In alt.home.repair on Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:28:01 -0500 "Jmagerl"
posted:

I had a fan that I loved very much too. Made by Panasonic who no longer
makes them. But after 3 years it stopped turning also. I used gumout to
clean the bearings and than reoiled and she was as good as new (until my kid
knocked it off the table and broke the blade).

Unfortunately, a can of Gumout will cost more than going to the dollar store
and buying a new fan.

Yeah, but everyone should have a can of Gumout anyhow. It gets the
gum out.

If the can costs 3 dollars, it takes maybe 3 cents worth to loosen
things.

I don't know which would work better, Gumout or Liquid Wrench or one
of the other competitors.

I have a fan that must have been at one time riveted to some machine
in some factory. It's topheavy and if I hit it at all, it falls over.

But it's the only one whose base is small enough to sit on my window
sill, above my bed. So I used one nail to nail it to the sill.

It starts to slow down or to give a low squeak after no more than 3
months. But it can be as little as a week. This year it was 2
months. I don't clean it; I just oil it, takes 3 minutes, but it's
pretty clear the space between the shaft and the bearings is greater
than in most fans. This one might be 50 years old (though I've only
had it 15.) The bearings are very accessible, but the front one is a
little harder to do since I keep the fan nailed to the sill. It has
no plastic cover, just a metal motor, mounted to the stand at one
side, and a blade and little grill on the shaft.

I'm lucky with this one. If it stalls, it gets hot of course, but
never burning hot, and it always runs as good as it did after oiling.

Like with all my fans, all of them table fans, I have an external
speed control. Most of them, including this one, can use a table light
dimmer with no problem. (If not, I take a fan control and mount it in
some sort of plastic box.) I also took a thermostat out of a broken
fan, mouted it in the plastic cap of an aerosol can, and have the fan
turn off if it gets too cold in the night.


"Shaman683" wrote in message
roups.com...
It's been real hot in my old house during this heat wave, so I leave my
pedastel mounted electric fan on and the AC off when I go to work.

When I got home last night, my fan had quit.
It was plugged in OK, and it was still turned on to slow speed.

The plastic motor housing was a little warm, but not dangerously so.

Today, I put a new electric plug on it, but iit appears that wasn't the
problem.

I bought the fan at the Dollar Store about three years ago, and it's
been a little dandy, but she's dead now.

I need some guidance on troubleshooting please.

Thank you!

--Skip




Meirman
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