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Old Forgotten Ways

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  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,391

    They're made for making ice.

    Along with those we use a chest freezer. Besides the cold not spilling out all over the floor when you open it the other huge benefit of a chest freezer is it builds frost much much slower for the same reason.

    Upright freezers are made for the same reason frostfree is.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826

    i did not know that sears at some point branded ranges coldspot, by the time i was around they were only using it on refrigeration equipment, the ranges were branded kenmore or the oh so progressive "lady kenmore".

    PC7060EdTheHeaterMan
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826
    edited March 23

    now you've got me looking at 1940's sears catalogs to find coldspot branded cooking appliances haven't found them yet but did find the drill press i inherited from my grandfather in the 1940 catalog. it was made by atlas press. he said he bought it in 1946

    image.png

    i wonder what the one without the jacobs chuck had, i think i have the jacobs chuck.

  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 12,207

    @mattmia2… Then Jacob after all these years, probably doesn't need his friend Chuck anymore. Besides Jacob is probably dead by now. It's amazing that you still have his friend Chuck alive and well. He must be in his 90s by now.

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

    mattmia2
  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,806

    old school equipment. From when we were expected to know to keep our hands away from moving parts. 😜

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 20,195

    I think we had the same Dunlop drill press back in the early 70s at the oil company I worked for.

    They had an old guy who worked there for 40 years who was a real wheeler dealer. While he was working, he picked up tools by the side of the road or discarded stuff or stuff from a scrap yard and brought them back to the shop and fixed them up in his spare time. Never met him he passed before I started working there.

    We had a drill press, bench grinder, washing machine motor with a wire brush on it, and a table saw he had built out of an air conditioner frame and an air compressor made from an old York open drive compressor.

    They were pretty frugal (actually cheap) in those days. I bought the first Sawzall they ever had and had to prove to the boss that we really needed it.

    mattmia2
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826
    edited March 24

    it still works fine. i had to replace the thrust bearing that was worn out and take the chuck apart and clean and re-lubricate it but it otherwise was fine. my grandfather replaced the motor at some point, i think the original motor might have been a repulsion start motor, i'd have to look at the next page to see what motor it references. the fact that it was available with an idler to turn the belt up to a line drive says a lot.

    it has some sort of a jacobs taper spindle, you can turn the ring above the chuck and press it off the taper.

    image.png

    looks like it came with a 1/3 hp split phase motor

    image.png
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,566

    Cartridge fuses are expensive, think oh all the money they saved osing left oxer copper pipr.

    My first drill press was a mail order special with a couple of lengths of 2" pipe and some castings for the head, table and motor mount. The motor was scavenged from an old Norge washing machine yjat used vacuum tro extract water from the rubber tub. A similar motor drove a Sears grinder head that I used to grind drill bits with,

    'My uncle Joe had a small hand powered grinder with a vert fine stone on it.

    Bob

    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 3,023
    edited March 24

    After reading through this thread, here is something to surly keep forgotten. It made me think back when my neighbor years ago used a penny with a plug fuse to keep the lights on. I wonder. With todays type of penny and the copper missing from todays penny? What would happen now.

    @EdTheHeaterMan Maybe dedicate a chapter on what you have seen and what not to do? It could make for some fun reading.

    Larry Weingarten
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,391

    Penny's have been copper plated zinc for a long, long time. Early 80s I think.

    As far as what would happen, nothing, it would behave basically the same under those conditions. It certainly won't heat up / open soon enough, that's for sure.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

    Intplm.
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 3,023

    The penny(s) that were once all copper were used. Dating myself? And hey, the all copper are still in circulation.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,391

    These are the only penny's I'd consider to be safe to put under fuses. Well, these, and similar ones material wise.

    Screenshot 2026-03-24 095339.png

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

    Intplm.EdTheHeaterMan
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826

    there is enough of a cross section of zinc that it being zinc instead of copper is fine. the plating mitigates the surface oxide stuff as much as it can be

    Intplm.
  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 3,023

    Please please…no penny should be placed in with a plugged fuse. 😯😉😲

    PC7060ChrisJEdTheHeaterMan
  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,806

    "this has been purely a theoretical discussion no pennies were used or injured during this exercise" 🤣

    JUGHNEChrisJEdTheHeaterManIntplm.
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,391

    It looks like the screenshot I posted had 1 bad review.

    The person probably tried to use them with fuses and didn't realize they were plastic.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

    EdTheHeaterManPC7060Intplm.
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 12,207

    The only penny you would consider safe to use for something as unsafe as bypassing a circuit protection device? That is good to know that you are keeping safety in mind when recommending unsafe practices Chris.

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

    mattmia2Intplm.
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826

    how big are they? i'm pretty sure you have to make them much bigger or much smaller for it to not be considered counterfeiting.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,391
    edited March 25

    Ed,

    They're plastic, I don't think you can bypass a fuse with them too well.

    🤔

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,391

    I have no idea, but they're plastic, and say SCHOOL MONEY on them and look fake.


    This is an odd thing to discuss honestly.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,806
    edited March 25

    Would be drop in replacement for blown fuse! Or a lockout breaker.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826
    edited March 25

    as a side note, looking in that 1940 sears catalog there is some stuff in there that looks very modern and other stuff that looks almost incomprehensibly from a different world. The socket sets and wrenches and a lot of tools look like modern tools but another page has a chemical toilet to install in your home to pretend like you have indoor plumbing and another page has kerosene cook stoves to install in your kitchen. (also probably the answer to how did they cook in my house when it didn't get natural gas until about 1950 and there was no sign of a breech of the chimney on the first floor for a cook stove or potbelly stove or something of that sort)

  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,806

    During its days as a boarding house, my old house had a couple bootleg stoves knocked through the single layer brick chimneys in upstairs rooms. Long closed off in the 70’s and stainless steel liner installed shortly after.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,826

    i tore down the chimney to the floor of the first floor, there was no breech or patched breech in it. all of the breeches or patched breeches are in the basement. one for the coal (and maybe converted to oil) floor furnace that was under the dining room in more or less the center of the house, one for the water heater, and one for the gas furnace that was installed around 1950.

    PC7060
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