SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG Forum
General Boards => Museum Submarine Discussion => Topic started by: Mark Sarsfield on May 13, 2008, 09:56:48 AM
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I was wondering if any fleet boat museums still had any original wall fans mounted? I know that they were in the con, the CT, and the the officer's ward room. A picture and a model number would help. Thanks.
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Came in two sizes: a big one (few aboard, mostly in the crew's mess, FTR, etc., and mostly a small one (about 9 in. diam). Only subs and small vessels had the small fans, for the most part. Most surface ships used the larger 12-in. fans. The fans were all black with wire safety cages that wouldn't pass muster today. The cage only kept your hand safe, not fingers!
They are very hard to come by for two reasons:
1. The USN changed to a grey wire caged fan with small openings in the late 1960s and most boats still in commission were retrofitted (too many chopped fingers?) and the older fans were tossed.
2. The only place to find them would be aboard the small WWII ships that went out of commission just after the war and have been in mothballs. Good luck, there are about six such ships and they're about to be scrapped... and we went through them looking for the small ones!
SADLY: COD's complete set of fans was decimated by a handful of nutjob subvets who wanted to "clean up COD" for tours and tossed many of them!!! Theses are DC fans, and they run forever! Tiny cloth wicks that feed oil from a tiny lube cup. They might be replicated someday!
But generall they were everywhere from the photos I have of COD: two in the mess, one each in the officer's staterooms, conningtower had several... generally up to the crew.
I'll check the COD's fans for model numbers, etc.
Paul
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Thanks, Paul. I see a lot of old A.C. fans on eBay - especially GE. They might not be exact, but I might be able to find some close models that mount on the walls. Plus, I wouldn't have to convert them or run a rectifier to operate them.
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We have qiute a few on the Drum, will check numbers etc and get photos
Tom Bowser
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Thanks, again, Tom. Any and all help is very appreciated.
Most of the fans on eBay aren't black, but that can easily be remedied. I'm suprised at how many 1930 and 1940 fans are for sale.
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I found one on eBay made by Westinghouse and it has a US stamp with an anchor on the mfg. plate. It looks like a 12" version, but I sent the seller a question to make sure. This would be a nice addition to the crew's mess.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200223734662
R&M (Robbins & Meyers) seems to be another manufacturer of the Navy D.C. fans, too. I've never heard of them, before.
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We have three different fans one 9" no data plate, one 12" Le John elec ac, and one 16" Emerson elec ac
Tom Bowser
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I have an old fan or two that look like those in the pictures. They are desk fans though. I'd be willing to donate if they are needed...
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If they have wall mount holes, then they can be used on the wall, too. Notice Tom's first picture, though. The U bracket at the bottom with the four bolt holes is really what we need. However, if we get the fans, we could probably fabricate repro mounts. My idea is to see what bolt holes that we have to work with on the bulk heads and then go from there.
The one that I'm bidding on on eBay looks like Tom's first picture, but with black blades.
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The eBay fan is like our larger ones we pulled from SPERRY and NEREUS. The small fan on DRUM is similar to our COD fans, except ours were made by GE. The logo on that fan is not familiar to me.
COD runs on city AC rectified to DC in a box on shore and fed to the boat's cubicle (she thinks she is running on her battery, so don't tell her otherwise!). That allows us to plug in our fans. Never saw green blades on a fan. It may be that someone got artistic in their restoration. :-*
The idea of replicating a boatload of small AUTHENTIC fans would be great and we'd be in on the deal. Much like replicating Momsen lung bags, Lithium hydroxide cans, etc.
We tried to do the same with our WW II era bunk bags, mattress covers, etc., but this forum did not exist and noone else had the money. Hope that is chaning!
PF
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I would like to see someone replicate the zippered bunk bags, too.
The seller of the fan said that the fan blades are 12" in total diameter and the cage is 13". My plan for this guy is to put him in the crew's mess. I'm always on the look-out for 9" fans that look similar. We can always make a wall mount that mimicks the originals, since the motor housing can be detached from the base once the lock nut/bolt are removed.
Here's a fan that someone took the liberty of painting the blades a brass color...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330235160265
This one has been getting a lot of attention.
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The gren is just light reflection, the blades are auctaully black. The Navy made us take down or not use all of our fans due to the possiblity of idiots sticking their hands in them.
Tom Bowser
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That's stupid. I'd put them back up - I plan on doing it. Next time that they inspect the boat, just unplug them and tie the cords up. Makes it look like they haven't been used.
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We may do that this winter if we get some of our other winter projects done, our list is pretty long. We have to do all kinds of crazy things for them.
