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Thread Number: 19944
My very small collection |
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| Post# 223254 , Reply# 2 3/12/2013 at 07:13 (4,062 days old) by Vodhin () | ||
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My prize vac would be this Sunbeam Dual Deluxe, complete with Turbine Brush, floor nozzle, and attachments. 
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| Post# 223255 , Reply# 3 3/12/2013 at 07:16 (4,062 days old) by Vodhin () | ||
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This one is clean inside and out even the wands are shiny inside. I don't think it was used much before I got it. The only thing that has been replaced is the power cord. Everything else seems original. 
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Post# 223258 , Reply# 4 3/12/2013 at 07:55 (4,061 days old) by countryguy  (Astorville, ON, Canada) |
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| Post# 223259 , Reply# 5 3/12/2013 at 07:58 (4,061 days old) by kirbymodel2c (Nottingham, England) | ||
Hi... | ||
| Post# 223284 , Reply# 7 3/12/2013 at 13:43 (4,061 days old) by kenkart () | ||
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My Kind of collection! ORIGINAL!! and the Dual Deluxe along with the Apex Strato was THE most powerful vacuum on the market,. | ||
| Post# 223287 , Reply# 8 3/12/2013 at 14:02 (4,061 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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Post# 223314 , Reply# 9 3/12/2013 at 16:38 (4,061 days old) by kloveland (Tulsa) |
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| Post# 223316 , Reply# 10 3/12/2013 at 17:08 (4,061 days old) by djtaylor (Salt Lake City, Utah) | ||
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| Post# 223322 , Reply# 11 3/12/2013 at 18:08 (4,061 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA) | ||
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| Post# 223333 , Reply# 12 3/12/2013 at 19:16 (4,061 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
Hello at last, Micheal.
I discovered your site 'Vodhin's Friendly Vacuum Cleaner Accessories' in September of 2007, devoured it and printed it out for my Big Book Binder of Facts & Figures...because one never knows when a website may disappear. :-) Well written overview information & How-tos. We dearly miss Doug Smith's Canadian site (which I now regret not printing in its entirety. :-( Charles Richard Lester's site is another revered encyclopedic bible to vintage collectors. Your links to CRL's site are broken, though. He has a new URL: Dave CLICK HERE TO GO TO aeoliandave's LINK | ||
| Post# 223367 , Reply# 14 3/13/2013 at 07:07 (4,061 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Heading in to work but here's the link to my latest posts on the Singer where I repaired two handles - the only delicate, usually broken breakable part of the Singer.
When I get home tonight I'll dig out my other Singer article archive from a few years ago and also the thread about restoring my Lewyt 107 Big Wheel two years ago. Dave CLICK HERE TO GO TO aeoliandave's LINK | ||
| Post# 223442 , Reply# 15 3/13/2013 at 21:11 (4,060 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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I forgot that I never did a restoration thread about the Lewyt 107 'Electronic'. It was a project I was working on to take to the Minneapolis Convention so I only hinted with obscure photos.
The photo below shows the badly rusted through vacuum I was working with. A total teardown, metal-working and re-paint won it a First Prize ribbon. I even duplicated the Dust-O-Lator filter cloth and all the decals. A labour of love for a unique machine. It's always important to point out that Lewyt's first Big Wheel with the Motorized Beater Sweeper Power Nozzle had a 120 vac brushroll motor that plugged into the main body through a long two-prong external cord that could also be plugged into a wall socket. There were no problems with this arrangement and it wins the place of First Power Nozzle offered to the Public, beating the Kenmore/Compact by a few months. It was the second and third 111 and 121 that had the 'clever' arrangement of a 20 VDC secondary winding from the fan motor to power the low voltage brushroll through the hose and wands...that led to the electrocution hazard when the varnish on the field coils softened and melted from heat, causing catastrophic shorts. Thus 107's are rare to find. As are the other two Electronics which are rarely in working condition. 
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| Post# 223444 , Reply# 16 3/13/2013 at 21:16 (4,060 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 223574 , Reply# 19 3/14/2013 at 17:20 (4,059 days old) by electromatik (Taylorsville, North Carolina, U.S.A.) | ||
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I LOVE your Singer uprgiht! That looks so ultramodern '60's it could be straight out of my favorite TV show The Twilight Zone. Where is the cordreel on it? Is it that small square where the cord comes out or is it the bottom square on top of the nozzle? The top square looks too small to hold a cord long enough to use. | ||
| Post# 223584 , Reply# 20 3/14/2013 at 18:19 (4,059 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Yes Micheal, I contrived and added my own flexible corrugated exhaust tube to my S2, which has a cloth bag only, to help save the original bag fabric.
