Lightburn Big Twin

[suebutcher]

Here is my Lightburn Big Twin, circa 1967, back in action after sitting idle for fourteen years. It was a tip find brought home as a back-up for my Sanyo twin tub, but the Sanyo just keeps going! It caught my eye because I knew someone who had a 1968 Big Twin Special, which was two motor I think. She was still using it in the Eighties. This early version of the Big Twin is a single motor machine; it's similar to the Easy Twin elsewhere on this site except it has a motor switch, but no spin lid. Instead the spin clutch is controlled from the front panel. The only leak is from the rubber seal at the top of the fibreglass wash tub, so I'll have to get the cover off and get to work with some sealant. The pump and the spin tub are holding up well, and although the "wash wand" pivot was seized, I squirted some Inox down there and it's freed up. The wand shaft is stainless steel, but the pivot is merely chrome plated and it rusts. I've also replaced the bits of rubber tube that suspend the spinner bearings, they'd stretched and the spinner was scraping against the cylindrical dam at the centre of the spin tub. It's not hard to tip the machine on its side, but reaching the suspension bolts requires contortions!

 

[gizmo]

I have washer envy...

I LOVE those washers.

I first played with one when I renovated one for the aunt of a friend of my partner.
The aunt was a lovely older Scottish lady with an outrageous accent. Hers was rusted out in the outer spin container, I repaired it with fibreglass.

Later I scrounged one from a roadside hard rubbish collection, the twin motor version. It also had leaking from the rubber shroud around the top of the wash container, I was able to patch it up with silicone sealant. It was a fantastic washer, my dirtiest cooks clothes came out really clean. The spinner is so fast you can hear the blast of water hitting the sides of the outer spin can in the first few seconds of spin. I gave it away to a relative after a year or so. I wish I still had it.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Lightburn

A warm welcome to the club and resource, Oh love this washer and its Wonderwand action, as jetcone says its the "Spanuklator" effect lol..

Was it Nathan who has one with yellow tub, this looks very similar cabinet to an Acme twinny we had here years ago.

Good luck with the repairs and look forward to seeing it wash and spin !!

 

[suebutcher]

Spin

Hi all! The spinner on this is amazing, it can dry three woollen blankets at once. That's three times the capacity of the spinner on my Sanyo SW170TPW twin tub, and it's also much faster. While I'm not set up for video, the action is exactly the same as the Easy Twin on Youtube. But I wish you could hear the unearthly whoosh of the spinner and the resonant gargling of the pump!

Here's a better image of the top side, it came out pixelly in my first post. [this post was last edited: 1/4/2019-22:06]

 

[hippiedoll]

very cool!

I've wondered what kind of cleaning results this washing action would give? But when you really think about it, it does the same thing a Whirlpool, Maytag, GE, Speed Queen and the likes does while they agitate, they move the clothes around, back & forth in the water.

CONGRATULATIONS on getting this unique washing action, 1967 twin tub washer!
)

 

[simpsomatic]

Smackulation

Lightburn twin tub in action

 

[suebutcher]

Wash action

My first impression is the wash is quicker with this system. As the paddle swings back and forth it pushes water through the fabric, rather than simply swooshing the water and clothes around. The clothes do rotate around the tub, but very slowly compared to the movement of the water. And with a heavy load there isn't the risk of rubbing you get with the usual spinning disc agitator. The disadvantage is the water will splash out of the tub unless the level of water and clothes is just right. I'm still experimenting with this.

 

[suebutcher]

Mechanism

Here's the insides of the Big Twin. At bottom right is the pump, with the wash wand gearbox behind it, and barely visible behind that the pinch valve wash tub drain. The wand and the pump run whenever the motor's switched on. Attached to the motor is the spinner clutch and brake. The spin lever pushes a bevelled roller onto to the conical top of the motor pulley, and the centrifugal clutch (chrome pulley) grabs and turns the spinner. There's a very small brake engaged when the lever's released. The big disc at the top carries the spinner bearings, and is suspended from three thick rubber tubes hanging from the frame that supports the outer spin tub above. There's a sheet of metallic red vinyl (cheap surplus I guess) to divert spinner spills away from the mechanism, and elsewhere there's a bare minimum of polythene sheeting protecting electrical parts. The outer spin tub is very thin galvanised sheet which rusts quickly, though this one's still just about OK. I've got a spare tub that I will get repaired eventually, it's not hard to make a new floor for it. I'd say the reason this machine was dumped was a perished pinch valve. Though it's just a rubber tube, it's impossible to get out without taking the complete outer casing off. Overall, it's very simple and rugged machine, but a struggle to fix!

 

[suebutcher]

Big Twin in regular use

It's been four years, the Sanyo has given up the ghost, and the Lightburn is now in regular use in our laundry. There's a slow drip from the pump shaft seal, but that's not a problem when the pinch valve is closed for washing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the wash action is splashy, and I normally have to move the sliding cover over the tub when it's running. The wash wand is coming too close to the left hand side of the tub, and tends to squirt the water up; I can't see how it can be adjusted other than getting out again and bending it. It'll do for the time being, though. I've also extended the drain pipe so it can drain back into the tub, into laundry sink, or out of the back door. This version of the Big Twin was obviously intended for concrete-floored laundries with built in drains, which most houses in Australia had in those days. Ours is red concrete (green was also popular), but has no drain. At least it's leveled so spilled water runs out the door!

 

[turbokinetic]

Glad to see an update on this Lightburn washer. I had never seen a wash wand design before this. Very cool! 

It looks solidly built.

