# Antique Fans



## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

I like to restore Antique Fans,I find fans at E-state sales, auctions,garage sales and E-bay. When I restore a fan I take it apart clean and polish add new head cord and power cord and plug.I don't repaint my fans,some paint chips here and there are to me is part of the story to the fan.This fan is a 1909 GE fan.Here are some before and after pictures.













 Sorry I have never post pictures on here I don't know what all this (url=htt....) is.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

When I preview my post I seen that (url=htt....) writing thought it would show up but it didn't.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Very cool and very detailed work! What do you do once your done with them? Do you have a big collection?


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

Thanks,I have a little collection of them.I have about 18 fans I restored.Now the hot weather is here two of them I run 24-7.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

@sm120mph show the collection!


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

Forgot to post this pic.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

Motor tag


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## 440mag (Jan 29, 2018)

Fascinating. And beautiful. And I'll wager .... ZERO ..... plastic!

It's almost hard to comprehend, let alone appreciate, there was a time not so long ago where these appliances represented "cutting edge;" and, were very visible "society markers." First of upper class and eventually middle class status.

Very, very cool, man!


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

This is a fan I picked up about 7yrs ago at a E-State Sale.I work the second shift got off work at 3am and was in front of the E-state sale house at 3:20am.The sale starts at 9am you may think I was nuts to be there that early but around 4am another guy showed up and then more.I seen the sale on EstateSales.NET,when I was looking at the pictures I seen an antique fan but not all of it but knew it was old fan.Doors open I was first one in went straight to the basement stairs went down grab the fan was out the door at 9:05.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Wow, that's looks like a good one!


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

SGrabs33 said:


> Wow, that's looks like a good one!


Yes this is a good one, not only for the history (TESLA) but the price I paid,$65.00 plus a handshake and a smile!! here is the motor tag look at the PAT. TESLA


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Very cool!


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## pennstater2005 (Jul 17, 2017)

Those are beautiful! And as someone above said probably not a bit of plastic.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

@sm120mph Those are super neat. The first one you restored looks beautiful and the Tesla patent tag was really neat to see. On an aside, I've been here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_Museum


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

The next fan I restored.Some before and after.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

More pics.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

This fan was a fun one to do and clean up nice.I have this one in the bedroom and is good for those hot nights.


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## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

@sm120mph Extra cool blades on that one!


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

SGrabs33 said:


> @sm120mph Extra cool blades on that on
> I never knew how good brass and black looked together until I started to restore these fans.


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## Dico112lr4 (Apr 5, 2018)

@sm120mph, those are awesome! I've been looking on CL, ebay, etsy, etc but the prices are ridiculous. I've started surfing for some estate sales. I think it would be awesome to refurb one and they will obviously last a lifetime.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

Dico112lr4 said:


> @sm120mph, those are awesome! I've been looking on CL, ebay, etsy, etc but the prices are ridiculous. I've started surfing for some estate sales. I think it would be awesome to refurb one and they will obviously last a lifetime.


When you look on Estate sales you are better off looking at all the pics in the sale as to type in antique fan and see what comes up.You will find the fans in the pictures of the basement and out in the garage,hidden in the corners.Auction zip is a good site to look at. I never look at the pictures of the living room,bed room,kitchen, you can look at a lot more pics that way.it may take awhile to find one but they do come up.


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## Colonel K0rn (Jul 4, 2017)

Holy cow, those are truly amazing restorations! My grandfather used to have a GE fan that he had in his room that was almost like the first one you pictured. That brings back many great memories!


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

Thank you for the kind words,these fans are a lot of fun to work on and easy to work on any one can restore 
them.The fans are made of cast iron,brass and some wire no computer chips.I will try to post more of my fans when
I get the time.Have a Great Day.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

This was a fun little fan to work on.Most antique fans come in three sizes,8",12" and 16" blades 12" being the most popular of
the fans.This fan is a 8" blade fan and looks good setting on a desk, this fan is also a DC fan.The best thing I like about this fan is that it was made in Michigan in a town named Menominee,I live in Michigan so to me it's a cool fan.This fan has original paint,if you look at the back of the fan you can see the way the gear box is mounted on the fan sort of on a weird angle.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

it just dawn on me that I have a non oscillating Menominee fan that I have not restored yet,


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## Dico112lr4 (Apr 5, 2018)

sm120mph said:


> it just dawn on me that I have a non oscillating Menominee fan that I have not restored yet,


If you ever want to sell that one I need a project.


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## RayTL (Jun 4, 2018)

What a neat hobby! Love seeing the before and after. How long does a typical restoration take?


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

How long does it take to restore a fan hard to say I would say 1hrs or 2hrs a night for about a week,may not even that long.
I am sorry but I have never sold a fan.


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## dfw_pilot (Jan 28, 2017)

I'm a big *Fan* of your restorations. Very _*COOL*_, especially when they are blowing air.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

This fan is a General Electric fan and made about 1906 and is called a pancake fan because how flat the motor is,you can see on the back of the fan how the two wires come from the base to the back of the motor to exposed terminals.


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## Lawn_newbie (Jun 19, 2018)

I love this thread.

@sm120mph Have you ever hooked up a kill-a-watt meter to the fans to see how much power they draw? I am curious how efficient the motors were being built 100 years ago.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

Here you go this test was 1 hour long. I don't know a lot about electricity so let me know if these numbers are good or not,but I do know not to put my tongue on the exposed terminals on the GE pancake fan.I wish I had a temperature gun to show how cool these motors run,after a hour of run time there is very very little heat when i touch the motor almost no heat at all!!!


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

The last pic was 2 hours of run time.


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

This post is about a fan stand I found on CL,picked it up on the way to work got home and put it down in the basement for five years.One day I decided to restore the stand and what a surprises I found.In the first two pictures look at the base of the fan and the base of the stand they are the same design.when I was taking apart the stand there was an aluminum cover on the base to match the fan base but under that was an cast iron base with a nice design, clean it up painted it black an restored the rest of the stand.Forgot to say I picked up both fan and stand together.


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## iFisch3224 (Jun 11, 2018)

Have you considered selling any fans?


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## sm120mph (Apr 30, 2018)

iFisch3224 said:


> Have you considered selling any fans?


I only get fans I don't have,so I am sorry I don't sell any of my fans.


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