My Rescued Vintage Stand Mixer
Hey beefriends! So I was making a pumpkin pie for US Thanksgiving the other day, and I used my rescued stand mixer for the first time. :)
In the universal apartment living language of "getting rid of this but it's still good if somebody else wants it," someone had left it beside the trash one day a while back, and I snagged it. I had always wanted a stand mixer, but they're so expensive!
I gave it a really deep cleaning as it was very greasy. You know that kind of grease that a stove fan gets, or the wall behind the stove, from all the smoke and splatters hitting it? It was like that. So I imagine it must have lived on somebody's counter right next to their stove.
I tried looking it up on ebay to find out more information about it, like, precisely how old it is, as it's avocado green which makes me think it's from the 70s or 60s, and I found two of the same kind for sale complete with all the accessories, but not the precise year listed (there were similar-but-slightly-different models also in avocado green that said they were from the 50s, so I'm thinking this is the 60s model). The two listed showed me that a) there is a bigger bowl that fits (but I already knew that, because the base has a "small bowl" and "large bowl" setting) and b) there are dough hooks that fit it, too. I don't have either of those things so I'll be keeping an eye out to see if just dough hooks get listed one day perhaps. Maybe someone will have a broken mixer but sell the parts - it could happen, as there was just the base turntable that the bowl sits on listed for parts, and I saw an old-already-sold listing for the beaters.
There are bowls from different models for sale, so I'm considering asking if one of them would be kind enough to give me a measurement of the bottom of their large bowls to see if it will still fit on my turntable part.
My question for you fixer-upper types, is do you have any suggestions about what to do for the switch here? I can still adjust the speed of the mixer by sticking in a small screwdriver to get it to slide back and forth:
...but I actually couldn't get it to go into the "off" position (to be fair, I didn't push it too hard when it didn't want to go, because I didn't want it to become stuck in the off position). Do you think it's possible to get something that would serve as the switch and install it?
The motor is in that top part, but I haven't tried opening up the housing at this point. It still works, so I just plugged in or unplugged to turn it on and off, lol.
If y'all have any advice, it would be appreciated! :)
The resulting pumpkin pie for yummy noms tax:
Have a great day and thanks for reading!
I love stories of rescued and thrifted items, so naturally I had to read through your entire post! What a sturdy old gal. Bet she'll last you the rest of your life!
I think so! Still going strong after decades! :)
Love free stuff and have often spent a considerable amount of time cleaning free stuff. The switch is a bit worrisome though...
Well I have a workaround even if I don't figure out a permanent solution. :)
I don't know enough about electrics, but I guess a slow-medium speed would be good for most things and I'd continue to turn it on and off at the powerpoint :)
Look forward to when you get around to taking the top off - I love dissecting old machines, usually sewing machines in my case.
One time I did this:
...to fix a loose connection that required soldering. Only after I had done it and posted on fb did a friend say, hey you know those CRTs carry a lot of charge and you could have electrocuted yourself?
Whoopsie! Well, I didn't, so it all turned out ok. 😂
It looks like there is an actual hole that you're sticking your screwdriver into for you switch, so anything that you could epoxy into that hole should work as a fairly permanent fix. I recommend JB Weld original formula, but any epoxy made for steel should do the trick.
These old mixers did usually require a little more force to slide into the 'off' position, but it may also have a buildup of that old grease preventing from sliding all the way to 'off', so you are wise not to force it too hard. It's unlikely that it will actually get stuck in the off position, but forcing it may damage the switch so that none of the settings work properly.
Thanks for the tips! I'll check for grease when I open it up. I will probably have to use the epoxy as you suggest - it is a hole where I'm sticking the screwdriver.
Always happy to help a fellow fixer!