That is an impressive room as well as the fan collection - I see a silver swan- is there a favorite of yours? What’s the far right fan in your photo’s?
The Silver Swan is one I was slow to come around to. Partly because, when I started collecting fans in a more focused way, it was considered sort of a "grail" fan and it always commanded pretty high prices. With very few exceptions I never spent more than $100 on a fan. I didn't buy one for a while for that reason and because they were generally painted brown. Not a fan of brown.
I got into old fans when I was in college because I was fascinated by their longevity. I saw one in a junk shop behind the counter, silently oscillating away, and asked if it was for sale. "Nope," he said, "I've owned that fan for 50 years and it's never stopped once. I sell that to you and I'll have to buy a new plastic one that will break and then I'll be buying new fans every year for the rest of my life"
And with those words began my obsession with this simple mechanical device. With most of my fan collection now here in Portland this might be an interesting time to look at a few of my favorites.
The Silver Swan is on the left. Since paint to me ruined the "machine" aspect of my fans I generally strip them of paint. For the Silver Swan I took it apart and had the steel parts chrome plated so it would look more unified. Next to that is a Marrelli that I liked for the scalloped blades - it came from Italy via ebay.
The center is a rare Zephyr Airkooler and the small one is another small Marelli and the far right is a German fan that has no markings and I can't remember what brand it is.
I discovered many of these obscure fans when I was riding my motorcycle across the country and rode out of my way to visit the "American Fan Collectors Museum" which was in Kansas at the time. Up till then my idea of vintage fans were the heavy black fans with brass blades and cages of which I had a few. At the museum I discovered many obscure brands I'd not heard of and this coincided with this new company called "Ebay".
The fan that struck me the most at the museum was the Roto-Beam because it had this amazing solid cast aluminum blade that protruded from the cage and had five arms. Most fans have an even number of blades and odd numbers are just more interesting. It also was a fan that acknowledged the inherit desire to touch a spinning blade and it encouraged you to do so with it's design.
The far left and second from the right are both Roto-Beams. They are by far my favorite brand.
The second from the left is a Fitzgerald which is very rare and another fan that is brown - a characteristic that destroyed (in my mind) it's crazy shape and lines. So I stripped the paint and polished the casting. It is a reminder of the period and of why some fans were painted - it's aluminum isn't great quality and it's never held it's polish very well. But it's still fine as silver. The center is another, larger Marelli, and like most of my fans is from the general period of the 1930's to the 1950's.
This, to me, is an era of mechanical brilliance where function was a given and everything, even a simple fan, was an opportunity to create something beautiful and stylish. To me these are functional sculptures. Much like unfaired motorcycles their purpose is on display - mechanical honesty, form and function.
The far right is an Air Castle and, while not my favorite, fits because of it's cast aluminum blade. I'm a sucker for cast aluminum blades.
So outside of a few books and portfolios the only thing I shipped to Oregon from NYC was my fans. My absolute favorite fan, a small Roto-Beam that I had the cage chrome plated to enhance it's shiny luster, broke in transit.
I've had a few fans break over the years and I've had to send them away to get repaired. That's not necessary any more because since I've started collecting I've learned all I need to know to fix just about anything - aluminum welding was the last piece of the puzzle. The repair on this fas was a broken aluminum thread holding the arm to the base. I knew just trying to weld it wasn't going to work so I machined the arm to accept a new part.
I turned a piece of 6061 down and threaded it in the lathe.
By beveling and extending the part out I could create a larger, better weld that would penetrate deeper and allow me to machine it flush again.
While I'm still not accomplished with my aluminum welding I'm confident in it. My only worry was that these old castings are really bad and often pretty dirty but taking my time allowed the impurity's to percolate and I got a solid bead.
The DRO is zero'd on the center of the rotary table...
And I left a small pip on the end of the thread that I could use to align with a center in the mill. This allowed me to get the casting back to a very close center.
While the clamping set up seems rather precarious (and it is!) I was only taking light cuts in aluminum so there wasn't very much force going into the part. I simply milled the weld down flush.
I know it's not much of a big deal but to me this is the first major fan repair I've done and done well. And that I've rescued my favorite fan is all the sweeter.
While it's apart... I took the opportunity to polish it up a little. It's so nice having that big Baldor buffer.
Here you can see the beauty of the Roto-Beam blade. It's also a ***** to polish.
Ages ago when I first met Sean he was using Kevlar welding gloves. I never liked the slippery feel of them so I've stayed with the standard thin deerskin Tillman's for welding but the Kevlar gloves turned out to be perfect for polishing.
The golden rule in the shop is no gloves on spinning machines. The fabric can catch a bit or tool and get sucked in. The exception to that is polishing where the cloth buffs won't grab a glove but the parts can get too hot to hold. A knit glove helps manages the heat so you keep putting pressure on the part.
Here you can see how the tip of the blade pokes out of the cage. We all have that temptation to touch a spinning fan blade and every kid has tentatively stuck his hand in until the blade skims the finger and you've cheated death. The Roto-Beam lets you, ney begs you, to do that right in the middle where it's not spinning fast enough to do damage but the thrill is still there.
It is everything great about the past - built to last, simple, over designed, silent, efficient, exceedingly beautiful and encouraging exploration and personal responsibility. What is not to love?
Gregor