The S4 (and presumably the S3?) has that factory improvement already installed as well as a zipper to change the inner bag. At first I used a large-ish but too short Hoover top-fill bag but then I discovered from my bag bins these for the Kenmore/Singer Sub-1 that reach all the way up to the bag clip. I would think these are easier to find than OEM Singer S bags at an older Vacuum Shop... Dave 
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| Post# 223589 , Reply# 23 3/14/2013 at 18:50 (4,059 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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My 107 Motorized Beater Sweeper was badly corroded and bubbled on the top and the drive gear was slightly askew, grinding off some nylon tooth edges. I reset the axle pin and the gear train to line things up again.
The air path inside the PN is interesting and efficient with a central flexible intake to the wands. Note also the pressure relief side slot & valve in case of clogs. This tapered rubber collar is usually dry and rotted and split so I inserted a smaller diameter hose section from a Con-Air Bathtub Bubbler Pad that fixes that problem and supports the original black tube for authenticity. After the fact I wish I'd taken more pictures but you know how that goes. 
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| Post# 223590 , Reply# 24 3/14/2013 at 18:52 (4,059 days old) by electromatik (Taylorsville, North Carolina, U.S.A.) | ||
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Thank you for your response. That is an ingenious design that should be on more uprights today. This was made in the '50's? It looks early '60's space age to me. Either way, many things from the '50's looked space age also. Love it and want one of my own (one of these days). | ||
| Post# 223595 , Reply# 25 3/14/2013 at 19:09 (4,059 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 223608 , Reply# 26 3/14/2013 at 19:58 (4,059 days old) by floor-a-matic (somewhere) | ||
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Sometimes I wonder why other brands' PNs use belts, esp. flat rubber stretch belts!
Why did Lewyt become the ONLY brand to use a gear to drive the brush roller instead of a belt? If the other brands used a beltless gear to drive the brush, it'd be MORE reliable than a belt. | ||
| Post# 223615 , Reply# 27 3/14/2013 at 20:42 (4,059 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Because belts, like paper dust bags, need to be replaced periodically and that's a big part of the income stream for the Manufacturer.
I think Lewyt engineers simply understood the intrinsic robust nature of a simple 3-elemant gear train even if it was initially more costly to produce. Big Wheels are a marvel of compactness and maneuverability with the motor weight in the base. Also a cube has more volume than a round tub or cylinder of equal size. They'd still be with us but for that unfortunate bankruptcy business. ---------------------------------------- The Singer S2 was put on the market in 1949, well in advance of the GE SILHOUETTE V12UM-1 of 1960 or the 1963 Hoover Dial-A-Matic that mimicked its horizontal fan motor. Dave 
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| Post# 223616 , Reply# 28 3/14/2013 at 20:45 (4,059 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 223699 , Reply# 30 3/15/2013 at 12:34 (4,058 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
Just adding a little video to this beautiful thread:
Here's a television commercial from the 1950's featuring Loewy's revolutionary upright design, plus the Singer version of Eureka's Roto-Matic canister...enjoy!!! CLICK HERE TO GO TO eurekaprince's LINK | ||
| Post# 223733 , Reply# 32 3/15/2013 at 17:40 (4,058 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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You are very welcome Michael!
The DAM took the Loewy Singer upright one step further and if I am not mistaken is indeed the first bag-first upright. It kept the side facing fan configuration of the Singer, but put the motor in a separate canister-like casing that stood upright. Singer's side facing motor at the bottom of the DAM's bag casing allowed a motor axle to protrude into the lightweight base to hook up with a belt to drive the brush. So the fan-side of the motor sucked in air from the bag compartment, and the drive side of the motor spun the brush. I think it was ingenious to align the drive spindle with the axis that rotates the handle up and down - allowing the motor to drive the brush even though it was contained in the "upper" part of the vacuum. The icing on the cake of the innovative DAM was placing a canister-like hose between the bag casing and the floor nozzle to suck up the dirt agitated by the revolving brush! The combined innovations of the DAM and Loewy's Singer upright gave us the configuration of most upright vacuum on the market today! :-) | ||
| Post# 223746 , Reply# 33 3/15/2013 at 19:10 (4,058 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Michael, here's a bottom shot of the GE.
Indeed there is a wide central tire that is free to rotate around the twin fan motor. Two small front wheels keep it level and two small bumper glides on the motor aid the anti-tipping (but did not prevent scraping paint off the casing). Lack of a headlight and cordwinder are a step back but then it was 10 years later, and still a dirty air upright. This was their way of avoiding Singer/Loewy patent infringement. Another claim to fame is that the GE motorhead has 4.5" clearance over the Singer's 5". 
