First up, here is the fan in the livingroom we are replacing.
And here is what we are replacing it with!
eBay item 260091354460, purchased for $137.50 on 3/5/07
Yeah, it looks bad, but ths it the model I wanted and the price is right.
Made by Westiinghouse Electric in 1922 this style fan is commonly known as the "Westinghouse Sidewinder"
The name stems from the fact that the whole motor housing rotates instead of just the center part. The blades mount to the outside edge of the motor and are carried around as it spins.
First order of business was to sort out the wiring. It is simple enough - a pair of wires for the motor coil and an additional speed coil in series for the low speed setting.
Next step was to strip off the 3 layers of white latex paint and 80 years of dust. Once down to bare metal a fresh coat of semi-gloss black was applied.
There was a lot of accumulated gunk inside the fan that had to be cleaned out. The ball bearing that carries the rotor hub was shot so new steel balls were sourced from a $6.00 lazy susan purchased at Lowes.
Next up is a strategic application of antique bronze paint to bring out the deatil in the casting. Yeah, I know, not the original paint scheme (orignally all-black), but it looks so nice!
The fan blade brackets received a similar treatment. That is the cyinder head off my 318 Poly in the backgound (another story...)
Shrink tubing was added over the bare spots in the internal wiring and a pull chain switch fitted in one of the ventilation slots to replace the broken snap switch.
Here I am making the final wiring connections. Can you tell I am having fun?
Here is a shot of the restored number plate. Click for a bigger picture.
Oil fill instructions. The rotor bearing rides in a bath of oil, and the motor shaft has a helical pump to pump oil to all the friction surfces. Literally made to last a lifetime.
Since this is going in our living room a light fixture was needed. Westhinghouse made an original fixture for this fan, but I do not have it. An appropraite substiute was purchased from Lowes and attached using a custom braket in the holes where the old speed control switch was located.
With the new fan assembled, it was time to take the old fan down. Here are the screws that were holding it to the ceiling. The thing was literally ready to fall down any minute.
Here is the new fan haging from the ceiling. At 60 lbs, thing thing is HEAVY. It is securely screwed into the 2x6 ceiling joist using the orignal metal hook. The blades are still in the garage awaiting final refininshing.
The new lights throw a really cool pattern on the ceiling.
And now we have blades mounted. The blades are slender pieces of solid teak, milled with a slight taper towards the outside edges. Nice stuff, and still in great shape.
The final effect is quite pleasing. A big improvement over the previous fan.
The Westinghouse really compliments the house - it is period correct and looks like it has been here since the beginning.