Thread Number: 31988  /  Tag: 50s/60s/70s Vacuum Cleaners
My Home-Made Electrolux
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Post# 352432   5/19/2016 at 12:55 (2,869 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles)        

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When I was seven years old and in the Second Grade at school, I made "my own Electrolux."

I used a roller skate and an empty Clorox jug for the motor unit. It was pretty elaborate, with a front cover that I made by cutting off the top of the bottle and attaching it to the motor body with clothes pins that fit into slots that I cut out of the sides of the cover. I wrote "ELECTROLUX" across both sides with a blue crayon.

The cord was a length of twine with an empty thread spool at the end of the cord for the plug, and the cord halo was a pie tin that I attached with those brass fasteners with a round head and two thin blade-like extensions that you push through a hole and then spread out the extensions.

The hose was an actual Electrolux hose from a Model S that had previously served as a replacement hose on Mama's Electrolux E-Automatic. (*)

I made the wand and floor brush from Christmas paper cardboard tubes (these used to be much thicker and heavier than they are now). I even made a floor polisher by coiling a coat hanger into a circular shape and sliding a blue sock around it. The "hook" part of the hanger slid inside the wand.

I made a disposable bag out of a brown paper lunch sack with a cardboard top stapled to it with "ELECTROLUX SWEEPER BAG" written on it with a blue crayon.

I don't think I've ever talked about this here before, and am wondering if other collectors made their own vacuum cleaners. I have a hunch that a lot of y'all did...!

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(*) One day the local Electrolux Man had come around with a station wagon full of machines but found my parents to be a hard sell! They did get a B7 floor polisher, and sent their battered E-A with the man to fix up and return. It came back with a Model F hose.


Post# 352433 , Reply# 1   5/19/2016 at 13:00 (2,869 days old) by vacuumlad1650 (Wauponsee, IL)        

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I need to dig out Mother's old pictures!

Post# 352545 , Reply# 2   5/21/2016 at 03:22 (2,868 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC)        

WOW!!!VERY CREATIVE to make your "Own" Electrolux" out of bleach bottles,paper roll tubes,twine,lunch bag,and so on!Would love to see this!!Is it still around?Best thing of all that "vacuum" ran from IMAGINATION rather than batteries!Something that kids DON'T have today.They have to have things that run from batteries!

Post# 352567 , Reply# 3   5/21/2016 at 10:24 (2,867 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles)        

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No, sad to say, it's long gone. It was back in 1963 when I made it. I kept it hidden away in my inner sanctum. I don't recall what became of it but possibly my parents, not inclined to indulge my fascination with vacuum cleaners, found it and threw it out. Or maybe my sister needed her roller skate back.


Post# 352586 , Reply# 4   5/21/2016 at 12:50 (2,867 days old) by gsheen (Cape Town South Africa)        

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The first one I remember was taking a fabric softener bottle and attaching a piece of hose to it, and using some wheels from large truck. Then some time later I took a sqaure plastic dustbin and made a sled type vacuum, enclosing teh front with cardboard, When I was a young teen I built a shopvac style vacuum using a motor my dad had gotten me from a repair shop and a large metal drum.

In high school we had to do a business economics proejct showing and plan with models from concept to production, I designed and built my own shopvac style vacuum, I had the original sketches from concept to actual production draft drawings, I made a few different prototypes and test models aswell as a finished product


Post# 352614 , Reply# 5   5/22/2016 at 00:53 (2,867 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC)        

Too bad about the homemade 'Lux vacuum-parents and sisters can spoil stuff!Didn't they give you a toy vacuum to make up for the loss of the homebuilt one?I didn't get interested in vacuums until I was an adult.I did like vacuuming my room withTeen at that point) our Kirby and my Stepmoms "Wheelbarrow" Kenmore canister.Too be honest liked sucking things up with that vacuum,taking them out,then picking them up again until my brothers thought I was nuts!Liked listening to things going thru the Kirby fan!


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