My latest restoration project

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heathicus
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My latest restoration project

Post by heathicus »

About 13 years ago, my grandmother gave me her old 1950's era Sunbeam stand mixer to fix. The power cord had come frayed where it entered the body and she wanted me to fix it. I couldn't figure out at the time how to get it apart to do the repair, and she died before I could get it fixed. I've kept it in storage since then. I pulled it out recently and with the help of a Yahoo group dedicated to vintage mixers, was able to fully restore it. It's not perfect - I'm not a very good painter, but I'm quite proud of it. I'm going to give it to my mom for Christmas.

Before:
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I completely disassembled the mixer. I pulled out the motor (both armature and field coils), took apart the speed dial assembly, the beater gears, etc. Did a complete degreasing, paint striping, repainting, electrical repair, reassembly, re-greasing, oiling, adjustments, and photography!

I used the lathe function of the Shopsmith to turn clean up that carbon scoring on the armature. My phone was dead at the time, so I didn't take a picture. To hold the end in the picture, I turned a block of ash using the small faceplate. Keeping that turning on the spindle, I mounted a Forstner bit in the tailstock and drilled a hole slightly larger than the end of the armature shaft. Then mounted a larger Forstner bit to drill a hole that would accept a bearing I had that just happened to fit against the non-threaded part of the armature shaft. I took the turned and drilled block off the spindle, unscrewed it from the faceplate, mounted the table, then used the faceplate to clamp the block to the table. (Faceplate under table, screws going through table opening, block on top of table. I aligned the holes in the block with the spindle, used the drill chuck to hold the non-pictured end of the armature, and the bearing in the hole in the block to hold the pictured end of the armature. I turned it on low speed with some fine sandpaper until it was nice and shiny.

I also used my 10ER with buffing wheels to polish the Bakelite (the black handle, speed dial, and base). I followed the same procedure MickyD taught us to polish aluminum to a mirror finish, but I skipped sandpaper and started with the heaviest buffing wheel. It doesn't take much on Bakelite.

After:
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All ready to give to mom!
Heath
Central Louisiana
-10ER - SN 13927, Born 1949, Acquired October 2008, Restored November, 2008
-10ER - SN 35630, Born 1950, Acquired April 2009, Restored May 2009, A34 Jigsaw
-Mark V - SN 212052, Born 1986, Acquired Sept 2009, Restored March 2010, Bandsaw
-10ER - SN 39722, Born 1950, Acquired March 2011, awaiting restoration
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skou
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Post by skou »

Heath, that is a GOOD restore!!

I still remember my mother's old Sunbeam. Looks just like this one.

steve
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algale
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Post by algale »

Very cool project! Your mom is going to love it both because it looks great and because it was her mom's.

On a side note, wasn't industrial design much cooler back then?
Gale's Law: The bigger the woodworking project, the less the mistakes show in any photo taken far enough away to show the entire project!

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nuhobby
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Post by nuhobby »

Heath; That's beautiful!

Algale; I do agree industrial design was "something else" in those days. I even read a book about Raymond Loewy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy
In short, he was good, and he knew he was good... plenty of ego came out in his writing :D .
Chris
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enyoc
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Post by enyoc »

I love seeing restorations and this one looks first rate!
JC
Hampden Twp, PA

Bought, restored and sold a 520 before I knew what I had (and should have kept) - Now I found religion and I'm working on restoring a 500 and a 10E.
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mountainbreeze
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Post by mountainbreeze »

Nice work! My mom had one of those too. How did you get the "Sunbeam" and "Mixmaster" logos restored?
Bill
----------------
Mark V 520 50th Anniversary Edition, Planer, Jointer, Bandsaw
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heathicus
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Post by heathicus »

Those are water slide decals I purchased from a guy online. I wasn't totally pleased with them. They were close to accurate, but a little off. And the paper was thicker than the decals that come with model kits, so it's easy to see the edges of the decal paper. They're applied just like model kits decals. Get it wet to seperate from the backing, slide it into place, let it dry, then cover with clear coat.
Heath
Central Louisiana
-10ER - SN 13927, Born 1949, Acquired October 2008, Restored November, 2008
-10ER - SN 35630, Born 1950, Acquired April 2009, Restored May 2009, A34 Jigsaw
-Mark V - SN 212052, Born 1986, Acquired Sept 2009, Restored March 2010, Bandsaw
-10ER - SN 39722, Born 1950, Acquired March 2011, awaiting restoration
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berry
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Location: St. Paul, MN

Post by berry »

Very nice!
New Leaf Custom Woodworking
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judaspre1982
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Post by judaspre1982 »

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Last edited by judaspre1982 on Wed Apr 26, 2017 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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terrydowning
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Post by terrydowning »

Nice Job Heath!! Feels good bringing back old items and making them useful again.
--
Terry
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