The Hamilton Beach Project - The Beginning.

About six weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me to take a look at one of her prized antique vibrators. This then led into a discussion about the history of vibrators, and she proceeded to explain how they were the 5th device to be converted for electrical power. Being a history geek myself, I was quite amused by this, and shortly thereafter the links started appearing in the IM window referencing the Hamilton Beach 1902 Vibrator. The original. Patented by the Victor Electric Company, which HB bought the rights to, and subsequently produced.

About a week ago, she brought me a little present. By present, I mean project. Carefully wrapped in some magenta fabric lay a lone iteration of this original. Its construction was not what I expected for something that was made somewhere around 100 years ago. (The patent date has little to do with the manufacture date, and I have yet to see references to production information.) For starters, the housing was cast aluminum. While today we may take aluminum for granted as a staple of wheels on cars, beverage cans, and aircraft, this was not the case a hundred years ago. It was, and still is an energy intensive process to produce the stuff. I expected  chromed steel. The rest of it was built like most things were in those days. Brass, chrome, wood, copper, steel. Things that will last a lifetime (or several, if well cared for.)

Once I had it home in my makeshift workshop, pulling it apart was the first order of business. Sadly, I didn't start taking pictures of it until after I was well underway in cleaning it up. Few power tools have been so useful as my trusty Dremel for working on small projects. The cleaning and buffing set, along with a number of felt polishing wheels, polishing compound, brasso, and obsessive compulsive tendencies have made it possible to really make it look good. This one is too banged up to look "new" but the few pictures that show how much difference is there to be had.

This is the bottom half of the housing. The stub end sticking up is where the handle attaches. At this point, I had washed everything with soap and water and a toothbrush, but before the brasso or abrasives had come out on this side. The left side has been polished with a felt wheel and polishing compound, to start with.

Same perspective, opposite side:

I cleaned and polished the stator ring area, which is clearly not the most finely machined surface, and that is a lot smoother than when I started.

Stator assembly, untouched, looking every bit its age:

The commutator, the contact area and bushing has been polished. The top and bottom shafts have been polished some. The top housing area needs a new bushing fabricated.

The top cover and business end, after much work, and no before pictures:

That's all for now. The remainder of the internals I didn't get around to taking pictures of last night, perhaps tonight.