It’s project time!
I love this fan. I’ve had it for a long time, and remember it being in my grandmother’s mountain house in Hiawassee, Ga., gently blowing on me as I took a nap with the creek with waterfalls splashing and running outside. She had those white bedspreads with all the nubby little things on them, creating patterns.
And it wound up in my room, and recently retired.
But I can fix that. I want to document my progress with it, largely so that I remember how to reassemble it if necessary.
It shouldn’t be too tough of a job. I see a lot of rivets used, vs. screws, which makes life harder. But many of those won’t need to be removed, hopefully. I haven’t popped open the hood yet.
But fans are usually pretty simple machines. And I enjoy projects like this where I can see and, in this case, feel a difference. I enjoy that feedback and sense of accomplishment when I stand back and take a look.
So, I’ll probably have at least another post with how it’s going/how it turned out, and any lessons along the way. I’ve learned there’s a big niche group that loves these old fans.
(You can hear all the happy frogs in the background of the video. We just had some rain, and the shop door was open.)
I plan on disassembling it and cleaning everything. Scraping what needs to be replaced and ordering new components to make the electricals safe. It doesn’t have a ground or anything.
But what I find really makes this type of object sing is polishing and repainting it and using brass screws, which I love, and giving it a facelift. But that matters not if it won’t work, which is why I consider this functional art. First things first.
