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Post by coldspaces on Jul 26, 2018 4:22:45 GMT
Yes I concur, amazing work! I have never seen insulation panels like that, thanks for sharing!!
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Post by turbokinetic on Jul 26, 2018 5:03:10 GMT
Man that is going to be a Beauty... Thanks! I really hope so. The emblems turned out nice. I cleaned and clearcoated this: I'm so happy to see your progress. I'm so happy that I bothered to rescue the donor fridge that supplied the unit. You're the star of the show for having the ambition and intellect to tackle the project to put it all back together! Thanks for the kind words! It means a lot coming from someone who has seen what you have seen. It's all nuts and bolts to me. It worked when it was new, so it can work again. Simple as that.
Yes I concur, amazing work! I have never seen insulation panels like that, thanks for sharing!! Thanks! I also hadn't ever seen insulation like this before. I wonder how it compared to the Thermocraft paper insulation that GE used? In other words, new versus new which was better R value? So, today I started with cleaning out the lines that are in the cabinet. They were obviously full of green corroded copper residue from the SO2 that was in the system originally. When the evaporator was cleaned out, I used the pressure washer and Zep Purple Degreaser. That worked well, so I used the same method here. In this case, I built a fitting which would adapt the pressure washer gun to the lines. That allowed me to send bursts of 4000 PSI water through the lines. The black hose is the discharge line so that the spent soap and water doesn't get on the cabinet. The lines after cleaning. They look pretty clean inside! The caustic cleaner does a good job stripping down to bare metal. The float valve should not get stopped up now. Next, I set the compressor skid in the cabinet. It was sort of tricky since the compressor is heavy and the cabinet just barely has room for it! After it was set in place, the lines needed to be connected. Remember, my cabinet had the lines crudely chopped off by some hack butcher moron in the past. I was able to salvage some lines from the junk fridge at Travis's place. They were soldered in place. The dryer was used to couple the liquid line back together. The Teflon seal rings FINALLY arrived for the evaporator housing. They replace the lead gasket that I sadly tore up when opening the evaporator. I ordered them from a local business who has been very supportive of my odd requests, small quantities, and hobby orders of industrial parts. The had to go through several suppliers to get these. Seems most of them are split, not a solid ring. This was a special order from China. LOL Now, the Cold Control cables get hooked up. This design is very intricate and it's one of the defining aspects of this machine. It would have been so much less costly to do it in a more conventional way. Heck, just open the compressor access door and adjust it down there. But this was a selling point for Frigidaire. Next, leak checking. I released the trapped refrigerant from the receiver. That was pumped down into there when I tested the compressor on the bench last month. It was still there. After it flowed into the system, there was one leak at a line. Apparently I cracked one of the lines when installing it. So, thankfully, I had one last coupling to use to solder in a new end piece. The details are in the video. But it finally held vacuum and pressure! So, how does it work? Let's just say it made First Frost today! There are still major adjustments to make to the float mechanism, though. It was backflooding the compressor with refrigerant. This was because the float wasn't closing. It caused the evaporator to "sweat but not frost" unless I restricted the liquid line by partially closing the king valve. With the king valve pinched off, I was able to get it to frost nicely and fully, in spite of having no door gasket at all, and almost 100 degrees in the building.
The video has a lot of details that I didn't take pictures of. The sound is very much quieter than I expected. It has a very soft "reciprocating" sound to it. I'm sure it will be even quieter once the compressor door is in place. I can see how this would be acceptable in a domestic environment. They really took industrial parts and built a domestic refrigerator out of it.
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Post by Travis on Jul 26, 2018 5:27:24 GMT
Oooh, don't be surprised when I drag home another and show up on your doorstep.
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Post by ajc31980 on Jul 26, 2018 6:57:38 GMT
It lives ! Excellent work David! That fridge is definitely a Beauty ! Wishing you continued success on this project ! :-).
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Post by ckfan on Jul 26, 2018 12:10:48 GMT
It’s so nice to see it live! The compressor noise isn’t bad at all. I actually much prefer that noise over the noise that the first meter miser compressors made... It’s also nice to see that old badge. So cool and such good work.
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Post by Travis on Jul 26, 2018 17:33:56 GMT
The one belt drive Frigidaire I had used a V-belt. Your flat belt sure is noisier than it was. Maybe it will quiet down with some use.
