Here are some pics of antique electric fans that I have restored. All of the paint is single stage PPG Concept shot from an older conventional Sears suction feed. I have never color sanded or buffed these finishes, I just shoot the paint on wet, let it dry for a few days, and then assemble the fans.

This is a 1902 General Electric fan that I did about 10 years ago when I first got into this strange hobby . The pics on top of the black speaker were taken a few months ago and this fan gets run almost daily during the warm months. All of the brass parts on these old fans are solid, not plated, so you can really bring the parts back to life. A coat of clear lacquer and they will stay shiny for years. All of the parts that you see in the before pics are still on the fan. The only thing I added were the brass wires and emblem on the front of the cage.



















The cast iron flutes were pretty much rusted away. There was a small section that was still in good shape so I made a mould of them out of Epoxy silk screen ink. Coated the mould lightly with I think WD40 or baby oil and filled it with bondo. Went around the base like a cookie cutter, depositing the bondo. I still had to do some minor touch-up but nothing like trying to duplicate the flutes from scratch.





Here is a stamped steel fan from the 1920's. I painted on the pin stripes in the original locations, same color and width. The letters and numbers are transfers from a train hobby shop.





I was able to preserve the original paint on this cast iron 1910 Emerson. The paint on these fans are VERY THICK and about the only way to easily get it off is aircraft stripper. There is a lot of speculation as to how these fans were painted and most believe they were dipped in a large vat of paint.


Restoring these tags is a pain in the butt. Polishing only the slightly raised brass without rubbing off the blue/black oxidized finish. Again, a coat of clear lacquer to keep the brass from tarnishing.

That's amazing... Gee's the kids were careful or maimed back then... No only do the blades get no protection, the wires are live and simply screwed on at the back

seeya
Shane L.

That pretty impressive! Never seen anyone restore those. Keep up the good work.

Man,,,That is VERY nice work there! I like that.
Do you sell those? If so what do you get for them? (If you dont mind me asking) I would like to have one!

Wow, are those ever nice!!!!!!! I've never seen any fans anything like that, great work!

Holy sh*t!!! Really, really impressive!!

I like em! Can you imagine OSHA seeing these on your secretary's desk nowdays? BLADES OF DEATH!
Hey, Olds, we have to cast both woods and metals for parts too. Have you ever tried using an epoxy for making your parts? West Systems are great for this because you get sharper details than with bondo type fillers. We use Hollywood style theatrical grade latex for the acutal molds, like the stuff they use to make rubber monsters with.
You do really nice work, keep it up, with all of the new crappy stuff we need to save some of our heritage. I've made it my life's work.

These are great!!!!!!!

I oughta send you my 30s era Westinghouse for restoration.. I don't have time to do it..

Not your average hobby. VERY cool! I think i saw similar fans on the
Antiques Roadshow (unrestored). You do great work!

DoubleChevron wrote:That's amazing... Gee's the kids were careful or maimed back then... No only do the blades get no protection, the wires are live and simply screwed on at the back

seeya
Shane L.

Heh...yeah. I think people had to learn faster back then. I remember sticking a paperclip in a wall outlet....only did it once