A clock restoration, and a new (old) electric range.

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Thanks Phil. No the clock in #15 is a picture of one I copied from an auction site for reference. The stainless steel ring on mine shows up in the office picture.
 
"No Universal appliances or clocks were harmed in the making of this photoplay. "
Thanks for mentioning - clock cruelty has become ...rampant. :-)

(Sorry, you were still posting photos when I asked about the frame
 
Rick,

That is a fabulous restoration, thanks for taking the time to share the equally excellent step-by-step photos of the process!

How many watts were the original incandescent bulbs? You are smart to replace them, the heat doesn't do any of the clock any good. You should be to find some 3-5 watt LED lamps that are 2700-3000K color temp. They would have the vintage look without the heat.
 
Bulbs

I'll hazard a guess that the original bulbs were 11 watts.  I bought a frosted 11 watt incandescent recently and the card it came on indicated that it was for use in signs.  The 11 watt bulbs have no neck, reminiscent of old-school incandescents, perhaps for use in applications where clearance is limited.

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Gorgeous clock and a beautiful restoration. Congrats!

Did you do anything to the clock motor? I have a few smaller Telechrons that haven't needed overhaul yet but they can't be expected to run forever without attention, presumably.
 
Very Nice.....

That is a fine job on a very tedious project. Do you think the heat of the original bulbs caused some of the problems to begin with? Very nice restoration. One of my great aunts had a universal gas dryer. I think it was sourced from Apex. It is very cool that Universal had white goods to small electrics. alr
 
The bulbs that were in the clock are marked 7.5 watts. The reason I went with the cfl's is the whiteness (the clock face has some discoloration that shows under regular light), and the heat factor.

Do I know the age of the range?

I can only guess on that. I have two owners manuals. One was printed in 1936, the other, 1940. The 1940 edition most closely matches my range but is probably older. I would say this would have been the range being produced right up until WWII stopped civilian production. Or, it may be what the company turned out immediatly after the war. Landers brought out the SpeedLiner series (very round and bubbly) in 1948. Mine is a Mercury series and was one generation up from when the ranges came with legs.

The Speedliner series was the last ranges offered before the company sold off the entire major appliance products in 1952.

Mine does have infinate heat control on the "burners" or should I say "eyes". I have yet to figure those out - I have not begun to tear into this stove. One interesting feature about the control knobs, is right behind the panel. A "cam" shaped "door" controls the amount of light source coming from behind the panel that ends up illuminating the red "jewel" above the control knob. Presumably to show the user how high the heat is selected. I am interested in seeing what this looks like in operation. As of yet no power has been applied to any part of the range. It needs to be worked on - a lot.
 
Forgot to answer......

The clock works did have "gunk" that I removed with alcohol. The coil layers had started to seperate, so I wrpped those with tape to prevent any further movement. The wires are enamel coated and any vibration may short them out. I didn't want that to happen. It seems to run very well with very little noise.
 
Hi Lawrence,

No, that view is my home office/dispaly area. My workshop is the garage. I do about half of my job at home, the rest out "in the field" as they say. I started out being interested in vacuums cleaners as a child but in the past few years have moved on to other appliances as well. I try to restore everything I get my hands on before I officially put them on display. My avitar shows one wall of my office. There are four other equally crowded (cluttered) walls....!
 
Compact fluorescent Vs Incandescent

Nice restoration work, Crevicetool.

My only worry about using CFLs is that while they produce slightly less heat than Incandescents, they produce a LOT more UV. Please watch for signs of premature ageing, yellowing and brittleness in the surrounding plastic components. I have had lots of problems with this.

All best

Dave T
 
I found the patent for the surface unit controls....

Which tells me two things: 1. The indicators were a LF&C invention and, 2. The patent was applied for in 1941 and issued in 1944. So, I'm thinkin' the range was built sometime after 1941 perhaps during the "patent applied for" period. Again, still don't know when exactly this model ceased production.

See what I meant by "cams"?

Now on to hopefully finding a service manual for this thing.....

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Rick:

Appliance production, like automobile production, halted completely for civilian sales during World War II, beginning with the establishment of the WPB (War Production Board) in February, 1942. That, however, was civilian sales; some makes and models of various consumer durables were still made for military/government use. All three automakers supplied some cars to the military and government, and Bendix made its famous front-loading automatic all through the war; the Armed Forces found it to be a superb machine for use on bases and ships. Most manufacturing capacity, as you know, was diverted to the war effort, with America's manufacturers making war materiel related in some way to their peacetime products.

I don't know what the story might have been on ranges, which could have had some military applications, but which also might not have been considered suitable for the heavy use they'd get on ships, etc.

There was a very shady black market in goods intended for military use, but which had been diverted to well-heeled civilians who figured the rules didn't apply to them. If your range was produced for some military purpose, it's possible it re-entered the civilian supply by that means.

But between February of 1942 when the WPB was formed, and November of 1945, when the WPB was dissolved after the defeat of Japan, there was essentially no lawful production or sale of consumer durables for civilians in the U.S.
 

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