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- Feb 17, 2006
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I've decided that I don't give a fuck if you all think I'm a massive nerd for liking vacuums as a kid, I was just interested in physics before my time...
As a child I used to be scared that my mother would run my feet over with the vacuum we had but somehow at the same time I was fascinated by them and would probably spend more time looking at them in the local electronics shop than I would any particular type of toy in Toys R Us. When I was 3 I wanted a particular handheld vacuum for Christmas and like lunatics my parents bought it for me, I've posted this picture before somewhere but here it is again:
So that's the answer to the cryptic picture I posted, it's the bag from this thing, some 26+ years on. Now the Smart is gone I can get to shit in the garage, while making a pile of scrap metal (I have five spare Land Rover propshafts) I dug this out. The bag was covered in white mould but a brush and a convenient breeze took care of that.
I tested the motor and it worked fine, time for a bit of restoration then.
Brush roll and belt were cleaned, the brush roll got lubricated and the belt was treated with rubber care stuff. It's still good enough after all this time. This is when I realised that the silver brush roll is not metal but is painted wood.
Brush roll guard floor metal thingy was next, it had a little surface rust so that was treated and then I polished it with Autosol...
Brush roll reinstalled, belt on. Apparently it ran in a particular position before but it doesn't want to go back there, it works fine though and doesn't throw off the belt.
The belt loops over the spindle of the impeller fan, which in turn is connected to the motor. Everything this little machine picks up goes through the fan and if you had particularly long fingers you could make them significantly shorter by sticking them in there when it's running.
Cap goes on or it'll have bugger all suction, then it went back together and I went as far as polishing the plastic to remove some of the fine scratches...
I can find nothing about this online, although the box suggests it was available all over Europe.
I'm disgusted to see it's made in the USA, they didn't apply the sticker too well. There was a British company called Goblin that also made vacuums so with similar names maybe I just assumed. Maybe I didn't understand the idea of importing things at the time...
Anyway the bag was washed and reunited with the front bit. I think the washing took some of the colour out of the fabric but it was unavoidable as it was nasty. These things have a really long cable, primarily so you can clean a set of stairs with it plugged in at the top or bottom.
Plate shows 1990 and the model 555UK. For some reason this is shown as 230V when most others I've seen show 240V and 180W.
Nailed together in Ohio. Ooh.
The box hasn't fared so well, it was never very strong to start with and it as never stored very carefully. Official sponsor of McLaren, but their logo doesn't appear on the cars anywhere. Not that I can see at least.
Apparently this was connected to a competition to win tickets to the Australian GP, presumably in 1994. Brown parcel tape peels off the print if I remove it so it's staying put.
Lid has Mario Andretti in his car on it. Always loved that McLaren livery but I'm more of a Mansell fan when it comes to drivers.
Delicious information. I still have most of the accessories with it and the strange pipe is somewhere. It plugs in to the hole at the front without any way of blocking the base, so to get any suction you have to hold the thing down on a flat surface like our man is doing in the third image.
Well there you go, if you ever see a small child interested in vacuum cleaners then be careful because they may end up with an addiction to Land Rovers or something...
As a child I used to be scared that my mother would run my feet over with the vacuum we had but somehow at the same time I was fascinated by them and would probably spend more time looking at them in the local electronics shop than I would any particular type of toy in Toys R Us. When I was 3 I wanted a particular handheld vacuum for Christmas and like lunatics my parents bought it for me, I've posted this picture before somewhere but here it is again:
So that's the answer to the cryptic picture I posted, it's the bag from this thing, some 26+ years on. Now the Smart is gone I can get to shit in the garage, while making a pile of scrap metal (I have five spare Land Rover propshafts) I dug this out. The bag was covered in white mould but a brush and a convenient breeze took care of that.
I tested the motor and it worked fine, time for a bit of restoration then.
Brush roll and belt were cleaned, the brush roll got lubricated and the belt was treated with rubber care stuff. It's still good enough after all this time. This is when I realised that the silver brush roll is not metal but is painted wood.
Brush roll guard floor metal thingy was next, it had a little surface rust so that was treated and then I polished it with Autosol...
Brush roll reinstalled, belt on. Apparently it ran in a particular position before but it doesn't want to go back there, it works fine though and doesn't throw off the belt.
The belt loops over the spindle of the impeller fan, which in turn is connected to the motor. Everything this little machine picks up goes through the fan and if you had particularly long fingers you could make them significantly shorter by sticking them in there when it's running.
Cap goes on or it'll have bugger all suction, then it went back together and I went as far as polishing the plastic to remove some of the fine scratches...
I can find nothing about this online, although the box suggests it was available all over Europe.
I'm disgusted to see it's made in the USA, they didn't apply the sticker too well. There was a British company called Goblin that also made vacuums so with similar names maybe I just assumed. Maybe I didn't understand the idea of importing things at the time...
Anyway the bag was washed and reunited with the front bit. I think the washing took some of the colour out of the fabric but it was unavoidable as it was nasty. These things have a really long cable, primarily so you can clean a set of stairs with it plugged in at the top or bottom.
Plate shows 1990 and the model 555UK. For some reason this is shown as 230V when most others I've seen show 240V and 180W.
Nailed together in Ohio. Ooh.
The box hasn't fared so well, it was never very strong to start with and it as never stored very carefully. Official sponsor of McLaren, but their logo doesn't appear on the cars anywhere. Not that I can see at least.
Apparently this was connected to a competition to win tickets to the Australian GP, presumably in 1994. Brown parcel tape peels off the print if I remove it so it's staying put.
Lid has Mario Andretti in his car on it. Always loved that McLaren livery but I'm more of a Mansell fan when it comes to drivers.
Delicious information. I still have most of the accessories with it and the strange pipe is somewhere. It plugs in to the hole at the front without any way of blocking the base, so to get any suction you have to hold the thing down on a flat surface like our man is doing in the third image.
Well there you go, if you ever see a small child interested in vacuum cleaners then be careful because they may end up with an addiction to Land Rovers or something...
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