Vintage Appliances

[Fading Fast]

Ha! Thanks, Fading.
That train was my grandfather's, given to him on his 5th birthday in 1922.....

⇧ That makes it ten-times better.

...One thing about the house, it absolutely is NOT a museum. Everything has to function (or have the potential to function with minor repairs) and just about everything is used regularly. I love having people in the house.....

As does this ⇧

... Stop by sometime and I'll cook for you. Tell me what you want; I only draw the line at fish and sheep. Let's do fried chicken! That was fun! Or the boneless country ribs! I can whip up a batch of biscuits from scratch in about three minutes and about 15 minutes to bake them and I got the garlic mashed red potatoes down pat.

We can listen to some good jazz on the Cheney phonograph, crack open some Angry Orchards and sit in the Adirondack chairs on the porch with the music wafting through the windows. It's supposed to get to 80 here this week.

⇧ Thank you - sounds wonderful. It's in the low 40s and raw here today.

 

[BobHufford]

I love having people in the house. Stop by sometime and I'll cook for you ... It's supposed to get to 80 here this week.

Expect about eighty of us then...

 

[David Conwill]

That home looks and sounds like paradise!

 

[3fingers]

View attachment 111979 View attachment 111980 View attachment 111981

We share a common hobby. It is greatly satifying to return something to service that most would overlook or put in the junk pile.
I also enjoy using quality iron that in many cases is or is nearing 100 years old.

 

[59Lark]

Studebaker driver this 59lark and one appliance that I repair is sewing machines and I specialize in fixing old ones, I keep period machines running in a local pioneer village and your home reminds me of some of the homes there and they are set in the year 1914, and the staff in the summer cooks there meals and bake pies in the wood stoves, sew clothes and have livestock and horses in the village, no vintages cars, some in the vault at the main museum, incl a early hybred, like a crown magnetic , I grew up in a 25 room farmhouse that we built in 1860 and many rooms reminded me of your home incl the parlour the never to enter room . sadly that farm had to be sold in the 8os and is no longer in the family after 180 yrs in our clan, 59LARK

 

[Studebaker Driver]

Wow, Lark, the village sounds great - but sorry to heard about the loss of the old homestead.

I just found this photo of the touring, the late Thomas Elliott driving some of our neighbors.

 

[Studebaker Driver]

I should post pics of other cars, but not here. There must still be a car thread somewhere.

 

[59Lark]

I GUESS a car is not a appliance but what a beautiful car, I am a member of the Studebaker drivers club and that car makes me proud to be a member what a beautiful horseless carriage. I REPAIR appliances for a living vacumms hardly anymore and mostly sewing machine from treadles to handcranks to electronics and I find repairing older ones more rewarding , too take something that looks like a pile of dung and be able to return it to working and pretty is very rewarding. Studebaker driver there is a forum on driving old cars on modern roads , that might do for a post, would love to see your roadster from southbend. 59 lark

 

[Studebaker Driver]

I GUESS a car is not a appliance but what a beautiful car, I am a member of the Studebaker drivers club and that car makes me proud to be a member what a beautiful horseless carriage. I REPAIR appliances for a living vacumms hardly anymore and mostly sewing machine from treadles to handcranks to electronics and I find repairing older ones more rewarding , too take something that looks like a pile of dung and be able to return it to working and pretty is very rewarding. Studebaker driver there is a forum on driving old cars on modern roads , that might do for a post, would love to see your roadster from southbend. 59 lark

I think we can bend the rules a little and claim cars are appliances - I have at least one book on the subject that deleteriously describes American cars using that very word. Studebakers really were good machines (appliances) and the company sure deserved a better fate. The name I suspect, more than anything, contributed to the decline; it's just a funny name. But there is nothing suspect about a Studebaker automobile, they were made to last. The engines are super smooth, the steering is light and precise, the brakes (only two-wheel on my cars) are powerful. The 1915 cars are very fast and the 354 c.i. in-line six engines deliver bags of torque. It's a nice big car, close to the size of a Pierce-Arrow 38 of the same year.

I wish I could get you pics of the roadster, but it's partially disassembled and is in mothballed storage. When we got it, the frame was cracked and the radiator shell and hood needed to be repainted and the radiator neck repaired. The only pictures I have of it are from before it went dormant and most of those pictures are inaccessible to me now. They were uploaded to the "cloud" and, since I am a Luddite, I paid no attention to how they are accessed and the knowhow and the passwords to retrieve them died with Thomas.

 

[59Lark]

Getting back to appliance repair its a dying art, I am teaching two young people my daughter and a young man age 22 that some higher power sent to me one day, he came after closing forgot to flip the sign, and he handed me a motor for a 50 year old machine and a bag with the motor brushes in it and said I had these left over and now it wont run, are they important. I said to my helper at the time I think that young man has smoked too much weed. when I just about lost my daughter to a tumour, that young fella got me through and helped me slug our way back, I just about let the shop and the workshop fall apart, don't let anyone tell you the next generation is all bad, there are still some really good people out there. I remember reading zen and the art of motorcycle repair as a teen , what do you think of zen and the art of appliance repair. even this week with easter he is helping his folks with their fish and chip place , but came by at 8am to help load the van for the repair route, I suggest we all try to teach the next generation how to fix things , this throw away society will be the end of us 59lark

 

[Mr. Nantus]

Ha! Thanks, Fading.
That train was my grandfather's, given to him on his 5th birthday in 1922.
I have no idea why all the wine bottles are sitting around, the side server cabinet is nearly empty.

