Simplicity wringer washer

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ragnboneman

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Nov 21, 2023
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Hi there first time poster long time reader ( well not really I have skimmed this site in the past but first time poster .... )

A Canadian made wringer followed me home its a Simplicity and I know nothing about it.

Does anyone know this machine?
I am going to take it apart and go through it to return it to service as a the washer for my off grid cottage.
I am considering disconnecting the electric motor and running it from a gasoline engine.
I have a couple of chore horses and Briggs WMB engines of the right era ( but Im not a hack I wont force it to fit, it might be easier to just run a drive line off jack shaft under floor in my wash house...

So any information of tub seals lubrication requirements and types as well as parts compatibility with American washers would help.

I think I found a hit on another website that this may have been manufactured by Macgraw Edison Canada ltd...
In the USA I think the parent company of McGraw may have also been the parent company to speed queen. ( or some connection, but i really don't see any speed queen in it )

Im not sure how to post pictures.
Link is of a very similar looking unit I googled

Hey just noticed look at the cool stove on the pallet behind the washer.
I wonder if thats an oil stove?
Up here in Canada you could buy oil fired cast iron stove like that from Eaton's and sears.
I have one of those at the cottage but sadly mine was butchered by my grandfather in the 60s to burn wood only.

Ill be back later with photos of my simplicity

 
lets try this photo thing again.
not much luck so far

yup nothing works

Is there a Speed queen forum someplace.
Cant post anything here no numbers to show.

ragnboneman-2023112115431901014_1.jpg

ragnboneman-2023112115431901014_2.jpg
 
I have a similar Speed Queen version of one of these and yes, they were built by (or for) McGraw Edison.

However I'm afraid that as far as I know, these and all their variations were unique to the Canadian market. I haven't ever come across any equivalent US machines including US Speed Queen WW's from the same timeframe. The only exception might be the wringer parts - these were usually outsourced to Lovell who made wringers for many different manufacturers.

In addition, parts for these are long, long ago NLA. Anything you need you'd have to scrape together from a donor machine, fabricate yourself or make something else work. As such, if its not broke I wouldn't try and fix it.

The good news is they are very simple mechanically, very well built and seem to last forever if taken care of so hopefully you won't have any problems!

There might be some other members here that will have more experience that can weigh in or provide better insight

Good luck and let us know how it goes
 
I live in a farming area and when auction sales were popular ten years ago Simplicity wringers were the most popular. Mennonites would bid them up to crazy prices.
The last sale I was at there were two washers
.One round and the other was square.
The white one sold first because it was plain and went for almost $1000.
The square one was harvest gold and sold for $25. The auctioneer couldn't believe the difference in price. He said this one will wash as good as the other. Too flashy.

I have the Admiral Simplicity. I didn't know the rollers were Lovell.
Looking at them now they are larger than the rollers on my GSW wringer.
 
Thank you for the reply guys.
I'm having a lot of trouble uploading photos.
Might be because my computer is so old its steam powered.

Is there someplace that has manuals where I can look at the washer components of similar speed queen units and start to create a game plan for the resurrection of this machine?

Id love to take another jab at photos but the upload icon is gone.
Might be a lack of familiarity of this website...

I did not see an introduction area...
I live in Canada, I'm an electrician and motor re winder familiar with pumps and gear boxes.

No good deed goes unpunished if anyone wants electrical equipment advice.
Just not sure about wash machines

Machine is tarped up and outside right now.
Pumps is dry and no water in machine, Canadian winter is coming with snow and all..
Pink stuff you see on it is ACF-50 from lear Chemicals, a corrosion inhibitor.
After a short soak everything will be be slippery and soft for disassembly..

ragnboneman-2023112214351601964_1.jpg
 
So let me tell you American fellows about Canada in the days this was made.
We had a love hate relationship with the USA so the governments of the day made it almost impossible to import stuff from USA to Canada without some Canadian content.
The idea was to create a Canadian home manufacturing base that was independent of America and the policies of the US gov...

So we got branch plants that made Pontiac cars with Chevy engines and frames...
Canadian blower and forge machine tools that were really just American Buffalo put together in Canada and funny looking Coleman lanterns and a plethora of appliances lawnmowers and other goods made for and sold often only in Canada...

After the NAFTA came into effect everything closed and we made nothing but car parts because everyone lost their jobs in the branch plants...
When companies like Westinghouse or OMC or Coleman closed they took what ever tooling and left.
They shredded all the papers and split end of story...

So try and reconstitute the history of a product or its parts is really hard sometimes.
There might not even be an American equivalent of a Canadian product, but its likely the Canadian is very close to something made in the USA.
I'm hoping that a speed queen wringer of the era might share a transmission or seal but by a different number...
That's all I have to work with.

Your washing machine guys..
Look up the Johnson Chore horse engine.
There are a few made in USA but there are lots more made in Canada.
Johnson had the lock on the market and an engine intended for wash machines was found in everything from tiny generators to pumps with all kinds of variations.

Ya sounds pretty stupid eh?
But look at Inglis a Canadian brand now owned by whirlpool.
Now they don't exists, but when they did they were a source of not just washing machines ( that looked a lot like whirlpool ) but of skilled workers and machinery.
Inglis High power.

If your a handgun guy you wont bat an eye at this its a browning handgun.
But when war came in 39 the Inglis wash machine plant retooled to make piles of these for the war effort..
Part of Canadian industrial policy up to the 80s was to ensure we could make our own fighter planes and tanks and small arms in a national emergency.
Now Ukraine needs Shells....
The mills at Algoma that made tubes for cannon barrels and blanks for shells is owned by Argentinians that aren't interested in making that or even having the capacity to do so.

And thus ends my story thats doesn't go anyplace or talk much about washers....

 
Another update....

Not mine
But the owner of this fine vintage machine shared the machine data plate information and some pictures.
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-washer-dryer/cambridge/vintage-wringer-washing-machine/1668743999
It is a Canadian built model 1300.
Shares a transmission and pump that is indistinguishable from mine.
The plastic impeller leads me to think this speed queen might be newer.
But not anymore information than that and still no manuals.

Anyone know where I might find a manual for a 1300 speed queen?
Is this a real thing, OR is this another Canadian creature of mixture ancestry and components
 

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