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Western Electric Fan #6304 Advice to fix it.

Started by John S, March 01, 2014, 10:13:19 AM

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John S

Hi...

I wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction.  I bought a Western Electric fan.  I had to have it.  I paid about 60 bucks for it.  When I plug the fan in, it just makes a buzzing sound.  Its not turning the blade.  It just makes a buzzing sound, its having a hard time turning the blade.  I am just not familiar with old fans.  Anyone know a website were people collect old fans?  This is really a cool fan, the design, all the little gadgets to make it work.  The base to me looks like a phone-B1.  I am going to polish it up and display it.  Here are some pictures, not the best, because I took it apart. 

John S

John S


dsk

Hi
I have one of unknown make, looking close to that. My guess are just stiff grease in the bearings.
unscrew the oil cup, and clean it. the cotton wick may stand soap and water, just let it dry well before you use it again. (probably 2 of them)

Some thin solvent penetrating oil my be applied to the bearings until it turns easily. Then you may let the motor do the job.
you may apply the tin oil several times to wash out old dirty gummed oil. When it is OK by your own opinion, apply thicker oil by filling the oil cup with the same quality of oil used on bikes or sewing machines or telephone generators.

dsk

Dennis Markham

John,

I've logged on to this forum from time to time.  You can learn a lot about fans there:

http://www.fancollectors.org/


John S

Dennis and DSK,

Thanks for the info.  I've been cleaning slowly. 

Dennis the site is exactly what i was looking for.  Thanks a bunch.....

Dsk- Thanks for the tips.....  Once I get it cleaned up I will post more pictures. 

John

LarryInMichigan

I believe that Western Electric rebranded their fans and other electric appliances to the "Graybar" name in 1926, so the fan would pre-date that.  Also, I don't think that WE actually manufactured any fans themselves, but had them made by other companies.  I have a Graybar fan which was made by GE.

None of the unrestored old fans I have seen were safe to run as-is.  They need to be dismantled, cleaned, and oiled.  The oil wicks usually need to be replaced.  According to the collectors, the type of oil is important.  You should be able to get plenty of information and advice on the website that Dennis mentioned as well as afcaforum.com/.  At least one of our phone forum members is also active on that forum.

Larry