1929, 12 inch, 3 speed Emerson fan restoration.

I bought an antique 1929 Emerson 12 inch fan at an estate sale with no clue if it worked. I brought it home, took it apart cleaned it and oiled it, and put an original 1929 cord on because the original was chewed up. After hours of work the fan is ready for use once again.

Someone had made a homemade chicken, wire cage, so I took it off along with the original cage. I added then a temporary power cord just to see if the fan was gonna work.

There’s a small hole on the back of the fan that sits slower than the other ones. Here you can insert a screwdriver or something metal into a hole in the back of the road to hold the rotor and blades still. Now that the rotor is unable to spin, turn the blades clockwise to loosen them. They will then unscrew from the shaft.

Then I unscrewed a nut that holds the rotor in. Then I can pull the rotor straight out. After that, I took a shop vac and vacuumed out access dust that is accumulated over the 95 years of use. Finally, I oiled the shaft in the inside of the rotor.

I put the fan back together after I polished the blades and all three speeds work perfectly. And then put an original 1929 time period correct cloth cord on the fan to complete this restoration.