size.  Tony Clayton and Duane Burright. Good luck and enjoy your toy.

 

That's OK, I kind of thought maybe you were kidding around but I wasn't sure. Anyways Speaking of Tony Clayton, I actually ended up selling him the fan for $300 because he informed me he already had the 10" and 12" versions of the DC Darth Vader Fans and was looking for a 16" version to fill out his collection.

To give you an idea of how I made out when I resold the fan (he also didn't mind that it wasn't working because he was going to repair it himself) I made $250 on the sale, which is a much higher profit margin than I usually make on some of my flips. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Levi Mevis