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Thread Number: 20616
Vintage 1950's Johnson & Son Convertible Floor Scrubber Polisher Buffer Cleaner |
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Post# 230811 5/1/2013 at 12:00 (4,009 days old) by Electrolux137  (Los Angeles) |
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I get all excited whenever I see one of these old Johnson-Wax polishers! The machines are such an iconic part of my childhood. My parents didn't have one but several neighbors did, and most of the large grocery stores had a display rack of rental machines and supplies just inside the front doors, as many markets now have rug shampooers and steamers.
(I clearly remember a "C/S" grocery store that had the first automatic door I'd ever seen -- another great fascination in my childhood! My daddy would play along, standing at the door and boldly intoning, "Open, Sesame!" then stepping toward the door, making it open!)
The beautiful, very atomic-age "retro" styling of the RP machines leads me to believe they were designed by one of the leading industrial designers of the era but haven't ever been able to find out who that might have been.
I have all of the "RP" series models:
-- canary yellow Model RP-53 (the oldest, 1953)
-- turquoise model RP-54 (1954)
-- turquoise with aluminum trim RP-57 (1957), the model in this listing which was the first to have the rug-shampooer setup and thus the name"Convertible"
-- dark turquoise RP-59 "Extra Duty" commercial model, the rarest of all these models.
I also have a mid-1960s Johnson "Floor Care Machine" with a larger brush.
The RP machines make a very distinctive wurr-wurr-wurr sound that I knew instantly when I heard it!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO Electrolux137's LINK on eBay 
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Post# 230816 , Reply# 1 5/1/2013 at 12:18 (4,009 days old) by Electrolux137 (Los Angeles) |
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I have four old Johnson-Wax TV commercials on YouTube. These all feature the 1954 RP-54 model. If you go to my "Vacuum Cleaners" channel on YouTube and scroll down, you'll find them. I also have a couple of videos of my RP-59. (I tried to post direct links to the videos, but it appears that feature has been disabled...)
CLICK HERE TO GO TO Electrolux137's LINK | ||
| Post# 230989 , Reply# 2 5/2/2013 at 21:04 (4,008 days old) by Paul (USA) | ||
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Ebay pics of older Johnson floor polishers
Listed simply as a 1920s machine:
Model H:
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 1924 ad:
1925 ad:
P3ZUQ!2k~$(KGrHqEOKiMEwO)!PwBfBMMo64!RUg~~_3.JPG)
1926 ads:
0E9s37Hk4fBReI!VmU!w~~60_57.JPG) e,pj6!~~60_57.JPG) 
1927 ad:
Klear Floor Wax (1959 ad):
r2!PLw~~60_57.JPG)
Johnson's Polishing Wax (1924 ad):
1949 Johnson's Glo-Coat Ad:
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| Post# 231029 , Reply# 3 5/3/2013 at 05:05 (4,008 days old) by paulg (my sweet home Chicago) | ||
Who manufactured these buffers? | ||
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Post# 231048 , Reply# 4 5/3/2013 at 11:23 (4,007 days old) by Electrolux137 (Los Angeles) |
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| Post# 231092 , Reply# 5 5/3/2013 at 18:22 (4,007 days old) by paulg (my sweet home Chicago) | ||
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Wow | ||
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Post# 289783 , Reply# 6 7/21/2014 at 23:58 (3,563 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles) |
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.
. Here's an update on this old post (which I found via Google). I met a guy more than 20 years ago from Racine, Wisconsin. He's a friend of the local Electrolux rep in that area. I was talking with the Electrolux guy one day and mentioned the Johnson Wax floor polishers. He told me he knew a man who was their polisher serviceman for many years. He gave me the guy's phone number. I called and began a long-distance friendship with him via phone and mail. He confirmed that the polishers were indeed manuctured in Racine at the Johnson Wax factory. He said that the polishers were no longer made after the mid-1960s but for years thereafter, the company got so many requests from customers for service on their machines that he remained in their employ until the early 1980s. Thereafter, he went off on his own and became an independent contractor whom JW would contact when they got service requests. He said there were plenty of people with JW machines even into the early 1990s and he continued to get occasional service requests, but eventually, having become elderly, he retired when the calls slowed down to just one or two a year. He had some NOS polisher repair parts, belts, brushes, trim, cords, etc. that I asked him many times about buying out from him but he never got around to packing it up and sending it to me. In the late '90s he moved into a retirement community and had to dispose of his stock because he no longer had anywhere to keep it. Boy was I ever disappointed!!! :( :( :( | ||
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Post# 289867 , Reply# 8 7/22/2014 at 20:57 (3,562 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles) |
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.
. S.C.Johnson Wax doesn't even know what a floor polisher is these days. They've had nothing to do with the machines ever since the ONE repairman working for them left. The Model HP-59 was called "The Convertible" because it had both floor polishing and rug shampooing setups. I don't know how well the rug shampooer worked as I've never tried it. I do have the model but have only used it for floor polishing. Here are some various photos including two commercial machines, one 12-in. and one 16-in. There's no reason why you couldn't use a rotary polisher on any floor -- all commercial polishers operate on that principle -- unless the floor is sealed with acrylic or some other finishing agent that should not be machine-cleaned. | ||
| Post# 374019 , Reply# 10 6/16/2017 at 08:09 (2,503 days old) by Vicki (Somerset Pennsylvania) | ||
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Johnson Model HP 57 I have an old Johnson's wax polisher-scrubber. I would like to take it to my church's flea market, are they worth anything? | ||
| Post# 425420 , Reply# 11 5/14/2020 at 01:03 (1,440 days old) by huskyvacs (Gnaw Bone, Indiana) | ||
Does anyone know if the old Johns Wax scrubbers like what electrolux137 posted in his first photo can be used to scrub a floor with soap and water before mopping it with wax?
I tried reading the sales ads and making sense of how they wanted you to use it but it's confusing. I couldn't afford a larger Hoover or similar vintage polisher so I found one of these little Johnsons Wax ones and hoping it does the job. I have a 1980s textured linoleum floor. | ||
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Post# 425455 , Reply# 12 5/14/2020 at 13:08 (1,439 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles) |
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~
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| Post# 425470 , Reply# 13 5/14/2020 at 17:49 (1,439 days old) by huskyvacs (Gnaw Bone, Indiana) | ||
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