Thank You and Comments
Petek: Yeah, I just get in the cab of that truck, and go. There is lots of room for me to stretch my legs out. I don’t think that I could make these kinds of trips in my Honda car.
Yes, I drove right past Saugatuck on my way home. I was there only once with friends about five years ago, so I have some fond memories. Still, I wanted to get home Monday night. I hope you have a good stay there in July.
Mark (William637) wrote to me inquiring as to whether I was concerned about parking my truck in hotel parking lots at night with appliances aboard. So I thought I would paste my reply here for all to share my thoughts: That has been a concern of mine every time I stop at a hotel along my route. What I try to do, is park in a well lit area, with the tailgate of my truck backed into a parking space next to trees, or a building, or some other obstruction. If that is not possible, then I try to park in between two other vehicles that would make it very hard to move one of my machines out of the bed of the truck. Also, in the past, I have tried to padlock a cable around part of the frame of the machines to my truck. I have never had any problem with someone tampering with, or trying to remove any of my appliances. Perhaps luck? Perhaps forethought in where I park? Who knows? I don’t know if having the machines shrink wrapped helps to deter, although I have NOT has the machines shrink wrapped at times, and still, I have never had any problem.
Tom (CircleW): You know, I just was not that exhausted. And on Saturday, I was only operating on 4 ½ hours of Sleep just before I departed Peoria. I think I operate on an adrenaline rush much of the time on these trips – it’s the anticipation of what’s to come that keeps me going for hours at a time.
Yes, it was good to finally meet Pete in person. And I am sorry that I did not meet up with you and others from the area. I simply was on such a tight schedule, that I simply could not afford more than a few minutes at each stop that I made along the way.
With regard to the Youngstown Free-standing and Electric Sink machines – I plan to keep both of these and eventually have them at least partially restored. There is a stencil on the back of the sink bowl of the Electric sink dated February 1951. The Model/Serial Number Plate is missing on the Electric Sink, so I don’t know the exact information for this machine. The free-standing machine was in a home that was built in 1954, but I don’t know the exact build date itself. The model of the free-standing unit is: B27-ID, and the S/N: 50634. I don’t know if a date can be extracted from that information or not.
Yes, the Thor Automagic sink top is in beautiful shape. There are some scratches, but I won’t know until I start cleaning the cabinet up, as to whether they are superficial, or deep scratches in the Porcelain. Yep, according to Bobby’s comments, the sink weighs 475 pounds. The top and sink bowl are the pressed steel sheeting covered with Porcelain, not cast iron. The cabinet appears to only have surface rust, which should be relatively easy to prep and repaint someday.
Yes, I have so many machines now to keep me busy for a long time.
Jerry (Easyspindry): Thank you for your comments. Yes, the agitator on the Thor Sink is different from the other thor picked up on this trip, and the other Thor machine that I already had. I believe that this Thor Sink actually was a newer machine than the other free-standing machines. I have two photos completely different Thor Sink units, both of which the sink bowl was on the left, and the mechanism was on the right; one has the control on the front of the cabinet, center. The other has the control on the backsplash, facing forward. Mine, the control is in the porcelain top, pointed upwards. If anyone can help me date my Model 500 machine, I would certainly appreciate the information.
Please, do consider making a trip to Peoria one of these days.
Doug (cycla-fabric): Thank you. I certainly do enjoy all of these treasures which have found their way into my collection.
Robert (Unimatic1140): Thank you so much. I have been wondering just how rare it is to find a Thor Sink, and especially in such fine shape. I am very anxious to start working on this machine just as soon as the temperatures moderate enough to work out in the garage, which is the only place I had left to store it.
Tom (Tomturbomatic): You are quite welcome. My stories and comments tend to get quite lengthly, so I am happy that you enjoyed reading about this trip.
You are right about the square cap on the jet tower – This was the first time that I have seen the plugged end cap on the jet tower. You are correct in that the tower with the holes has the pivot point in the center. I am going to speculate that the holes might have been necessary to sustain the tower in place, keeping it from popping off of the supply shaft. I make this observation because, as you also mention, the new design on the later Youngstown dishwasher, has the closed cap, but they choose to clamp the tower down with the knurled screw clamp. This is an obvious engineering change to the later dishwashers, and not a home modification. The pivot is replaced with a flat mating surface with a tapped hole to receive the cap bolt. (SEE PHOTO AT END)
Dave (Volvoguy87): Thanks. Yes, I’m sorry that I did not have time to stop and see you as I passed through the Cincinnati area.
Ben (Swestoyz): Thanks. You are quite welcome. Yes, the Sink count is now at 15!
Paul (turquoisedude): Thank you. Yes, collectively, there are approximately 242 years of dishwasher history in this trip. The trend, at least with the machines in my collection – coated dishwasher racks were introduced by GE by the end of 1950. I have a 1952, and a 1953 vintage Youngstown magazine ad, and both show a metal, uncoated rack. I am guessing that the engineers changed to a coated back in 1953 or 1954. By 1957?, the front load Youngstown dishwasher with the horizontal jet tower was replacing the dishwashers with the vertical jet tower, and the front loading machines had coated racks.
I hope that you are able to one day schedule another trip back to Peoria, and I will plan another wash party to coincide with your visit.
Michael (mickeyd): Thank you. It really is neat to have a washer connected to the kitchen sink. But don’t forget that the Kohler Company, back in the late 1920, likely was the very first company that had the idea of attaching both a washer and a dishwasher to the kitchen sink. Refer to the link, and my Reply #9 to the discussion thread from November 2010.
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?31652
I am happy that you enjoyed reading the trip report, and sorry about the references to my friend Roger. Yes, that trip with Roger and his sister to the Lansing, Michigan area, was last November. It just didn’t work out for me to continue on to Holland to pick the Thor up that trip.
You have a good idea for a video showing the difference between the two Thor agitators – hopefully later this year sometime.
Rich (perc-o-prince): Yes, it was a long trip with lots of interesting people that I interacted with along the way.
How did we get the Thor Sink OFF of the truck? Well, my brother, Jay, came over on Thursday, and brought with him a pair of 2 by 8 wooden planks that he uses to load his garden tractor onto his pickup truck. The day before, I went to the local Harbor Freight Tools Store, and bought four (4) Haul-Master Mover’s Dollies to use underneath the Thor Sink, and the Youngstown Electric Sink. We slid the Thor Sink towards the tailgate of the truck, then with the planks pushed close together, we jockeyed the edge of the sink up and over the end of the planks, then started pushing the sink slowly onto and down the planks. We positioned one of the dollies at the end of the planks, and as luck would have it, the sink slid right overtop and onto that first dolly. We continued to push the sink down the planks, and with the sink near the very bottom of the plank, we slid the second dolly underneath the sink and with a slight push, the show sink was on the pair of dollies. It was just a matter of manipulating the sink back into the corner of my garage where it is going to sit until the weather starts to warm up. I’m very thankful for all of the help that my brother gives me whenever I come home from one of these trips. He is very patient with me as we unload and relocate each machine to its designated spot in or around my home or garage!
Brad (bradross): It certainly is a great find. You likely have a good point about the Thor Washer/Sink combination not really catching on.
I do hope that either Robert, or Fred, will comment about the particular area in Minneapolis, where every home was equipped with one of these Thor Sink/Washers. On one or both of my last trips to see Robert and Fred, they had commented about these homes.
Thanks, and you are quite welcome!
Mike
How did you ever get the Thor sink OFF of the truck? 
