Sources for Wringer Rollers?

[LizzieMaine]

This is a longshot question, but I figure if anyone knows they'd be on the Lounge.

One of my projects for this summer is to try and get my washing machine into usable condition again -- but the rubber on the wringer rollers is shot, and I have had no luck at all finding replacements. The manufacturer (Easy Washing Machine Co. of Syracuse) is no help, since it went out of business about fifty years ago, and none of the antique-appliance websites I've checked has any suggestions.

So, my last resort, other than trying to wrap the rollers up in duct tape, is to ask here -- are there any old-appliance fans who might have any suggestions on how to go about either finding replacement rollers or somehow re-covering the old?

 

[russa11]

This place: http://www.wringerhand.com/ actually sells the whole unit or just parts. The only thing is they do not list any prices. You can also try here:
http://www.maytagclub.com/page-3.htm This lists companies tspecializing in the NLA ( No Longer Available ) parts business and the restoration of older appliances. I hope this helps

 

[LizzieMaine]

Thanks for the links! I gave them a call, but it turned out they didn't have the exact type of roller I needed. Even so, I'm glad to know there's at least someone in the world still making such things.

But as it turns out, I have come up with a solution which might be helpful to anyone else out there who's trying to keep an old washer going. What I did was fill in the missing chunks with a waterproof silicone sealant, and once that was dry I stretched a segment of bicycle inner tube over the patched place to provide a strong, smooth surface that will tightly hold the damaged section together.

It isn't pretty, but it works. Another triumph of Make-Do-And-Mend!

 

[russa11]

That was a very creative way to fix your problem. I would never have thought of a bicycle inner tube.

 

[59Lark]

ancient appliances and non electric

Dear fellow retros; i do a lot of work with amish people supplying them with treadle sewing machines and see their gas powered winger washers, you havent lived till you see a ancient maytag wringer washer with a gas motor like a 8 horse kohler running make wash day noisy. Two sources one amish family bought the rights to the old maytag wringer washer and actually makes replacement parts and also on the lehams of ohio, non electric catalog they show a new wringer washer made in the middle east, i have a feeling they got the tooling from a usa company and reproduce a old model. Now if they would start reproducing retro studebaker cars , i could put my 59 on blocks permanently. Lark59.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's a pic of the patient -- the repair is obvious, but we're looking for function here more than form...

It's an Easy Model 50-F, with a manufacturing date of 3/17/34 stamped into the gear casing. There's no pump, so I load the water with a hose running to the kitchen sink, and drain it into a pail. There are no belts -- everything is gear-driven -- and other than six drops of oil into the oil points every six months, the only problem is the aging of the rubber in the rollers. Otherwise, everything works as well as the day it was made. We should all be so lucky when we're 74 years old.

I was given this machine for free many years ago by a workmate who found it in the cellar of his house and had no idea how to use it. If I didn't take it, his wife was threatening to turn it into a lawn planter. Philistines.