One thing about the house, it absolutely is NOT a museum. Everything has to function (or have the potential to function with minor repairs) and just about everything is used regularly. I love having people in the house. Stop by sometime and I'll cook for you. Tell me what you want; I only draw the line at fish and sheep. Let's do fried chicken! That was fun! Or the boneless country ribs! I can whip up a batch of biscuits from scratch in about three minutes and about 15 minutes to bake them and I got the garlic mashed red potatoes down pat.

We can listen to some good jazz on the Cheney phonograph, crack open some Angry Orchards and sit in the Adirondack chairs on the porch with the music wafting through the windows. It's supposed to get to 80 here this week.

I too love your home. Mine has many things handed down to me from parents to great grandparents, they have great meaning for me. My Dad was a Studebaker man. If you look in an old cookbook from the late 19th to early 20th century it usually has ways to judge the heat of an oven by how long you can hold your hand in it and where on the cook top are the hottest and coolest places to place the pans. I think I will move out west and come by to eat at your house !

 

[Bugguy]

I suggest we all try to teach the next generation how to fix things , this throw away society will be the end of us 59lark

I couldn't agree more! Unfortunately, fixing has been subverted by how easy it is to manufacture with glue or welds so the innards are not accessible.

I've been delighted with how willing my son-in-law (32 yo) has become to consider repair first, dispose second. He's been like a sponge in learning how to troubleshoot and how to systematically diagnosis a mechanical or electrical problem. However, he has his limits... my VHS recorder was just returned in a paper bag with a zip-lock full of screws and a destroyed tape. As long as he stays away from my wrist watch, I'm OK with it.

My point is that his generation is beginning to appreciate good workmanship and the investment of time in repair versus tossing it out. I see that as encouraging.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A VCR might be the most difficult thing to fix I've ever come across, given the microscopic alignment of the parts -- it's very easy knock things around inside. It's not a task for the novice, or the poorly-sighted, and I learned this myself the hard way.

Passing along the idea of use up/wear out/make do/do without is one of the greatest legacies anyone can hand down.

 

[Fading Fast]

A VCR might be the most difficult thing to fix I've ever come across, given the microscopic alignment of the parts -- it's very easy knock things around inside. It's not a task for the novice, or the poorly-sighted, and I learned this myself the hard way.

Passing along the idea of use up/wear out/make do/do without is one of the greatest legacies anyone can hand down.

The original VCRs were also complex as heck to use. The first one I had required you to remove a panel and adjust the "channel select" with a special enclosed tool every single time you wanted to record a program in advance. I remember regularly sitting on the floor in front of it, with the panel off, owner's manual spread open on the floor and that stupid little plastic tool in hand as I tried to align the channels and timer (or something like that - it was insanely convoluted).

To be fair, while I agree with your advice - we are "wear out, make do, fix it ourselves" people, overall - many things today are priced where it is rational to just replace them especially if one prices in the cost of his or her own free time versus fixing, say, a $25 toaster or (as happened recently to us) a $17 (I think it was about that) closet light.

 

[3fingers]

many things today are priced where it is rational to just replace them especially if one prices in the cost of his or her own free time versus fixing, say, a $25 toaster or (as happened recently to us) a $17 (I think it was about that) closet light.

Your logic is faultless. However, it's worth it to me to repair things that aren't intended to be repaired to raise a tiny middle finger to those who intend for me to buy another of the same product after i pitch the current one.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Typing this on a 13-year-old PowerBook running on its fourth logic board, in a casing held together by duct tape. Suck it, Cupertino.

 

[vitanola]

Typing this on a 13-year-old PowerBook running on its fourth logic board, in a casing held together by duct tape. Suck it, Cupertino.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!

 

[vitanola]

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!

View attachment 112843

And the above laid the ground work for our great post-war prosperity. All of those surplus dollars soaked up by War Bonds bought deep freezes, automobiles, room additions, furniture, and new houses, effectively replacing military demand and preventing the expected post-war return of the Depression. Of course the GI Bill helped out in that regard, also. The educational benefits slowed the return of our boys to the labor market, preventing the feared spike in unemployment, while insuring a lifetime of increased economic output. The VA zero down payment mortgage loans boosted the construction industry and put our factories to work filling up all of those new Capes and Ranchers with furnishings and appliances.

 

[Fading Fast]

Your logic is faultless. However, it's worth it to me to repair things that aren't intended to be repaired to raise a tiny middle finger to those who intend for me to buy another of the same product after i pitch the current one.

Oh, don't get me wrong - we don't always practice what we preach and have spent ridiculous amounts of time fixing this or that $10 item - but we are trying to value our limited free time more and not get silly about this stuff.

And, to be fair, I'm not sure all (many) of the disposable things that are built not to be repaired intentionally are deceitful as it might just be the cheapest way to make it. We put up eight of the aforementioned closet lights and - two and half years later - only one has given us any trouble. At $17 a piece, if I have to replace one every several years, maybe it's all fair. Of course, they all might die next month, but we'll see.

I don't truly feel that cheated by the "really cheap just replace it" model as, like the toaster I mentioned in a prior post, I probably played 10% (inflation adjusted) versus what my grandmother paid for her fixed-several-times-over-the-decades toaster. It would be a neat study - easy college paper - to evaluate the overall economic benefits of each model.

What does drive me nuts is the dirty planned obsolescence built into things like computers, phones and other expensive items that could last for many more years if they were built for intelligent repair.

 

[David Conwill]

Of course the obvious solution to the "no user-serviceable parts inside" aspect of a modern appliance is to buy a vintage appliance that was designed for serviceability.

Hey, that would make an excellent thread!