Vortalex expert?
That might be me, I apologize if someone else knows more than I do, I don't want to step on anybody's toes. Take my advice with a grain of salt.
The Vortalex, or Vortie, was GE's TOL blade design. It was developed in the later 1930s and continued in production through the 1950s, with a gap in production for the War. The Vortalex blade is extremely quiet. On low, you can barely hear it. The only disadvantage is that it can take an expert to balance the Vortalex blade so it does not vibrate. This is ESSENTIAL for any fan.
Depending on year, your fan may have 1 or 2 oilers, each with a wick. The brass cup beneath the front bearing is an oiler. Sometimes, there is one beneath the rear bearing too, on the bottom of the oscillator transmission. If there is no oiler on the rear bearing, there is a round indentation on the underside of the transmission where an oiler would go, but there is no hole. My Prewar Vorties have the rear oiler, my Postewar Vortie does not. They are all 12" fans with 4 blades.
As for the wick, I order wick by the foot from Darryl Hudson of the Antique Fan Collectors' Association. I believe the GEs take 3/16" wick. Check with Daryl before placing your order. The old oil often turns to grease with age, heat, and time. You must remove ALL of the old greasy oil from the oil cup and spring, once you have removed the old wick, of course. I use mineral spirits (the odorless version is a blessing) do clean the spring and cup. I make sure the spring and cup are dry before reassembly.
To Reassemble the fan, you must first select an oil. You want an electric motor oil that contains neither paraffin, nor detergents. 3-in-1 in the black bottle has paraffin, but 3-in-1 in the BLUE bottle is just fine. It says it's for bigger motors than a fan motor, but it works just fine on vintage fans. FIRST, take a Q-tip and twirl it around in the hole where the wick goes and where the oil cup attaches to remove any loose dirt. SECOND, take a clean Q-tip, wet it with clean oil, and swirl it around in the same places. Keep doing this until you get the area clean.
To oil the fan, install the new wick in the spring by screwing the spring onto the wick. Take a picture of the old wick, measure it and make a drawing, or whatever you need to do to make sure you have just the right amount of wick poking out the top of the spring. Put the wick-containing spring into the oil cup and fill the cup with oil and then wait for the wick to suck it up. You can see the wick sucking up the oil because it will start to look wet and somewhat translucent. Once the whole wick is filled with oil, top off the oil in the cup. All you need to do now is line up the wick with the hole for it in the bearing and then screw the oil cup back onto the fan body.
For more information, check out the link I included to Hudson's Custom Machining, the business operated by Darryl Hudson from which I buy most of my fan parts. Look for the current parts and price list.
I hope all goes well,
Dave
http://www.hudsonscustommachining.com/
