1926 Frigidaire M52...

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Some more reassembly...

This thing looks so good with the white paint as opposed to the nicotine-stain yellow it had. I put the evaporator in, and adjusted the hardware so it sits level and the evaporator shroud looks good. Also figured out how to hide a light in there so it is effective; without becoming a focal point you see as soon as the door is open.

 

Unfortunately, the package of gasket I got was about 3 inches too short! Major OCD trigger.

 

The magnetic reed switch for the cabinet light is in place, with the neodymium magnet hidden in the top edge of the door.

 

Soon the condensing unit will go in!

 

 

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Paint ...

David, Rustoleum makes a cold galvanization paint that has zinc in it. I've used it before and it resembles a new galvanized coating. Give it a try on the back cover to give it a fresh new look. Just a suggestion. You might like it.

Looking awesome so far!

Bud - Atlanta
 
More reassembly!

So some more progress on the Frigidaire M52 from 1926. Finally got the condensing unit reunited with the cabinet!

I was able to repair the liquid line (the smaller one) but the return line was just too gnarly. Had to make a new one.

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It's on the vacuum pump tonight and will see if it holds!

 

I put a relatively oversized Parker-Hannifin filter-drier in the system to catch any debris which could stop up the float valve needle seat.

 

Also, used 1/4" foam board for the sound insulation in the condensing unit compartment.

 

Hope the vacuum holds tonight. 

 

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It's alive!!! .... sort of.....

So, today I got the M52 charged with refrigerant, but ran into a slight technical difficulty. It seems my oil return wick idea works too well and it is flooding refrigerant back to the compressor. This limits the minimum temperature it can attain, and causes the unit to run constantly.  Will have to adjust that.....



 

But it is running, so that's a plus. :) 

 

 

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David

Looking good. I really enjoy seeing the restoration of these old units. It occurred to me that you completely restoring these units as you do is practically the only opportunity we have to see how they appeared, and sounded, to the original owners when they purchased and placed in their home. A drastic difference to how any 90+ year old original appliance looks today.

Just imagine how fascinated people who witnessed the first electric "refrigerating machines" must have been with them. It did all the cooling automatically and continuously. And you no longer had to deal with ice for the icebox. Though iceboxes held on here in my area, which is rural, longer than in other areas. My paternal grandmother got her first, and only, refrigerator (1940 Kelvinator) in 1941. Which I have and still runs fine without any repair ever. My paternal grandmother didn't get her first refrigerator until after WWII.
 
Thanks for the comments!

Ken; yes it's fascinating to see how different it is from anything we have today. The paint shop owner said people were asking about "the filing cabinet" or "the electrical panel" he had in for paint. They were fascinated when told it was a fridge LOL!

 

I'm sure there were many icebox hold-outs. There are people who resist major shifts in the way we carry our lives. There are those without electricity. There are those who couldn't afford to upgrade. Lots of iceboxes were around for years I'm sure. :)  When looking for these fridges, you need to remember where the were sold. They were sold in areas with early electrification; such as near big cities. They were also mainly sold in affluent areas. Those folks lived in exciting times, for sure.

 

There's always the argument of "modern reliability" versus "historical correctness" when we talk bout these. There are a few major, professional restoration shops who sell this sort of unit, for a premium, with modern condensing units. This is not the reason I'm in the hobby. As you said, I want to know how it ran and sounded when it was sold to its original owner.

They mix up the concepts of "reliable" with "durable." A modern unit may be reliable, but it wears out and then is not feasible to rebuild. In other words, it goes 5 years without any breakdowns but when it's done it's done. The durable old units do require maintenance, but they can be fixed over and over and just keep on performing. Aside from the time spent, and the "shop supplies" used; the only parts replaced on this Frigidaire were wiring, belt, shaft seal and door gasket. Everything else was cleaned and re-used. I did change the insulation not because it was bad but because I didn't want to have to fight with the hard cork panels going back together.

 

Stan, the shop is a Sherwin-Williams distributor. It was an acrylic enamel base / clear. I'm not a painter so, unfortunately, I don't know more about it that that. :)

 

So yesterday evening I got the flooding back issue fixed. I thought I had posted about it here, but apparently I must have hit "preview" and not "Post" so it didn't go. Forgive any brevity in my message as I am trying to re-type it with little time to spend this morning.

 

The flooded evaporator needs to have a tiny amount of liquid reach the return line to the compressor. This is how it carries oil back to the compressor. In the case of mine, it was carrying back a large volume of refrigerant, and making frost appear on the line going back to the compressor. This is bad for many reasons. I tried an experimental oil wick design on this, to hopefully make the float adjustment less critical. Apparently I had used too many wicks, and it was building up a suction and drawing refrigerant through the wicks.  After removing half of the wicks, it seems to be working correctly now.

 

I used the service valves to "pump down" the refrigerant into the receiver, so that none was lost and I didn't have to use the recover machine.

 

Here is a video with much more info!



 

 

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Hi Eugene.  I haven't thought about powder coating for the large panels. I assume it would be possible but don't know anyone who does that. Nothing against powder coating, but I might send the parts off to be porcelain coated if I were to do something like that.

 

I'm not sure what was on the evaporator from the factory. This unit had an SO2 leak over the years which stripped off the coating in places, leaving a patchy look. May have been tinned actually. It would be pretty easy to nickel plate it, since the whole thing is copper and brass. I tried my hand at nickel plating and it was interesting. The bad side of it was that everything in my shop rusted from the fumes. Apparently nickel acetate is Bad Mojo in spite of the fact it is created from more or less harmless materials.

 

So today I got the light wiring completed, door gasket missing corner fixed, and the evaporator cover in place. It's looking like it's about ready to be called complete!  Still need to address the shelves issue and also give it a running-in test.

 

 

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