The THOR lives again on this Easter weekend. YAY!!

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perc-o-prince

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Well, we spent a fun day with Ron (Kenmore58) and celebrated our 3 birthdays together as we have done for the last 15 years or so. One thing that was on our agenda was to try to remove the washer tub and balancer plate from the Thor.

Chuck and I have been too busy to spend any real time on it. Fortunately, with the three of us tackling it, and with a lot of time and patience, we were able to to wrestle (and I do mean wrestle) the tub free. But, the balancer plate was another challenge! Rusted solid on the center shaft. After some more time, patience and Kroil we were able to finally get it free!!! After some clean-up, rust removal and tweeking, it works like a charm :-)

Now I can use the dishwasher attachment!!

Chuck will be posting some pics and video for anyone who is a Thor fan :-)

Thanks for a fun day, Ron!!!

Rich
 
I have to say it was a fun day and great to finally get Rich's Thor up and running completely.

Now it's on to Phase II -- my Thor. Several issues to deal with including getting my tub and balancer plate out. Then it's onto finding out what has been leaking oil (and I do mean LEAKING)! And then getting the transmission unstuck.

In all honesty, Rich and Chuck are more hopeful than I am of getting my Thor up and running. But I will keep everyone posted.

Ron
 
Here's a video. First, the bottom section (water spray assembly) in action. Then, the full action with plain water and an improvised glass top. Lastly, same as before with a little soap added! The scraping sound was rectified by adding a couple of washers as spacers on the central shaft after the videos were shot.

Rich did run a load of dishes through it, and it seemed to work quite well, despite previous misgivings!

Also, a good amount of the rust has been removed and otherwise dealt with (rust reformer, scraping/brushing, painting, et cetera.

Chuck

<iframe title=YouTube video player width=480 height=390 src= frameborder=0 allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Wow, my own washer to dishwasher fantasy come true.  When I fantasized about this as a kid, I had no idea anything liike this had ever existed. 
 
<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino; font-size: medium;">Very interesting!  </span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino; font-size: medium;">Thanks for the video!</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino; font-size: medium;">What a trip back in time!</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino; font-size: medium;">Thanks!</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino; font-size: medium;">Brent</span>
 
Thanks for the great video,  does the "spinning plate at the bottom"  somehow act as a pump to get the water to the spray arms?  After watching the video, i still do not quite get it.  Looks like a fun vintage Easter project.  Thanks again alr2903
 
Thor - Dishwasher

Wow, great work there boys,all the hard work payed off..!!! when you said rusted I was expecting a rustbucket,that tub outer is MINT considering how old it is!! I hadnt realised the overfow top filler pipe re-circulated the water solution all the time, It sure looks a fun machine to use - Ta for showing & sharing with us..

Cheers, Mike
 
Wonderful video . . .

. . . of the Thor dishwasher. I used one of these in the early 1950's, but had no idea how it worked inside. It's almost as interesting as Robert's video of the Bendix Economat squeezing out the water.

I'd love to see the Thor dishwasher loaded with dishes in it.

Thanks for sharing and for all your hard work.

Jerry Gay
 
Ditto John's WOW

Amazing with all the unusual movements in the bottom, when it get the water going, it looks like......... a dishwasher.

 

Another mystery or forbidden cycle unveiled. So many have waited so long to see this. Thanks, Rich& company.

 

I can't wait to hear how it drains when you get home from work.
 
It sure is great getting to see this video of the Thor Dishwasher in operation. Mechanically, we had operated my machine, and had mostly figured out how it operated, but I envisioned that the water only sprayed out throught the tubes on the counter clockwise "agitation stroke" (which is the stoke movement again the water being swirled clockwise around the tub by the spinning bottom plate). But now I see that the plate spinning in the bottom of the tub actually moves enough water to feed the spray tubes when they are in both the counterclockwise and clockwise "agitation strokes" movements. Amazing. Someday, I am hopeful that my Thor Dishwasher will to be operational as well.
 
Other part of my washer to dishwasher fantasy

My main one was converting a pulsating Frigidaire such that filling with water only to a point and then it pulsating and throwing up the water to wash the dishes via the energy ring at the bottom. 

 

And I"m with you Eddie, that's how I envirsioned it worked.
 
Congratulations Rich!

That's the very same washer and dishwasher attachment I grew up with. It seems your washer is missing a filter, rectuangular shape, like a small squirrel cage, that fastened by downward pressure on top of the bottom of the washer, where the draining orifice is. This filter would clog with wet lint, and had to be cleaned rather often so the washer would drain properly. Furthermore, our dishwasher attachment had a bakellite round cover, black color, wich had a small orifice in the side to allow the water to pass from the filling gooseneck pipe into the dishwasher.

I hope you enjoy it!
Emilio
 
Sorry but I worked late.

Chuck will post a video that we just did which explains, hopefully, how it all works.

" I hadnt realised the overfow top filler pipe re-circulated the water solution all the time"....... Mike, it doesn't. The water isn't recirculated. I was using a tube conneted to a watering can to fill it. The water, when introduced through the fill hole in the cover, stays in the drum for the duration of the cycle. When you turn the machine off to switch cycles the water drains out. New water is introduced for the next phase. Each cycle/phase uses approx 8cups of water.

I don't know why this concept didn't catch on. The water used in the washing machine truly never touches anything in the dishwasher.

I will get a video of it washing dishes. It may be a little wait as I'm going to run a bead of caulking/sealer around the drain tube. I think that the gasket is probably fragile so I don't want to take any chances :-)

A very neat machine. Fun to use and it did a nice job with the dishes that I ran through yesterday. Only took about 10 min! Once you take the cover off you can then turn the lever to dry and it spins the pan and water dasher at 600rpm to create a fan that dries the dishes in just a matter of a couple of minutes.

Thanks for all the kind words and it was a fun way to spend Easter weekend...Good friends, good food and good fun!!!

Rich
 
Hi Emilio,

These things aren't missing. We just used the glass so that you all could see it in action. Mine does have the black porcelained cover that has an inlet for water and detergent. It has a little door that is hinged so that water can't come back out.

The lint screen was removed as I was cleaning it and the drain. I just didn't put it back for the pictures :-)

Thanks for the thoughtful observation :-)

Rich
 
Excellent...!!!

Well I hadnt noticed the base spinning so fast in the previous video, you made it very clear how it works- perfect tutorial, what a fascinating but simple machine!!! so the dishwasher has to be on all the time or the water drains out (unless pump draining)....

How do you know when the water is at the right level?? is it trial & error until a good splashing motion is achieved??

Happy washing, Mike
 
Thank You Rich.  I now understand that the wall of water in the bottom plate, keeps enough water available for the pipes on the wash arms to scoop & spray the water.  Thanks again for taking the time to explain this.  We really excelled at mechanical engineering and new ideas after world war II,  seems the emphasis is all on electronics these days.  arthur
 
great video of the explanation of the movements. so glad to see you guys got this up and running. can't wait to see it in person. congrats. nice that today pod is about this unit also. hope you all had a good birthday.
Jon
 

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