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Saturday, April 2, 2016

Built to Last ~ Round 2

Here is another item that seems to have been made to last a lifetime.
It was in our shop when we moved in about 15 years ago.
I had shuffled it around from here to there as different projects
demanded different areas of the shop.
Then last summer, as I was shuffling it around again,
I thought, "I wonder if it actually works."


So I took it out the shop door and washed it up.
I then plugged it in.
It appeared to work wonderfully.
She is a 1945-1950 Maytag.  I can't remember exactly.
I looked it up by the serial number but have forgotten.


I did do just a little research before I started "playing."
Evidently, if they get tipped over, the oil can run out
which obviously isn't good for the motor.
I had never tipped this one and upon inspection of the underside,
there appeared to be some grease/oil, 
but nothing like it had all run out.


Not a great picture, but I sent the sponge I used to wash it
through the rollers to make sure they would work.
The only thing I can't seem to figure out is how to swing the top 
roller section over to the side for loading and unloading.
There is that chance that at one point it was "repaired"
to a state that it no longer pivots.
Or there is also the chance that I just don't know the secret.
If you have suggestions,
I would love to hear them.

Next, I will look for new rollers and a new drain hose.
Both of those items are the rubber just being old and dry
and are not things the manufacturer had control over.
If at some point, our current modern washer gives out,
I'm not so sure I won't just bring this one in the house.

The other thing is the lid is missing.
I'll have to keep my eyes open for one, and
if any one out there has one in their shed or runs across one,
give me a holler.
I'm sure interested.






10 comments:

  1. My mother used one of these all my growing up years. I even have a 'flattened' finger from where it got caught in the rollers when I was really little. Fortunately it wasn't my whole hand! It seems to me on the one she had the roller mechanism section lifted up and then turned to the side so it was easier to load/unload clothes. Yours may not be the same though....or perhaps it's seized up.

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  2. Flashbacks to helping my mom feed the wet laundry through the rollers on her old, old, old washer. How happy she was when she got a 'modern' washer. How sad I was.

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  3. certainly built to,last in those days, can`t see modern things lasting though I have my electric whisk and bought that in 1969

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  4. I wish they made appliances like they did in the ole days.
    Our first washing machine when we got married was a used Maytag. It was over 40 years old. (still worked when they took it away) We wanted a new Maytag, it puked after 10!

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  5. My mom has had a couple of these and thinks there shold be a button or lever on the side of machine where top attaches by rollers that should make it move back and forth and also to make the rollers roll towards or away from you. She can not tell from the picture. Maybe a close up could help. Many loads of wash went through those old machines...there was 6 of us kids. All of us learned how to carry that old wash tub of rinse water out too.

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  6. How neat!! I remember my aunt using one of these when I was a girl!

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  7. My grandfather was janitor of the church and used on these until his dying days! I always marveled at it...

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  8. If this is Momma's old wringer the lid was lost on hwy going from KY to MI. It does have a pivot release, though I don't recall where. The red bar is an emergency release in case hand or hair into wringers. Thankful the one on mine was both a push and a pull when I slapped at it when my hand in the wringers to palm, -17* in enclosed porch for laundry room. Would not mind having another. Just now would not be $20 used.

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  9. the pivot handle is missing where cord is between on top. Is flipper style handle.

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  10. What a wonderful washing machine...haven't seen one around these parts :0)

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