Tom Bowser
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Our Navy inspection takes place very early in our season, when the weather is not so hot... but I never heard of them pinging for that!
You have to reason with them (inspectors)... they don't or shouldn't tell you what to do, only what they think is wrong.
Take COD's fuseboxes:
They are live (hot), and some nudnik could possibly turn the screw knob and pull the box door open to reveal the fuses in their clips... and I guess if said person was stupid enough to touch said fuses and clips, he or she might get shocked. Now the inspector told us that we had to drill holes in the doors and screw them down so they couldn't be opened by someone without tools. Our director said we have to "answer to a higher calling," as in the Hebrew National Hot Dog adverstisement -- that we will not drill holes in the boat! He said we had to and we said, "No, we only have to ensure that the casual idiot can't open to fuse box door... we solved it by using RTV sealant. A small dab over the door seal will hold it down rather tightly. And when we need to replace a fuse, we just take out a pocket knife and cut the seal. Works fine and they don't ping on us for that anymore. And COD doesn't look like the USS SWISS CHEESE (which she was well on the way to becoming before we adopted a no-new-holes drilling ban.
PF
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These two fans end today and I hope to win both of them for the boat:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330235160265
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200223734662
The first one has a lot of activity, but I am the only bidder on #2. I expect someone to come along and try to snipe it.
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Well, the first one went for $72.00. Looks like it got sniped. The second one, which I like, hasn't had any activity. I'm wondering if its the result of the title choice.
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I won the second one! Woo-hoo! ;D
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Save your money Mark,
they still have the AC version in the dead fleets, once you get your want list together make sure that you put those on your list so that when you turn that it you will have the ability to pull them off of the ships, there are some WWII vintage ones out there that while nice to look at you don't want to run anywhere near the tourista's because there is always one that wants to see if his/her finger will stop the motor like it does on their plastic one at home, they will lose skin and maybe a part of their finger depending on how strong your motor is and that means that the museum will have to pay for the damage to the moron's finger and probably get sued becasue it was not properly gaurded to keep the said moron's fingers out of it. We have the AC fans on Torsk and they run fine and no one knows the difference other then the volunteers and most of us don't care about that just as long as they stay running, we do have some DC fans out but those don't run and there was talk to convert them over to AC and run them in the lower flats in the engine room so that we could move some air down there.
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Good idea. Paul said that most surface ships used the 12" and larger fans. What we really need are 9" wall fans.
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Those are in the staterooms on the Range Sentinal and Vanguard, and you can also find them in other areas of the ships.. When you finally do your first strip ship remember one thing..... These boats have been picked over pretty decently and IF you realize that early and you choose to go to the Ex-USS USEDTOSAILONCE and look in the not so common areas you may be well rewarded and also keep in mind some of the OTHER skimmers (ie transports, AE,AO) don't get beat up as bad as the sub tenders or the rescue ships by the other museums striping them out. We pulled a WWII Vintage MacKay Radio set in near museum condition off of Range Sentinal and pulled parts for it from Vanguard, we never expected in a MILLION years to find something like that and it is finding a home on the CHESAPEAK in Baltimore (Chesapeak btw is a lightship used in navigation by mariners) to replace the one that was removed when the Coasties got rid of her.
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Saw these NASA veterans in Port Canavaral back in the day when I worked for NASA... maybe I gotta get aboard for some COD treasure!!!
PF :coolsmiley:
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Gee Paul, if the inspectors are worried that only people with tools should be able to open fuse panels, then we are screwed. We have purposely pulled the handles off compartment cutoff switches and the "visitors" still manage to turn them and shut off the lights in whole compartments. Standard issue now amongst vandals is a multipurpose tool.
As for power panels, we haven't been gigged for that on any of our inspections. We just torque down on the cover screws so that you need a pair of pliers or screwdriver to open them. Of course, like I said, that won't stop the occasional moron who thinks it is his God-given right to destroy things. Actually, we are hoping one of them will open the panel and stick his fingers in.
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Gee Paul, if the inspectors are worried that only people with tools should be able to open fuse panels, then we are screwed. We have purposely pulled the handles off compartment cutoff switches and the "visitors" still manage to turn them and shut off the lights in whole compartments. Standard issue now amongst vandals is a multipurpose tool.
As for power panels, we haven't been gigged for that on any of our inspections. We just torque down on the cover screws so that you need a pair of pliers or screwdriver to open them. Of course, like I said, that won't stop the occasional moron who thinks it is his God-given right to destroy things. Actually, we are hoping one of them will open the panel and stick his fingers in.
Better yet, he touches it with his tongue!!! ;)