Malcolm,
I am in plastics molding as a profession, and though I can not say for sure what happened to the items, I'll tell you generally what happens to obsolete plastics items in general.
First, there are molding presses (some call them machines) and there are molds. The press fills the mold, and can run anything as long as a mold fits and can be hooked up. Some of our molding machines are 17 years old, and they can go on forever almost like a car, an airplane, or a washer if maintained, kept up to date, and operated properly. It very well could be that old bakelite capable machines are still out there somewhere.
The molds on the other hand can be and usually are a much different story. Molds wear out, especially with corrosive or abrasive material being used, or just by making many parts. Nobody here knows much about bakelite as it is highly old-school. BUT, some mentioned that the molds were low-tech back then, required a lot of upkeep after while, and when replaceable, were replaced by better molds that run Polypropylene or Polyethylene. In Whirlpool's case, the splined replacement agitators were polypropylene (PP). It is less abrasive, much lighter weight, of much higher impact strength, and molds last longer.
When a mold ages, it can get clogged cooling lines, which makes the material run hot, and the parts to look funny. It can also 'flash', meaning plastic sneaks out in between the grooves of the mold where it isn't supposed to be, requiring trimming, which may or may not be unsightly. Molds also rust, and leave rough areas on parts.
Generally, old molds sit around in corners of dusty warehouses, especially automotive molds for facias, trim panels, etc. because the automaker doesn't want others getting hold of them. Molds are not very recyclable, but in some cases an outside molder will get manufacturer approval to run the mold in a small run of post-market parts to support the enthusiast industry. We have this going on in certain parts in the 1979-1993 Mustangs that I love, parts which Ford had discontinued. Now you can buy floor trim panels, moldings, dash pads, etc. that came from original tooling but are not being sold through Ford.
The same is likely true with WP's agitator molds, and molds for other parts like knobs, reservoirs, bezels, end-caps, etc. I have always thought it would be cool to get my hands on a Roto-swirl or Straight-vane agitator mold and have our mold-shop clean it up and run some 'swirls in green, blue, red, etc. That will never happen as machine time and mold-shop time is expensive, but if we found a mold, we could probably do it.
As to the bakelight agitator molds - there's really no telling. I have a 1981 made Surgilator NOS agitator, and it has edge-trim on every vane edge and around the skirt, and it looks lousy. I also have a new Roto-Swirl with a parting line at the top, neither of which would have ever been allowed in new machine production. To me this means these molds were rather long in the tooth when these parts were made, so by now the molds are likely very done and tucked away or destroyed by now.
Without someone from WP who may know, it's tough to say what happened to the old tooling. One thing I can say for sure in both the bakelite and PP Straight vane molds, these gave way in the replacement part market long ago, meaning that if you have a S-V equipped machine and bought a new agitator for it from Sears or an FSP distributor, you'd get a Roto-Swirl. This is the authorized factory replacement. So, the S-V molds are probably far less likely to be found in runable condition than a somewhat recently run Roto.
Gordon[this post was last edited: 4/29/2010-16:24]
