Hobart Unhinged

[sudsmaster]

Just a quick update... This afternoon I finished making the replacement hinges for the Kitchenaid KD-2P portable dishwasher lid.

I'll post photos of the old broken hinges and the new replacement hinges later tonight.

The old hinges were cast pot metal. They had broken at the pivot, probably from someone laying the dishwasher over without having the lid secured - which will cause the lid to fly open and overload the hinge backstops.

I milled the replacements out of solid 304 stainless bar stock. If they fit, they should last the lifetiime of the dishwasher - assuming the dishwasher lasts another 50 years!

 

[gansky1]

Excellent work, Rich. It was good you could do it yourself, what do you think it would have cost to have that part made by someone walking in off the street?

 

[sudsmaster]

Guestimation

Greg,

Costing this would be tricky. Since I only had part of a hinge, I had to reverse-engineer the general design from what I could see on the rest of the washer hinge mount, spring mount, and upper rear cover. So I would have had to take the entire dishwasher to a shop to have them fit a new hinge. Had I done that, I figure it would have taken someone at least and hour or two to figure out that part. Then programming would have been another hour. Bringing the stock to outer dimensions, another hour. Doing the final machining, one and a half hours. Total of 4.5 to 5.5 hours. If you figure a basic shop rate of $60/hr, these could have cost... $300 for the pair.

If I had an existing intact hinge to work off of, knock an hour off that, make it around $240 for the pair.

Seems like a lot for a pair of hinges, but on the other hand I spent $60 on two hoses and I discovered I can only use part of one of them... And I doubt that new old stock hinges are out there... although who knows? Not sure I'd want them, anyway. I think mine are better ;-)

 

[panthera]

show me show me!

Rich,
I just can't wait to see the before and afters. I've been following this project from your first posting and enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[Unimatic1140]

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures too Rich, did you do the milling yourself? Quite impressive.

 

[sudsmaster]

Yes, thanks guys. I did the milling myself. Right now the new hinges are installed on the dishwasher lid. I had to do that in order to make sure they fit. They do. Next step is to go to OSH and get some springs to hook up. I also need to fabricate some spacers for either side of the hinge at the pivot point, but that is a relatively minor task (I hope). Even stacked washers would suffice for the time being.

Sorry I didn't get to snap some shots of the old and new hinges last night. I have to go out and do some shopping (springs and such) today as well as laundry (line drying, have to get the laundry done before noon) but I'll be posting the new hinges soon.

Another consideration is whether or not to polish up the new hinges. Right now I kind of like the finish left by the milling cutters. I took a hand file and a deburring tool to remove any sharp edges. But the swirls and patterns of the milling process have always pleased me. I suppose I could install them for now as-is, they can always be removed later and polished up - and 304 stainless with take a very high polish.

Back later!

 

[sudsmaster]

Old vs. New

Here's a shot of the new hinge installed, with the old broken hinge placed beside it.

 

[sudsmaster]

Here's a view of the underside of the old hinge. You can see that it's mostly hollow, and it's easy to understand why it broke under stress.

The post metal casting did have a helpful feature. Although it's not visible in this shot, the engineers cast "10-32" beside each tapped hole. I had already measured the screws and determined their pitch and diameter, but it was nice to have that confirmed by the part itself.

Of course, the corresponding tapped holes in the new hinge are sunk into solid metal. It's not going anywhere. It would probably bend before it broke.

 

[sudsmaster]

The lever's too long?

I wound up purchasing four different types of springs from OSH in order to find a set that actually kept the lid up. These are the ones that finally worked, although I had to use some S-hooks to extend their length and also allow the hinge to lay flatter against the backstop.

The spring tension, when the lid is down, is enough to cause the lid to bulge slightly in the hinge attachment area. I don't think it's of any concern, but I imagine that it might help if I reworked the rear of the hinge to shorten it and move the spring attachment closer to the hinge pivot point. But I did the best I could by measuring the clearance to the rear cover and also by how long the rear of the hinge needed to be in order to contact the backstop.

At least the lid now stays up so one can load and unload the racks without having to prop it open.

As you can see, I decided to do the initial installation with the hinges in the unpolished condition, pretty much the same finish as they came out of the machining process. I can always go back and polish the hinges to a mirror like finish. But I kind of like them the way they are now.

I will give them a coat of Kitchenaid Stainless Steel polish, just to spiff them up a bit.

 

[sudsmaster]

Look Ma, No Hands!

The new hinges are doing their job - invisibly in this view.

 

[sudsmaster]

Attenhut!

New hinges and springs enable Hobart to stand proudly at attention.

 

[sudsmaster]

Hinged Again

Finally, with new hinges, I can start putting Hobart back together again (and regain access to the patio sink!).

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Very Nice

machining suds, nice stainless panel behind the range too.

 

[mikepaquette]

Excellent

Great job. I am sure most here in the club will agree. Keep up the good work. Mike

 

[veg-o-matic]

Yahoo! Nice job!

veg

 

[appnut]

Rich, even after all these years, you never cease to amaze me.

Uh, is this anything like MTV unplugged? lol

 

[swestoyz]

Wow, that is some very nice work there - great job!

Ben

 

[varicyclevoice]

What a beautiful machine!

Very impressive job you did on it! Congratulations!

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks!

For more photos of the washer and the restoration process, go here:

http://www.automaticwasher.org/TD/THREADS/VINTAGE/5746x83.htm

 

[sudsmaster]

And here's a more permanent link to a photo collection of much of the same...

http://automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/[email protected]&dir=/COLLECTIONS/SUDSMASTER/