Sincerely,

David

 

 

[simpsomatic]

Big spin

I remember these washers, especially the model that looked like a cement mixer. They were used in camp grounds at seaside holiday campgrounds. Question: Since the spin basket is large and concept completely different to the Hoovermatic rinse process how do you effectively rinse sudsy water out of the clothes after the first spin? Even with the Hoovermatic the spin can filled with water and or spin-o-rinse option I always found the clothes in the middle of the spinner warm and full of soap after the process. Do you drain the wash tub and fill with rinse water and complete the rinse process with spin?

 

[gizmo]

Hi Simpsomatic

There is a trick to spinner-rinsing in twin tubs - it applies to the Hoovermatic Deluxe with "automatic" rinsing, and to manual models like the Lightburn.

Spraying water on during a spin in these tiny spin cans is useless - the water just gets spun out again. Effective rinsing depends on spinning the clothes first, then saturating them again when the spinner is stopped. If the spin can isn't overloaded, then the clothes should absorb water being sprayed on them, swell up a bit, and once they are thoroughly wet, you can spin again to extract that water (and hopefully some soap.) The Lightburn spinner is a much larger diameter than a Hoovermatic, so it is easier to get water down into the centre of the spin can to wet the load evenly.

 

The following isn't relevant to the Lightburn, but it helps explain good spinner-rinsing in twin tubs...

With Hoovermatic Deluxes, it greatly improves rinsing to slow down the water flow. These "automatic rinsing" models have a simple pressure switch that senses the level of free water in the outer spin container. (Water that has passed through the clothes and spin can, now waiting in the bottom to be pumped out.) To start, you set the dial to "auto-rinse" and fit the hose into the lid socket, turn the water flow on, but a gentle flow, not too fast. The water runs constantly as there is no inlet valve, it is just controlled by your adjustment of the tap. The flow of water runs through the lid, down on to the washing, and slowly saturates the load. If it is a bit overstuffed, the water tends to run off the load and straight to the bottom, waiting to be pumped out without ever doing any effective rinsing. It works best when the spun load is around the outside of the spin can, and the centre rather "hollow" to allow water down in there. The wash load should soak the water up first, when it is saturated any more water flowing in will collect in the outer container till the pressure switch trips, starting the spinner and pump. Once the load is spinning and water pumping away, the water still coming in is "wasted" as it gets spun away before rinsing anything. Once the water level has been pumped down to almost empty, the pressure switch resets and the spinner stops, ready to wet the load again for another rinse. This cycle continues until you turn off the water and set the dial to spin.

 

So good spinner-rinsing involves saturating the  load with the drum stationary, then spinning away the rinse water. This alternating spinning-soaking-spinning does a reasonable job, but people often just spray while spinning, which doesn't work well.

 

 

[ozzie908]

Spinner rinsing,

The best spinners for rinsing were Servis/SpeedQueen solid cans as you can fill them up and put your hand in to agitate the load before spinning the water out.

You can do this with perforated cans but it needs more water to fill the outer tub thus allowing a good swooshing with the hand so can be rather wasteful.

Personally have always rinsed in the spinner saving all laundry done in a basket, Empty the wash tub refill with lukewarm water and your FS of choice along hint of blue bag if doing whites rewash/rinse in the wash tub ensures all suds are removed before drying.

 

[brisnat81]

The lightburn spinners have no water seal or bearing below the outer tub. It’s just a large funnel shaped opening that the spin shaft poked through.

You can only spin rinse in the light burns that have twin motors and the wash motor needs to be running while you’re adding water. Otherwise you’ll overflow water onto the ground and all over the spin motor.

Essentially it has to be smackulating while your adding water to the spin can

 

[gizmo]

You can spin rinse in a Lightburn, I used to have one in our house as our main washer when we lived in the city and I used it every day.

Nathan is right, the Lightburn doesn't have a seal in the bottom of the spin tub, but it has a collar maybe 50mm high to keep water in. You must have the paddle agitating when running water into the spinner, as the pump (one pump for both washtub and spin tub) is driven by the agitator motor. But it won't spin without the paddle moving, it is wired that way. (Turning the switch to ON starts the paddle, and the spinner doesn't work unless the switch is ON.)

 

There were different versions over time, but the above applies to the few I have seen / used - two twin motor and one single motor. Mine was a twin motor.

 

You could still spin rinse in a single motor version AFAIK, it had a cable-operated clutch to engage or disengage the spinner, controlled by opening or closing the spinner lid. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">With the paddle agitating</span> (to keep pump running) you open the spinner lid and a rather lethargic brake gradually slows the spin can.  (the brake is a leather belt around a brake drum, and it was pretty hopeless.) You could spray water on the load, any surplus water would be pumped out immediately. Then close the lid to engage the clutch and spin the load.

 

 

 

 

[suebutcher]

That's right, spin rinsing isn't a problem. I have a free length of hose attached to the hot tap in the laundry sink, either for topping up the tub or rinsing in the spinner. This version of the machine has a single motor, and the spin clutch is activated by a separate control on the front panel instead of a spin lid. The spin brake's not bad, it's a sprung lever with a thick leather pad rather than a band. The lack of a normal seal on the spinner means the spin is quiet once it's up to speed. The Sanyo was a much more noisy machine, and used to squeal very badly on spin.

 

[suebutcher]

Adjustments

I think I've worked out the adjustment of the belt tension and centring for the wash wand. The wand gearbox is mounted on rubber grommets. The belt tension will tend to pull the gearbox round on the grommets, upsetting the centring of the wand, but the strut that runs from A to B counters this pull. Adjusting this part shifts the angle of the wand slightly. The pump is mounted on a pivot B to C on the underside of the gearbox, and the belt tension is adjusted by screw and locknut D.