My latest restoration project
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2013 10:06 pm
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:
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:
All ready to give to mom!
Before:
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:
All ready to give to mom!
.