Here, I show the fan before repairs. This is a wooden cabinet fan I got from the antique store you can see in the other videos. The motor was completely burned inside so I substituted in another very similar motor.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
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Apr
30
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uxwbill says:
April 30, 2011 at 8:53 am (UTC 0)
Ouch! That poor old motor sure didn’t die quietly. I wonder if someone left it powered and didn’t notice that it had locked up? (Can’t imagine what else would have so thorougly toasted it.)
I do like the cabinet and especially the front grille, however.
lexmarks567 says:
April 30, 2011 at 9:51 am (UTC 0)
hi it looks like the original motor caught fire.
isethaitchison says:
April 30, 2011 at 10:28 am (UTC 0)
i prefer high speed rather than variable speed because the more air running through the motor, less heat, longer lasting, that maybe why it burned up, running on low for a long time the motor got so hot that it went poof. i put a dimmer switch on my 12″ fan and the motor started to get hot and it is a vented one.
tulsawild says:
April 30, 2011 at 10:39 am (UTC 0)
I have a very old fan built in a wooden cabinet that’s about the size of a small nightstand. Its marked with a company logo, the company is Mimms and its a Model D with 3 speeds. The motor has a place to add oil. I have contacted the Fan Museum on Ohio and they have never heard of such a fan. Any ideas?
coolbluelights says:
April 30, 2011 at 11:27 am (UTC 0)
wow I wonder why it burned out so catastrophically? someone must have left it plugged in and it just seized up and fried
retrochad says:
April 30, 2011 at 12:25 pm (UTC 0)
I hope you can find another fan! I actually bypassed the entire switch and transformer circuit and hooked the new power cord right to the motor. The speed transformer did not seem to vary the speed when I tested it on the new motor.
mrfanman2u says:
April 30, 2011 at 1:04 pm (UTC 0)
hey chad.
I had a mathes cooler fan just like this when i was younger. the wood rotted away but i kept the motor. This is a childhood fan for me, and I want another one.
FYI, don’t use medium and low speed with the bigger motor it probably draws more amperage and will burn out the coil.
legogamecreator says:
April 30, 2011 at 1:06 pm (UTC 0)
did you look at the size of the rotor and shaft and i have a K-Mart K-14X and its blades were stuck on the shaft and i had done what you did to the Air King and it came off you should try to put some WD-40 on it cause i use that for all my fans that have a stuck blades on it. and could you reply to any of my messages.
legogamecreator says:
April 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm (UTC 0)
Retrochad when are you checking your account mail? cause i have sent you some letters and i never got a response
retrochad says:
April 30, 2011 at 2:50 pm (UTC 0)
Actually I wasn’t able to get the blade off the Universal motor…since the performance was good I just decided to leave it on. The fan is still working well.
legogamecreator says:
April 30, 2011 at 3:01 pm (UTC 0)
Did you try to fit the rotor from the old burned out motor to the new universal brand motor and did you try again to turn the screw on it and mabe it will come loose for you so keep trying it and mabe someday it will come loose and did you check the auto transformer for any problems with speeds?
mboltonjr says:
April 30, 2011 at 3:07 pm (UTC 0)
I got to looking at the shift side of the rotor and it looks to me like it’s been badly warn. Seems to be more narrow there compared to the rest of the shaft.
Just an observation.
mboltonjr says:
April 30, 2011 at 3:33 pm (UTC 0)
I wonder how much it’d set you back to have that motor rewound? Or can you do that yourself?
Oh…and in regards to your mystery box fan…You’ll probably have to reverse the interchangeable hub to the exhaust side of the blade of you have any hopes of it fitting on whatever motor you happen to install on it. I tried to install a blade like that on an old box fan from years back and it never fit. Of course the hub was on the intake side and wasn’t interchangeable like that on your Lau blade.
tomorrowsangel1958 says:
April 30, 2011 at 3:38 pm (UTC 0)
wow, i googled mathes cooler and this is what i found. I purchased mine at an estate sale also in kansas and plan to resell it on auction on ebay. mine works great and i love the cabinet. GREAT JOB RETROCHAD!
retrochad says:
April 30, 2011 at 3:50 pm (UTC 0)
I wonder that myself, how it go so burned. Could be from lack of lubrication or something else which caused it to quit turning…it must have been left unattended and just heated up till the winding wire melted open. Usually in modern fan motors there will be a thermal fuse to keep it from completely burning up like this. Also the rotor does not turn freely in the armature, almost like the heat warped something to bind it up.
westytoploader says:
April 30, 2011 at 3:56 pm (UTC 0)
Great fan, I’ve seen a couple of these at antique shops (seem to be common here in Texas I guess) but they were too high priced so I passed them up. I wonder how the motor burned up like that…lack of lubrication?
hdyudu says:
April 30, 2011 at 4:17 pm (UTC 0)
it may have just went from it age then it use
that more likely to happen on old moters
wilkes85 says:
April 30, 2011 at 4:47 pm (UTC 0)
hey awesome! an old time air conditioner!
How do u think the motor burned out like that? U think someone left it running for a very long time?
retrochad says:
April 30, 2011 at 5:31 pm (UTC 0)
Thanks for your comments…I have the Mathes cooler in operation now with the new motor, I’ll try and upload the video soon.
mylesgifford123 says:
April 30, 2011 at 6:03 pm (UTC 0)
sucks what happend to the moter
Stereoflip63 says:
April 30, 2011 at 6:05 pm (UTC 0)
I like these mathes cooler fans their very cool looking but that sucks that the motor burned out. At least you had a spare motor lying around and the that new motor is more powerful with 1/6 horsepower.