This post was last edited 03/15/2013 at 19:26 | ||
| Post# 223753 , Reply# 34 3/15/2013 at 19:55 (4,058 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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I take respectful exception to any suggestion that Hoover's DAM was a vast improvement; other than being the first clean air bagged upright with a hard case bag compartment, it abandons the best features of the Singer and GE. Of course, cylinders and tub canisters already were clean-air designs.
No headlight, no cordwinder and the plumbing to achieve the clean-air design dictated a single side fan. I can say from experience that the DAM is not as powerful an airflow as the Singer. The tools and hose are a nice touch but the GE Silhouette could be had with a brushplate blank to which a hose & above the floor tools could be attached. The Twinfan Singer and GE have twin balanced dirt paths that join up at the exhaust port and also have an extended motor axle to turn the brushroll. But then again, by 1963 the Loewy/Singer 1947/48 patents would have expired so Hoover was free to 'borrow' any innovation already worked out for them. All three uprights have the horizontal motor as the main pivot point around which the handle and brushroll head are free to rotate, it's just that the DAM combines the motor and bag compartment/handle into one unit. Don't get me wrong, the DAM is a fine machine and indeed all contemporary uprights are offshoots of the Hoover. Note also that Loewy mounted the brushroll on two long arms whose pivot point is inline with the motor axle. This allowed the brushroll to float and bear down into any carpet depth without relying on the weight of the machine. With decent brush tufts the Singer actually pulls itself forward. I think overall the Singer, followed by the GE, are more elegant in execution for the times. 
This post was last edited 03/15/2013 at 20:24 | ||
| Post# 223755 , Reply# 35 3/15/2013 at 20:01 (4,058 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 223756 , Reply# 36 3/15/2013 at 20:13 (4,058 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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| Post# 223901 , Reply# 38 3/16/2013 at 19:01 (4,057 days old) by beerad (Beautiful Vancouver BC) | ||
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I love The Sunbeam canister with the turbo nozzle! What a beautiful Vacuum. How about making a video of that vacuum running? | ||
| Post# 223916 , Reply# 39 3/16/2013 at 20:17 (4,057 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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Hi Dave! Thanks for that post - I have to agree with you that the Dial-a-Matic was certainly not the best carpet cleaner. It took Panasonic to improve the configuration to the point that these "bag first" uprights could compete with the classic fan-first uprights in terms of carpet cleaning. We all know that a classic fan-first upright can deep clean carpets far better than the clean air versions without all the extra plumbing and high amperage motors. I think it was Kirby that always touted the benefits of having a short pathway from carpet to fan.
That being said, I think I remember reading somewhere that the Loewy Singer actually did not perform very well compared to a Hoover of the era. The two fans also seem to make twice the noise. Thank you for the close-up look at that beautiful GE Sillouette. In terms of upright evolution, it indeed marks another important point in history: whereas the handle on the Singer was connected to the top of the motor housing, GE took the revolutionary step of making the motor part of the handle. If I am not mistaken, this GE motor seems to be the first to rotate with any movement of the handle! Which is a feature we find in the DAM debuting only a few years later. Placing the motor all the way back "under" the handle allows for a really svelt power head. It also probable reduces the strain on the bag as the bag connection now rotates with the handle. What a great history lesson here: you can really see the evolution of upright vacuum design from Loewy's Singer to the GE Sillouette to the Hoover Dial-a-Matic to the ubiquitous Panasonic upright design that was bought from Hoover, and even on to the contemporary Hoover WindTunnel uprights that finally succeeded in improving the air flow problems in the DAM's agitator cavity. By the way, I am also drooling over that Sunbeam Michael!! What beautiful attachments!!! :-) | ||
| Post# 223918 , Reply# 40 3/16/2013 at 20:34 (4,057 days old) by caligula (Wallingford, Connecticut) | ||
Hi Michael, nice collection. | ||
| Post# 223953 , Reply# 41 3/17/2013 at 08:17 (4,056 days old) by vacman27 () | ||
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Lewyt That is a gorgeous restoration on the Lewyt. I never knew they had a power nozzle. What year is that? By the way, that lamp you have above the Lewyt is very valuable. | ||
| Post# 224046 , Reply# 43 3/17/2013 at 19:38 (4,056 days old) by caligula (Wallingford, Connecticut) | ||
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Hi Michael.
The Von Trapp Family Singers, the real family of 'Sound of Music' fame. I was on a first name basis with the real Maria, and spent many summers up there at the family lodge on Luce hill. The colors in the fall were breathtaking, and while I don't ski, loved it in the winter. As I was born and raised in Connecticut, Stowe was not that far away.