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Post by turbokinetic on Jul 27, 2018 1:45:46 GMT
Oooh, don't be surprised when I drag home another and show up on your doorstep. You're welcome to visit anytime, with or without a fridge in tow! I still want to help you get at least one of your belt drives up and going! It lives ! Excellent work David! That fridge is definitely a Beauty ! Wishing you continued success on this project ! :-). Thanks! I adjusted the float level in the evaporator today and it seems to have made a huge difference. It’s so nice to see it live! The compressor noise isn’t bad at all. I actually much prefer that noise over the noise that the first meter miser compressors made... It’s also nice to see that old badge. So cool and such good work. Thanks, and yes I'm very pleased to see it working again. It's really not as loud as the video would make you think it is, in all honesty. I just cleaned the emblem with Zep Industrial Purple soap, a nylon scrub brush, and hot water. Then clearcoated it with Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Glaze. The one belt drive Frigidaire I had used a V-belt. Your flat belt sure is noisier than it was. Maybe it will quiet down with some use. It's strange that you hear belt noise. I can't hear any belt noise at all. There is just fan noise and the compressor making its small "tink-tink-tink" sound. It's just that the camera really picks up on the sounds. As for the backflooding and having to close the king valve partially - I believe I have that solved. Today I spent most of the day rescuing that 1935 Westinghouse. But after returning, I pumped down the Frigidaire and took the evaporator out. I opened the evaporator and made two adjustments to the float. One, I increased the tension on the buoyancy compensation spring that is there to help with the lighter refrigerant. Second, I adjusted the float level to lower the level in the evaporator header. When I turned the unit on, it pumped down to about 10 PSI and the evaporator is extremely cold. It is what I would call "bitter cold" where my fingers stick to it instantly. The trade-off will be if the float is too sensitive and the presence of a layer of oil on top of the refrigerant is enough to lift the float and prematurely close off the needle valve. The only way to tell if that is going to happen is to run the unit and see. So that's what I am doing now!
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Post by turbokinetic on Jul 27, 2018 5:12:39 GMT
Here's a video from the testing today!
Here's the low pressure reading with the system working correctly. About 4 PSI with constant running, 0 degree evaporator temps, with no door gasket and a 90 degree room temp!
The rear grille is painted and in place.
The compressor door is on..
I re-glued the wood joints so that the door would not be warped and twisted. Then put a layer of insulation, and a new 1/4" plywood insert to finish it off.
Interior parts going in. Need to locate original ice trays because one is messed up, one is missing, and one is funky smelling green rubber. '
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Post by ckfan on Jul 27, 2018 11:34:33 GMT
That’s great that you were able to get it working so well with just a simple adjustment. I wonder what temperature range the evaporator is supposed to be at. The fact that it can get to 0 is pretty dang good to me.
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Post by birkie on Jul 27, 2018 12:29:05 GMT
Great job! I kind of like the "exposed evaporator" look a bit better, but surrounding the evaporator with a simple white cowling looks like it had been one of Frigidaire's styling cues since the 1920s. It sounds like the evaporator temps are on-target, so cool to see that working with the adjustments! It was so prescient to make it removable Once the control is cycling, it'll be neat to see what the cycle times are. I bet they'll be really good!
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Post by turbokinetic on Jul 27, 2018 13:03:01 GMT
Great job! I kind of like the "exposed evaporator" look a bit better, but surrounding the evaporator with a simple white cowling looks like it had been one of Frigidaire's styling cues since the 1920s. It sounds like the evaporator temps are on-target, so cool to see that working with the adjustments! It was so prescient to make it removable Once the control is cycling, it'll be neat to see what the cycle times are. I bet they'll be really good! Yeah the styling is so neat on this one. It just is the epitome of Boxy and Stout. It seems that they adapted industrial refrigeration technology to a home appliance. Probably the white cowling around the evaporator was just a way to hide the "Industrial Machinery Look" from the wifey who is already afraid of it because it's new. I did unblock the control and let it cycle yesterday. That control is (obviously) an intricate instrument and it'll take some tinkering to get it right. The cut-in and cut-out were too close together, causing short cycling. This didn't work with the Supco PTC start relay. I haven't tried adjusting it much at all, so I wasn't surprised it isn't where it needs to be. If I see it will be an issue, the PTC relay will get replaced with a magnetic relay. That’s great that you were able to get it working so well with just a simple adjustment. I wonder what temperature range the evaporator is supposed to be at. The fact that it can get to 0 is pretty dang good to me. Yeah I was impressed with the fact it was able to get to 0, with the large amount of surface area on that evaporator (has those fins on it) and no door gasket at all. The cooling unit seems to have quite an impressive capacity to it.
Time will tell about the float adjustment. The trade-off to lowering the float level is that the layer of oil floating on the refrigerant may not be high enough to reach the oil return port. If that happens, the oil may build up in there and lift the float. That would cause it to close the needle valve and stop the refrigerant flow, even though it needs to be circulating.
When I opened the evaporator to adjust the float, there was about the same amount of new AB oil in there as I found old mineral oil in it originally.
The sight glass, while not an original part, really is a nice touch for the "testing and tuning" phase of this project. These are easy to get as they are still available new. It has a 1/4" SAE flare port on each end, male to female. If your liquid line is connected in that manner, you can simply disconnect the line, insert this sight glass, and put the line back.
Here is a link to the All-In Liquid Eye sight glass from Supco. The new ones have a colored dot that is optically magnified when the glass is full of liquid, to make it easy to tell. I did notice that the refrigerant is crystal clear and it is a little hard to see, since my old glass has no dot. www.supco.com/web/supco_live/products/SG115.html
Today I hope to get the door issue solved! Will probably use a "wood Heli-Coil" approach to fix this.
