Curing a Lady of gas

[turquoisedude]

Well, perhaps it wasn't a cure so much as a conversion from gas to electricity...

Remember a while back, there was a turquoise Lady Kenmore dryer in Baltimore?

It was a match to the Lady Kenmore turquoise washer, but it was gas... But why should a little thing like that deter me??

Here's one of the threads about this dryer when it first came up for sale:

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?45609

 

[turquoisedude]

John very kindly picked the dryer up in Baltimore for me and had been storing it at the museum. But now it was time to get my sorry behind down to Beltsville to get this beauty ready to live a new life, electrically!

 

[turquoisedude]

The machine was not quite as wonderful as they said in the ad... But still pretty nice and, bonus, John had spare parts for this model!

 

[turquoisedude]

Cabinet was pretty good, overall. The top is kinda scratched, but I think this dryer has been a hard worker...

 

[turquoisedude]

The drum proves that!

 

[turquoisedude]

So, let's get to work on the conversion! Here's the back of the unit, with the original gas burner in place. Even I recognized that the electric element box was pretty much the same as the gas heater box - this was going to work!

 

[turquoisedude]

It's always a good idea to tear a vintage dryer apart and give it a good cleaning.

Here's further proof the Lady was a hard worker. Did you ever see a lint ball like this?? I thought it was a Christmas tree ornament... LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

But after vacuuming, rubbing, and scrubbing, the vent assembly looked like new again!

 

[turquoisedude]

Here's the relay that made the conversion possible installed on the nice, clean base.

The use of a relay allowed Jeff (who did the wiring work) to keep the original wiring from the dryer controls to the gas ignition system. These wires could not have coped with the high wattage of the dryer elements but they were fine to power the relay which now takes care of supplying the juice. I don't really understand everything about how to use a relay, but by golly, I think I'll be using this approach when I tear into the 66 Inglis dryer!

 

[turquoisedude]

Here's the replacement electric heater unit in place:

 

[turquoisedude]

This is the replacement console John had found for me. Notice the lack of cracks on this one!!

 

[turquoisedude]

Got the drum back in with no issues and a new belt was installed.

 

[turquoisedude]

The 'connection' to the sensors in the drum of this style of dryer is interesting. The original copper wire 'brush' had worn down, but we were able to replace this with some stranded heater wire.

 

[turquoisedude]

So, the converted lady is back togehter again... Looks good and I am clearly proud of her.

 

[turquoisedude]

But how does she run??

Pretty nicely I think!! John has a point, too, I will reluctantly admit... LOL

 

[turquoisedude]

And this Lady is still a capable and willing worker! On Saturday we ran a few loads of laundry and used the Lady K as a test. It is a great dryer!!

 

[turquoisedude]

She beat Phil's new Filtrator hands-down... That will be in another thread, I am sure. And to be fair, the drive belt for the blower in that dryer broke not once, but twice!

 

[turquoisedude]

So, on Sunday, we loaded the Lady into the truck and drove back to Ogden.

Unfortunately, I have to leave the dryer in the garage for a spell while I make room for it down in the Ogden Laundry. Stay tuned for that event!!

 

[goatfarmer]

Great job!

 

[yogitunes]

by the look of that drool on your lips......someone's a Happy Camper!

great job....looks beautiful!