Peerless Cleaning Machine - A Winter restoration Project

[JerseyMo]

Restoring a Peerless cleaning machine as a winter project.  It was clearly in very rough condition when I saw it online.  I figure what the heck lets give it a shot and I was able to come to an agreement with the seller.  Once the package arrived I saw the box was ripped and the corners blown out.  Yikes!  Damage wise I found part of the base had cracked and the on off toggle switch snapped.  But, the seller provided full refund so off I went with the restore.  First step was to "defunk"  the years of dirt and grime of which there was plenty.  Next to disassemble and take note of what task lie ahead.  Clearly there s more cleaning and painting but the biggest concern is the condition of the control system and the main motor.

Here are some pics of the control.  I think next task I will take on it to deal with the cracked frame corner. More to come.

 

[watchweasol]

Hi Mo  it looks like a steady project. Were all the jars there or had they suffered like the base.  Keep us posted on how you get along with it.

[JerseyMo]

the machine came as pictured without any jars.  I did already start to search for suitable replacements and have some leads.  Progress thus far is that the machine is all taken apart and the cleaning continues.  First up were the platter bearings. They were gummed up with old grease and oil.  A bath in mineral spirts, followed with acetone.  Next a little wd-40 and they are spinning free again.  I will clean them once more in the acetone and use a bearing grease when putting them back into place.   Tomorrow I'm going to stop by my auto mechanic to see if he can braise the cracked piece back into place for me.  I also have to pick up some rust remover  to clean all the other hardware.  My goal is to make the machine functional and to keep an aged used look. 

[JerseyMo]

quick update- restoration is progressing and now I am working on the electrical system.  I began with cleaning and oiling of the heater\blower motor.   I have realized a insulator that hold the heater coil in place is likely missing.

 

[JerseyMo]

dang - the auto reverse motor is not working. open coil   Suggestions?

 

[JerseyMo]

decided to get all the mechanical sections back together today.   The electrical is the big challenge. 

[luiazazrambo]

I assume you have to re-coil it. There are companies out there who would do it. I briefly checked the prices for it around my town ( small electric motors) here in the UK and it was a bit steep ( not like I checked a lot of them or there were many of them). My teacher from high school could do it for a lot less, but he works in Hungary. He also made home made devices to count the coils when you re-coiled them (well for transformers not motors), I actually owned one of these ( maybe still in the attic) so theoretically you could do it yourself knowing the diameter of the wire and the number of coils. The part what was doing the counting came from old cassette players. Tricky bit is to place the same amount of coils into the same place when you do this manually as your winding might not be as accurate and neat as the one made in the factory. As everything else it needs practicing and you might not want to spend your time with it. You also seem to have insulation paper between layers if I can see it correctly so it is not just the re-wire, but taking care of the insulation too. My old teacher is so good with all of this that you probably would not know what coil is factory made or made by himself.

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by luiazazrambo

[LittleWatchShop]

48 minutes ago, JerseyMo said:

decided to get all the mechanical sections back together today.   The electrical is the big challenge. 

I gotta believe the problem is close to the terminals and not deep in the coil. If it were me, I would peel away the paper and see what is going on near the lugs.

[luiazazrambo]

15 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I gotta believe the problem is close to the terminals and not deep in the coil. If it were me, I would peel away the paper and see what is going on near the lugs.

That's not a bad idea. You could even remove one coil or two, it would not make a considerable impact on its function. We had to design and make a transformer including making the frame out of bakelite sheets in school and we could never place the required amount of coils into the space we had on that frame (just close to it), yet the output voltage of the transformer was correct to the tenth of a volt. When a coil is dead it is usually burnt so you must be extremely lucky if it is not though. ( Probably someone who works with these things daily should comment on this not me who barely touches these things nowadays.)

Edited December 21, 2021 by luiazazrambo

[LittleWatchShop]

I cannot tell if the laminated core is continuous through the coil. It looks like there is a separate core that is riveted to the laminate core so there is no gap. This would make it simpler to make the coil and rivet in after winding.

[JerseyMo]

1 hour ago, luiazazrambo said:

I assume you have to re-coil it. There are companies out there who would do it. I briefly checked the prices for it around my town ( small electric motors) here in the UK and it was a bit steep ( not like I checked a lot of them or there were many of them). My teacher from high school could do it for a lot less, but he works in Hungary. He also made home made devices to count the coils when you re-coiled them (well for transformers not motors), I actually owned one of these ( maybe still in the attic) so theoretically you could do it yourself knowing the diameter of the wire and the number of coils. The part what was doing the counting came from old cassette players. Tricky bit is to place the same amount of coils into the same place when you do this manually as your winding might not be as accurate and neat as the one made in the factory. As everything else it needs practicing and you might not want to spend your time with it. You also seem to have insulation paper between layers if I can see it correctly so it is not just the re-wire, but taking care of the insulation too. My old teacher is so good with all of this that you probably would not know what coil is factory made or made by himself.

 

 

 

I did think about having it repaired and will hold that as an alternate option.

[JerseyMo]

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I gotta believe the problem is close to the terminals and not deep in the coil. If it were me, I would peel away the paper and see what is going on near the lugs.

tried that and no luck.

[JerseyMo]

1 hour ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I cannot tell if the laminated core is continuous through the coil. It looks like there is a separate core that is riveted to the laminate core so there is no gap. This would make it simpler to make the coil and rivet in after winding.

Worse case is I can't used the Auto reverse  feature.   But, of course I do have to check the main motor as well.  That is next up on the to do list. 

 

[LittleWatchShop]

26 minutes ago, JerseyMo said:

Auto reverse  feature.

So is that acting as a solenoid, changing the gears to reverse? I thought it was a motor.

[JerseyMo]

On 12/21/2021 at 7:59 PM, LittleWatchShop said:

So is that acting as a solenoid, changing the gears to reverse? I thought it was a motor.

On the front panel there is a toggle switch labeled "Auto reverse".   The way I see it is that as the electric motor spins it turns a series of gears.  At the end of the gear train there is a shaft with cam attached to it.  As the cam turns it engages and disengages two switches. Those switches lead to the 110 AC that goes up to the main motor.  So I'll say the end results is the motor spins in one direction and than reverses the direction.  This helps to agitate the parts in the cleaning solution.  How long it spins I'd say is related to the gear train.  

My current thought is if I can find another motor that I can remove the coil from and refit to this one.  No matter, how it turns out this project is fun and giving me a good challenge.

 

[LittleWatchShop]

OK, I see. Without the benefit of seeing the whole thing, I was just guessing.  I love these kinds of projects as well!

[LittleWatchShop]

You have a Telechron motor lying around. Might steel the coil??

[HectorLooi]

I've been looking at the photos and just can't figure out the function of that coil. It doesn't appear to be a solenoid. Another thing I noticed is your multimeter is set to the 200R range. That could be a little low if that coil is some kind of servo.

Can you figure out the function of the coil?

Also  have you checked the microswitches?

[Saldog]

I know this is an old topic, but can I ask if you know where to find that cleaning basket set? I have a machine but no basket frame and I can't find them for sale anywhere. Could you point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance!

[veewee77]

Good day all!

I have one of these machines. It is all complete, including cleaning baskets, jars with lids and all. It works as well. If anyone would be interested, I would sell this item for a reasonable price, but I will not part it out. If you want it, it is for sale. If you want parts, get with the guy who buys it and see if he'll sell you parts from it.

It is dirty as it was sitting in a garage for many years. Has some surface rust, but the thing still works.