Restoring a Vintage Westinghouse Fan

Restoring a Vintage Westinghouse Oscillating Fan

Howdy folks, people liked the last one I posted ( http://imgur.com/gallery/J1PPF ) so here's another. This is a 1950's-60's era Westinghouse oscillating fan I picked up on ebay. These are really awesome looking designs and can still work quite nicely if cleaned up.

Here's how it arrived.

It's obviously seen some better days.

Cracking it open

The inside definitely needs some attention as well. A lot of what you're seeing here is 60 year old congealed grease, which naturally attracts any dirt and dust in the air, resulting in one god awful mess.

A shot of the oscillating mechanism with the cover removed. As much of this wiring will be replaced as possible.

Cleaning

A bath in lacquer thinner can go a long way.

A quick dusting of black primer really does a number on the appearance of the internals here.

Time to paint

Because of the extent of the chipping on the old paint, I decided to strip the motor housing and base down to bare steel. This was done with a combination of paint stripper and some aggressive sanding where applicable.

I want to preserve and polish these ridges, so I mask them with 3M fineline tape.

Base coat.

Clear coated and unmasked. Much different, right?

Putting it back together

The internals after cleaning, polishing and repainting as needed. I had a piece of masking tape holding the gearbox cover in place when I took this picture.

Motor housing reassembled and working. I had to rebraid the cord later.

Final Product

My friend requested this fan with the name of his company on the front of the cage. Since the original Westinghouse badge was missing, I hand painted it onto the mounting plate. The blades have also been polished.

Thanks for looking. I still have more if people find this interesting!