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| Post# 224059 , Reply# 44 3/17/2013 at 22:01 (4,056 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada) | ||
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Michael, I like and recognize the way you think things out, same as I do.
I agree with every one of your astute observations. I began taking things apart to see how they worked when I was 5 years old and opened up my Christmas present helicopter that flew through a hand cranked cable. I improved its performance. I was forever doing this with machines of every type from typewriters to vacuums to clocks & watches and always - mostly - was able to put things back together. I recall opening up my cousin's Chatty Kathy doll on Christmas afternoon suspecting I'd find a miniature phonograph inside. That didn't go over so well but I had it back together by dinnertime :-) With my parent's baffled blessings and encouragement, because I had a good track record, that's why I became a mechanical engineer. ----------------------------- Change the mount point of the Singer brushroll arms and yes, you will introduce out of equilibrium forces that must be counter acted upon. Like a Subaru Boxer engine the Singer/Loewy arrangement is in perfect balance and gently presses the brushroll into the carpet surface. Btw, it takes a round belt and a Hoover is a perfect fit. ----------------------------- Smooth unrestricted air pathways are essential to prime performance (and that is why I find the Dyson type bagless plumbing routes so perplexing - no wonder they have such screaming powerful motors to overcome the twists, turns and diameter changes). ---------------------------- Hearsay is just that, secondary and repeated information that becomes fictional 'truth'. This morning up in the bedroom I vacuumed up goose-down feathers, from changing my pillowcases, using the Singer. When the phone rang I was easily able to chat without ear-strain while running the vac. No, the double fans are not doubly noisy being solid metal 3" impellers on each end. The Hoover of 1949 is not a viable comparison, as it has a large powerful pancake motor, a huge single impeller and the beloved lovely low frequency hum & thump of the Beater Bars. There's really nothing that compares to the 1949-1960 Singer S (until the GE Silhouette and DAM made their debuts after the 14 year patents expired) other than maybe an upright Air-Way (and they are not all that noisy either considering the motor is totally exposed. ------------------------ I have yet to see any strain damage or tearing on a Singer S bag. The Hoover, on the other hand... ------------------------ The Arts & Crafts lamp is one of my favorite rescues from ~15 years ago. All original, I found literally discarded and discounted in pieces in a box under a table at a lighting store that specialized in Brass parts and restored fixtures only. The brass socket had been removed but that was easy to replace. More scrounging turned up the undamaged glass triangles for the shade (which is missing a 1-2" border edge). I stripped, cleaned and reglued the pieces with Hot Hide Glue, ran a cloth-wrapped brown cord down the base and as an accent lamp I put a 1.25" 25 watt globe bulb on top. It actually bright enough to read by. There were no official maker's marks on it other than some rough hand-tool marks on the inside surfaces and a few unmistakeable coping saw errors in the cutouts but a few years later I came across a pre-WW1 Mechanix Illustrated article on making your own Mission-style table and floor lamps. This design was one of many patterns so I assume this is a home handyman project of the time. A few years ago I took pictures of the lamp down to the Roycroft Campus Museum in East Aurora NY. They tried very persuasively to acquire it from me but I just couldn't. Likewise David Rudd of Dalton's American Decorative Arts shop wanted to add it to his inventory at an astonishing consignment price and again, I had to say no... :-) Decades before when Roycroft Campus was nothing more than a derelict bunch of second-hand junk shops (before being discovered, spruced up and turned into a Tourism Destination and before the Roycroft Inn was restored) I picked up quite a few Mission bits and pieces for peanuts. A number of Stickley style chairs and tables among them; I certainly couldn't afford them today, once Barbara Streisand drove prices to the Stratosphere. Back then you could pick up a Stickley armchair for $200. Dave CLICK HERE TO GO TO aeoliandave's LINK | ||
| Post# 224113 , Reply# 45 3/18/2013 at 10:05 (4,055 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada) | ||
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I am curious as to why the Singer / Loewy design did not last more than decade or two.
I know that it evolved into the commonly-seen Singer/Lewyt/Kenmore Twin-Fan upright. These later versions seem to be quite noisy if you listen to some of them in clips on YouTube. Theoretically, it seems like a good idea to have two fans to spread out the suction to both edges of the powerhead. But for some reason, the concept was dropped - even in commercial fan-first uprights. Not sure why this twin-fan concept disappeared. It seems to have only survived in the Tacony "tandem air" uprights, in a modified form. | ||
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Post# 224304 , Reply# 48 3/19/2013 at 15:48 (4,054 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640) |
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My late aunt had that Singer. | ||
| Post# 293620 , Reply# 49 8/15/2014 at 02:12 (3,541 days old) by stricklybojack (Southern California) | ||
Great thread | ||
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