- Joined
- Jun 17, 2011
- Messages
- 2,063
Yesterday, I took a vacation day to get ready for my son's wedding today. I dropped in to my favourite scrap yard to shop for some pieces for the press brake. Didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but did get a bucket of small drops from some machine shop.
Kelly, one of the yard owners, told me to hang around for a few minutes so he could show me something. It turned out to be an old electric motor. Not like anything I've worked with. About 7 1/2" in diameter, but only about 4" front to back. The label said 1/8 HP. notice the adjustment screw built into the base.
I was fumbling with my cell phone to take a picture so i could look it up later when they (Kelly and his partner) said, "No, we're giving it to you. We'd rather have it go to someone who could appreciate it than scrap it." When I got home, I Googled the company, Holtzer-Cabot Electric. They were known for high quality, fractional horsepower motors, some of which were used in coin-operated pianos. A web site for such pianos had a list of serial numbers. Mine worked out to mid-1906.
I oiled the felts and metered it out with the old Simpson. It looked shorted until I used the divide-by-ten scale, which showed some resistance. Worst case, I blow a breaker, so I hooked it up to a pushbutton switch and tried it out. After 107 years, the thing runs!
It's the electrical equivalent of being given a hit-and-miss engine. Pretty cool when you have guys you deal with looking out for you.
Kelly, one of the yard owners, told me to hang around for a few minutes so he could show me something. It turned out to be an old electric motor. Not like anything I've worked with. About 7 1/2" in diameter, but only about 4" front to back. The label said 1/8 HP. notice the adjustment screw built into the base.
I was fumbling with my cell phone to take a picture so i could look it up later when they (Kelly and his partner) said, "No, we're giving it to you. We'd rather have it go to someone who could appreciate it than scrap it." When I got home, I Googled the company, Holtzer-Cabot Electric. They were known for high quality, fractional horsepower motors, some of which were used in coin-operated pianos. A web site for such pianos had a list of serial numbers. Mine worked out to mid-1906.
I oiled the felts and metered it out with the old Simpson. It looked shorted until I used the divide-by-ten scale, which showed some resistance. Worst case, I blow a breaker, so I hooked it up to a pushbutton switch and tried it out. After 107 years, the thing runs!
It's the electrical equivalent of being given a hit-and-miss engine. Pretty cool when you have guys you deal with looking out for you.
