Electric Fan Collection on Cl (Toronto)

[lovesickest]

The price is a little steep ( $ 1200 CAN) but you get 36 antique electric fans ! That works out to about $ 33.00 per fan. I find this collection quite appealing, even as winter nears:

http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/atq/5906855065.html

00f0f_5BftM9nQrkf_1200x900.jpg (56.66 KiB) Viewed 458 times

[Lily left the valley]

They are really neat.

I just saw a CL ad yesterday for a stand fan with...erm...exposed rewiring. "My father rigged the electrical. It works fine." the ad says.

[lovesickest]

Not all the fans are pictured - what are the 16 the seller is holding out on, I wonder ?

I let a pretty nice 1930's fan go during a great purge some time ago. It had some dubious wiring, handyman-on-a-budget type of repairs. Wisely, some other handy person had cut the plug off, so I was never tempted to experience how handy this repair was (ie did the entire fan become electrified, etc. ?)

Hmmm, I wonder why fans are commonly the target of these type of repairs ? There was a tiny desk fan in the hall window, wired to the household circuits with some iffy murettes(sp ?) when we took possession of the house. This was done by the elderly PO in the 1970's perhaps.

[1918ColonialRevival]

I hate to say it, but those look like stock photos that were lifted from somewhere else online. I could be wrong, but it looks too "professional" for a CL ad. If they were all GE or Westinghouse from the brass blade era, even if they were all in need of work, that wouldn't be a bad price. I have a feeling, though, that most of them would end up being lower end models from the '30s through '50s, which are about 99% of the fans I see at estate sales, flea markets, and the like. Most of the ones in the photos appear to be 1940-55, which have limited collector interest, though there are a few from the '10s/'20s era pictured.

It's really not that hard to get an older fan going again, which is probably why they are the target of so many jake-leg repairs. Proper cloth covered wire is still available from many sources, along with cotton oil wick and rubber grommets - the three most often needed supplies when restoring an old fan.

[lovesickest]

The area where the fan seller is located has many photography studios. I wouldn't be surprised if these fans had been collected for a photo series, and are now being liquidated ?

[phil]

it's probably the lower end of a collection. a bit questionable why they arent' all pictured but they must be worth something like 30 apiece. I have a couple of them. My girlfriend wanted a fan during the summer so I brought one up from the basement and tried it. The thing is pretty powerful. she wasn't so impressed with the dusty blades.. but I love the style of them especially the ones with art deco style blades.

replacing bushings isn't bad if they even need it . I can make my own but they would usually be standard sizes and available from a bearing supplier. I just ordered a bunch of larger ones 5/8 hole and they were like 6 bucks apiece, not even worth machining. if you replace the bushings you can replace with sintered bronze ones, they retain the oil longer because they are porous. most just need oil and to check out the wiring. I was pondering over how I could re-balance the blades. i can spin it in my lathe and maybe check if they are all bent the same. You could probably put the fan on a good bearing and spin it to try to sort out the heavy side but finding real dynamic balance is a bit trickier. really sorting that out will make a big difference. the motors are usually bullet proof. the ones that "wag" get wear in the linkage and gearing and that's harder to fix. brushes are easy to match up , they file very easily so you can always find larger ones and trim them down to fit , if they have brushes. If they are brush motors there could be some wear in the commutator. sometimes I will take armatures and spin them and just use some fine sandpaper to resurface them and clean them up. youcan still get black wrinkle paint in auto stores. If you want other colors just spray the black wrinkle paint then your color of choice overtop. Its kind of fun .

you could start your very own fan club