So, assuming I can keep refrigerant leaks at bay - this looks like it will be working well for me!
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Post by birkie on Jul 27, 2018 13:32:55 GMT
Probably the white cowling around the evaporator was just a way to hide the "Industrial Machinery Look" from the wifey who is already afraid of it because it's new. Yes! There is a 1927 GE salesman's handbook that says to avoid the "machine" aspects of it:
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Post by turbokinetic on Jul 27, 2018 13:46:18 GMT
Probably the white cowling around the evaporator was just a way to hide the "Industrial Machinery Look" from the wifey who is already afraid of it because it's new. Yes! There is a 1927 GE salesman's handbook that says to avoid the "machine" aspects of it:
Neat excerpt! They were way ahead of their time with that as well. Back in the 80's cars were sold based on perceived mechanical quality and design. For instance, my mom's Buick was bought at a dealership who explained that the engine design has been around since the 1950's, with continuous refinements. It should go a lot longer without major mechanical repairs than, say, a newer and cheaper design.
Now-a-days, things are more like GE's sales guidance. They only tell you the benefits and hype up the fluff features. What they don't tell you is that the machine its self is now a disposable piece of garbage! Back to fridges, they have cheapened up the compressors on some refrigerators now, to the degree that it is basically a speaker with a piston replacing the speaker cone. As the "voice coil" vibrates in and out, it moves the piston directly. There is no crankshaft or bearings. The idea is sound, but the execution of it is total shite. They cheapened and cheapened the design, until it couldn't be cheapened any more. They then started cheapening the materials and that's when it went south. Seems all of these fail due to broken reed valves. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGyyxv_Oov8
While the sales techniques of selling features and benefits is a good one; it is important to sell a sound technological foundation as well. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
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Post by turbokinetic on Jul 28, 2018 2:10:52 GMT
So, today the 1931 Frigidaire is almost complete. I'm down to only some minor control adjustments, and locating ice trays!
First order of business was to fix the sagging door, so that the new door gasket would actually be in contact with the cabinet. The hinges are (miraculously) still in excellent condition. The problem goes back to the depression era engineering and use of wood for the cabinet frame. The holes in the metal cladding are oversize so that the hinge can be positioned at the factory and then the holes drilled into the wood. This allowed the wood to warp / shift and misalign the door.
My dad has done quite a few furniture restoration projects in the past. I remember a trick he called a "Wood Heli-Coil" repair. It is for stripped screws, as well as holes that are mis-positioned "half a hole off" as these have become. First, drill the screw holes out to a known oversize. Drill them large enough to get to good wood. Next, take a hardwood dowel that is a press-fit in the new holes. Apply glue and then drive the dowel in. Cut off the excess dowel and grind it flush with the surface. Now, new holes can be drilled wherever needed.
The 3 holes on the door have already been drilled, plugged, and ground off. The cabinet top hole has been drilled, plugged but not ground off. And then I am showing a dowel that's been tapered for driving in.
Plugging complete, ready to re-drill.
The new holes drilled. Note the position of the hole shifts the door upwards.
And the door is aligned well now!
I cleaned the hardware before final assembly. The original nickel-plated brass is still good, after cleaning with Zep Purple Degreaser and a brass-bristle wire brush.
The handle needed more work. The main body of the latch was fine after cleaning it using the same method as the hinges. The handle its self was bad. It had most of the plating missing. I glass bead blasted it until all the remaining plating was gone. Then, a coating of aluminum spray paint, baked on, gave it a similar look to the other hardware. The catch (mounted on the cabinet) also got the same blast and paint treatment.
Now that the door isn't dragging on the bottom of the cabinet; I was able to install the cabinet light switch magnet. Then, the relay and wiring went in so that the light is functional now.
The beige cloth-covered cord in the interconnect from the main power cord to the cabinet lighting circuit. The relay is hidden behind a wood cover at the upper left corner of the compressor compartment.
A view from below showing the relay.
The reason for this relay is two-fold. The main reason is that the magnetic reed switch is normally-open, and closes (turns on) when the magnet is present at the switch. The functionality of the cabinet light is the opposite of this. The relay allows a normally open reed switch to operate a normally closed contact for the light. Mind you it is possible to get normally closed reed switches. The problem is, they are almost all mounted parallel to the surface, are larger, and won't fit in a drilled hole. The second reason to use a relay is because of the inrush current of the LED light. It has a capacitive power supply in it, and would fuse the reed switch contacts when they closed and the inrush current charged the capacitor. So this was a simple and easy way to take care of both of those problems.
Thanks again for all the ideas and comments on this project!
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Post by ckfan on Jul 28, 2018 2:37:52 GMT
Wow, it really is amazing how fast you move once you get started on a project! I really like the wood helicoil. Very cool. I’ll have to use that technique on a new toy that I just got from Travis. A 60s tube powered Fisher console that has a lid with bad screw holes. Only trouble is that the thing is made out of damn particle board! I guess this was when the cheapening started.
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