The Bard, The Devil, The Andis, and Me.

Back in April or May, the Devil was extolling the virtues of this magical vintage vibrator. Of course I was naturally amused, and intrigued, so I kept pestering her to find this treasure that had been lost in the abyss of her basement. After a few weeks, it was located (well one of the two she has), and brought it with her to demonstrate its ability to deliver hysterical paroxysm on an epic scale. Following that demonstration, I needed no further convincing to get one of my own. The Devil also put that one in my charge for a week or so to tear it down, make sure it was in good safe working order, and such. The procedure I developed for it, was almost exactly duplicated as follows below for last night's adventure with the Bard's newest acquisition.

The Bard had a little experience with my Andis already, and was in the mood for a good deal after hearing about my incredible fortune in getting the White Cross without any competition from any other bidders. What she ended up with, is definitely a less common iteration of the Andis line, not in form or function, but in color and texture. The early models were a smooth sided aluminum housing, and almost all I have seen have been a bright, deep green. The later models came in a few colors, and each seems to have had its own texture as part of the die the housings were stamped out of. The green have an alligator-ish pattern, and the Bard's is a tan color, with a sort of leather grain pattern that is hard to tell if it is the paint/anodizing/finish or the metal itself that has this texture due to the shallow nature. On each half side the housings are screwed to a chassis that contains the electromagnet coil, and a flat steel arm with the post for attachments on the top and secured by four screws and screwplate inside on the bottom.

Behold, the before pictures:

I'll take some "after" pictures tonight. Maybe.

White Cross, the introduction.

Well, yet another of my projects that is entirely the Devil's fault, but this one should prove to be less project and more just fun. At any rate, it is a White Cross Vibrator, Model 21, made by National Stamping and Electric Works, Chicago, IL. I found out the company address was 3216-3246 W. Lake St.(basically at Kedzie).

I haven't tested it, currently awaiting appropriate oil before I monkey with it. I may take it apart tomorrow to inspect since i need to order felt and fiber washers for the HB's, and that would be an ideal time to get anything else. I'll take more pictures soon.

Hamilton Beach...in the holding pattern

Unfortunately tonight I have no real progress to post about on the HB front. I did, however make some serious gains on getting necessary materials together. I have located some sources for fiber and wool felt washers that originally were inside the HB. These were used for vibration reduction, and also to retain oil, acting like a sponge. I spent a while tonight building a spreadsheet of every washer, noting the ID, OD, Quantity, Material type, and where it came from. I went through a handful of miscellaneous parts as well, including motor brushes, springs and a couple of cork pieces that I'm not entirely sure what their purpose is other than possibly to act as cushions for the ball joint/rocker arm or oil cups.  I ordered Nikolas #2105 clear lacquer, felt cord (to replace the original that was used as oil wick), black and red fill paint markers to fill in the lettering on the build plates. I'm also going to be getting some black enamel to strip and re-polish the brass build and indicator plates on the Elco. Anyways, more on this later.

Update: Everything from McMaster Carr turned up today, which was great, since I'm practically at a standstill without it. I now just need to get a caliper to measure the motor shaft, opening of the bushing, and housing so I can find a suitable replacement for 831. Additionally, the 2" felt polishing wheels from somewhere on ebay also arrived, which after last night, I have only a single new 1/2" wheel left. Now that I have the clear lacquer, it is time to strip the rest of the paint and old lacquer off both plates, get them polished to about the same level, get them completely clean and degreased, and put a couple coats of clear on them. After a day to let the lacquer cure, then apply the fill paint. Aside from that, I will need to get the clear epoxy from G.J. Nikolas to seal up the aluminum housing parts after final polishing and washing, since the metal will oxidize in open air. The lacquer won't adhere to aluminum from what the guy at Nikolas told me on the phone. Looking for a plating shop that will blast and replate some of these little hardware bits, to really finish off the "better than new" look.

Elco Violet Ray Generator.

It all started Christmas eve, 2010. I was introduced to the violet ray/wand. Not just any, but a Renulife Model R, with all of the attachments and accessories they ever made for it. There was just something about it, and the person it was being used on, well, there was something about her reaction, too. The sensation doesn't do anything for me, at all. But it looks cool, sounds cool, and has a mad scientist sort of appeal about it. I had to have one. So I bought at first, a kit with a modern wand, and related bits. This just would not do. I had to have an antique one, ideally just like the one I had seen that first time.

As time went on, I kept trolling ebay, looking for my Renulife, but also the other Violet Rays that were out there. Then I saw this oddity among the masses, the Elco. Little did I know then just how much of an oddity it is. My only question to the seller was "Does it work?" and the reply of "I don't know, I'm afraid to plug it in..." didn't exactly bolster my confidence, but basically told me, OK, it doesn't work.  Suffice it to say, after spending more than I wanted, it was mine. Elco Lindstrom and Co, Model No. 7. I've had a really hard time finding out much about the company, much less about the product lines. I've only seen a couple other models come up on ebay, and this is the only one of its kind I have seen. Like a number of antique Violet Ray devices, it was made right here in Chicago.

When it arrived, it was a mess inside and out. I still haven't addressed the less than stellar luggage it's screwed into, but that's a bit beyond my workshop. Eventually the plan is to fabricate an entirely new case to exactly the same dimensions, and ideally strip the existing hardware off, have it re-chromed, and applied to the new case, but I digress. I tore it down, found wiring that I wouldn't trust with a telephone, much less high voltage, and set about rewiring and rebuilding it. Cosmetically, it wasn't in horrific shape, but it had a lot of scratches that needed seeing to. I spent a ridiculous amount of time doing bakelite restoration, on the control board, the handle and the Ozone mask that it had with it. I ordered wire from Sundial, so I had vintage looking replacement wire on hand to redo the entire unit, inside and out. Even though no one will ever see, there is cloth overbraid wire inside. All of the wiring was upgraded to more reasonable (16 or 18AWG) over the original stuff. The cord used for the handle is a red/white zigzag pattern, which I decided on simply because it was interesting, and really gets your attention. It's also 10' instead of 5, which makes it much easier to use when there isn't a table to set the thing on nearby.

So without further ado, here it is!

Hamilton Beach 100 progress

Last night and tonight, I spent a few hours working on more cleaning and polishing parts. I know, stop me when it sounds familiar....The following pictures are from last night's work, I didn't bother taking pictures tonight. Simple reason, most of what I did tonight was polishing screw heads, but also the knuckle link pieces, and it wasn't really anything too exciting without being able to show them assembled into something. But I'll take more soon. One of my friends knows some places that will do small lot chrome plating, which means that if I can do it reasonably inexpensively, I'm going to send out the chrome plated parts to be completely blasted down and re-chromed like the day they were made. The more I think about that prospect, the more stuff I can imagine getting done, including parts from the Elco, Renulife, both HB's, and possibly more. I'm a bit disappointed that the wire I want to use for the Devil's HB is out of stock until dangerously close to the deadline I need to have this back in action. So it may end up being something boring like it came with, but hopefully I can get what I want in time. Anyways, here's the recap of last night in pictures.

The motor speed control contacts:

The knuckle link (this was only washed in these photos the final polishing was done tonight and not pictured yet):

The pivot pin and bushing (same story as the link above):

And the business end of the mechanism:

Just because it looks so good, I put a few pieces together after spending another hour or two working on the polishing on the housing itself: