Recent content by redrose

New Wheels My father has a lathe. He made 4 of these to my design using nylon bar and some off-the-shelf o-rings.

Rear wheels The "tyres" have seen better days

Full view of backplate Even the heater element still works.

Drumless Tub Not too bad, a bit of rubbing down and de-rusting done on the back mating face.

Pressure Plenum This was full of gunk and s**t. I cleaned it out using water and ... a handful of black pepper corns. Anything would do as long as it's small and roughly spherical. Shake it all about and agitate / loosen the crud. Worked a treat.

New bearing & Seal kit I luck to have a great little shop near me which specializes in domestic appliance spares. The guy said he thought he'd never sell this kit 'cos it was so old :-).

Backplate As you can see the backplate has has a hard life. Lots of corrosion, mainly around the lower half of course. I smeared Araldite all around the mating face and then assembled with a new gasket, topped up with acrylic sealant just to be sure.

Serial Number Using Paul's formula, she was built in August 1984. We got married in September 1984 so she was pretty new.

Rebuild Done ! Paul you are a Star. I have finally rebuilt the old girl and I have posted some pictures. BTW You are bang on about the door opener. It went years ago and my wife used to consider having to use a knife to open the door as an endearing idiosyncrasy. The powder drawer is still OK...

That is absolutely fantastic, Paul. Thank you very much. I have saved all the images. I am now ready to rebuild having bought new main bearings, motor brushes, tub gasket and metallic putty to repair the pitting on the tub backplate. I also got my dad to make some new castors on his lathe from...

Thanks Paul, that would be much appreciated. Next weekend I'm going to take her to pieces to check the bearings and motor brushes. I'll take some pictures to show you (and the other guys) what state she's in since acquiring her in 1984 as a wedding present. Mark.

Wow! Thank you very much for all your responses. It's nice to know that there are nice people around. Interesting point about the smelly machine - presumably that's caused by bacterial colonies which seem to thrive on washing powder (ironic). The main drum bearing is on the way out so I'm going...

Hello. This is my first post as a new member. I was delighted to find this site. I thought it was just me who was convinced that older machines were FAR better built and more easily maintained than the new stuff. I have a Hoover A3260 which was a wedding present in 1984. Unfortunately (that's an...