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Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 5:46 pm
by RDPowell
Well, by request of a certain young lady here I'd like to share the vintage and antique electric fans I use to restore and collect.
Yes, there is such a thing as a antique electric fan because they started producing them in the 1890's before that they were of all things
water powered for those of you who may not know. Anyway, here are a few I've owned and restored for your perusal. The first one is a Antique 1906
12" GE pancake fan, pancake because the shape of it's motor. This was designed to be a desk fan but, it also came with an adapter that would let you hang it all the wall. These by the way are made of cast iron and of course brass and weigh in at about 35 pounds some have weighed more.
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The next two are not antiques but are from the 40's and I took a little liberty with there restorations as you can see. Normally they would have been all painted a dark green. There little GE 9" and 6"oscillating fans,the measurement is of the blade diameter so these are generally used on desks but, could be mounted on a wall if one wishes.
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One more and I'll bore you no more. This is an Emerson 12" oscillating fan from the 50's that I again took much liberty with cause normally it would have been a pale green, blue green, pale brown or any other unattractive color of the time period.
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I hope some of you enjoyed viewing them, had a lot of fun restoring them and sadly sold most of them all off a few years ago.
I still have a few but, sadly most need to be restored and I'm still thinking how much I wish to go through to have a nice fan only to sell the dang thing again.
I reckon that's half the reason I've come to pipes, there a hell of a lot lighter and believe it or not easier.

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:18 pm
by Tyler
Cool! How much does one of those bad boys run? Looks like and awesome hop/man cave fan!

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:38 pm
by RDPowell
Tyler wrote:Cool! How much does one of those bad boys run? Looks like and awesome hop/man cave fan!
Nowadays one restored will run from $300 to $1000 or more depending on it's rarity and quality of restoration.
There are fans out there that have sold of thousands of dollars so it not much different then pipes as far as that goes.
I sold the GE Pancake for $1200 if memory serves me right about 4-5 years ago.

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 7:26 pm
by scotties22
Thanks for sharing, Ron. Those are really cool!!

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 7:29 pm
by RDPowell
scotties22 wrote:Thanks for sharing, Ron. Those are really cool!!
Thank ya Ma'am!

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 10:43 pm
by Alden
Nice !

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 10:49 pm
by RDPowell
Alden wrote:Nice !
Thank you Ryan! :wink:

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 12:48 am
by fiddlestix
Those are pretty slick!

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 2:09 am
by LatakiaLover
Though not collectable or etc., if you like the look and sound of the oldies there's a model made in India that's built like a tank and is inexpensive. I've had one for over 25 years, and it simply keeps going. (There's even a little vault in the bottom of the base which contains a spare pair of AC motor brushes. I guess if you live in Southern India you take your fans seriously. :lol: )

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CINNI-DESK-FAN- ... 1194606888

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 8:06 am
by RDPowell
LatakiaLover wrote:Though not collectable or etc., if you like the look and sound of the oldies there's a model made in India that's built like a tank and is inexpensive. I've had one for over 25 years, and it simply keeps going. (There's even a little vault in the bottom of the base which contains a spare pair of AC motor brushes. I guess if you live in Southern India you take your fans seriously. :lol: )

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CINNI-DESK-FAN- ... 1194606888
Cinni, Yes I've seen those, they make a nice retro look'en fans and heard they are good runners. Although being as anal as I, I have to have the real old stuff
or I feel as though I'm not being true to myself and just, shall we say faking it.
Most everything I own except my PC, food and most my clothing is as old or older then me and doing a fine job.
Oh, and my truck, it's younger then me too, by a little. :wink:

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 8:57 pm
by andrew
Wow. I'm impressed.

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 10:15 pm
by RDPowell
andrew wrote:Wow. I'm impressed.
Thank you Andrew, a lot of work goes into restoring a fan. Many people don't see it and, there's more work in restoring just it's appearance then there is in making a pipe. I'm not saying pipe making is easy, just that it's not as labor intensive as restoring a fan and doing it properly.
Not only is it's appearance restored to better then new the motor, switch and wiring is completely gone through not to mention bearings if needed, blade disassembled from hub if brass and polished and reassembled just to mention a few procedures to make sure it runs as it did the day it left the factory and made sure it keeps running for another 50 -100 years if taken care of properly. Sorry if I sound like a salesman, I'm just serious about my restorations or anything I do for that fact. So often I've heard from people wanting me to restore or purchase a restored fan from me that my prices were too high and they only paid $25 dollars for the fan at a yard sale or they seen one on eBay for $29.99 (that wasn't even the same fan). 90% of the time when I sold a fan I didn't even recover labor out of it, much like pipe makers. A lot people nowadays want the best but, they don't want to pay for it. The pearl Gold and Black fan sold for $350 and that just about cover paint and materials and needless to say I've been kicking myself since.

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Fri May 15, 2015 11:41 pm
by wdteipen
Those are great. I'd love to have one. Those are right up my alley.

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 7:21 am
by RDPowell
wdteipen wrote:Those are great. I'd love to have one. Those are right up my alley.
Thank you Wayne :wink:
And if your serious I might be able to set you up with a fella that I believe does one of the best restos out there and he just might have something sale.
You too Tyler. :wink:

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:09 pm
by dogcatcher
Those are beautiful.

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sat May 16, 2015 8:42 pm
by RDPowell
dogcatcher wrote:Those are beautiful.
Thank you sir! :wink:

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 2:47 am
by socrates
Too cool!

Sent from my HTC0P3P7 using Tapatalk

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 7:14 am
by RDPowell
socrates wrote:Too cool!

Sent from my HTC0P3P7 using Tapatalk
Thank you sir :wink:

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 4:11 pm
by taharris
Ron, you do beautiful work. It's a shame you had to stop.

Todd

Re: Vintage & Antique Electric fans

Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2015 4:19 pm
by RDPowell
taharris wrote:Ron, you do beautiful work. It's a shame you had to stop.

Todd
Thank you Todd, now if only I could make pipes that look as good as my fans. :banghead: