Gas-Powered Antique Maytag Washing Machine [Restoration]
It's real and you are going to want to see this run. This restoration is on a late 1920s Model 92 Maytag gas-powered washing machine. Electric versions were also available, but I restored the Maytag engine previously, so it is only natural that I slap it on this washer.
This machine contained the most amount of parts I have had to deal with to date! It also gave me a very hard time, with several broken bolts, locked up parts, and damaged or missing parts. I was able to source some replacement parts from a viewer that kindly offered to share. I decided to paint the machine a light grey, but did not choose to paint the tub, even though it was originally painted. I felt that covering up all that aluminum would be a travesty.
Getting this machine back together was a very lengthy process, as I had to learn through trial and error where each internal part should go and how it should move. Since the machine was so heavily rusted and locked up, it was hard to envision how the parts all work together, making it harder for me to figure out how to put it back together.
I am satisfied with the result although I would have loved to do a mirror polish on the aluminum, but I have a life to live and having something that large and highly polished in the workshop would give me more anxiety than I need right now.
I would like to thank Evapo-Rust for sponsoring this video.
Wrenches are now for sale at www.handtoolrescue.com
Help secure more tools for future videos (if you want):
/ handtoolrescue
Instagram:
/ handtoolrescue
Facebook Group - Share your restorations
/ handtoolrescue
Reddit - Share your restorations
/ handtoolrescue
Not gonna lie - in all of my 65 years on this earth, that's the first time I've ever seen anyone kick start a washing machine!
My late mother-in-law was raised in a remote farming community that did not get electric power until the late 1940's. She fondly recalled washing day when she could hear the putt-putt-putt of the washing machines throughout the valley. She also reported that blue smoke from the gas-oil mix could be seen rising from each farm house porch where a washing machine was running. Most families converted from washboards as soon as they could afford the new technology. I found it intriguing that the entire community washed their clothing on the same day; Mondays.
I love seeing these old machines from before the Plastic Age, where everything was made of steel and iron and everything was 100% mechanical.
I'm 67. My grandfather sold these when they were new. When I was 10 we had two or three of the engines still working. One year we used one as a very scary noise maker in part of a haunted house maze us kids made out in our barn. My oldest brother was 6 years older than me and two other brothers between us. Those were some good days.
When you used the washer, you had two square galvanized steel tubs sitting besides the washer. They were arranged so the wringer would squeeze out the water back into the washer when you finished the wash cycle. Then you would add clothes for another wash load. The first tub was filled with hot rinse water and the washed clothes would sit and let the soap soak out of them. You would turn the ringer so that it would be between the two galvanized tubs, and using a short broomstick, pickup the clothes out of the hot rinse water and feed them into the wringer. The clothes would then fall into the next tub. That tub would be full of cold water, with bluing for whites, or hot water with laundry starch if the clothes were to be ironed. Doing laundry with this machine was a continuous process and you could do quite a lot of laundry in a short time. When you moved the clothes out of the final rinse, you used the wringer to drop the clothes into a basket to take them to the solar powered clothes dryer (clothes line). My mom had a Maytag electric washer, but two of my neighbors were gas powered. We were really wowed when my aunt got an automatic washer in the mid fifties. By the way, you adjusted the air fuel mixture to make it run smoother, but even with the muffler, they were loud.
"Honey, dinner is ready!"
Yo this man needs more subs that intro alone was more creative than half the big KZheadrs
One of those wringer washers is how my grandfather lost the thumb on his left hand. Helping his mom with the wash when he was 4, thumb got caught and went in with the fabric. Crushed it and they had to amputate. We got a lot of different stories about that thumb when we were kids, that it was shot off in the WWII (he was stationed in Utah), that he burned it off when he stuck it in a christmas light bulb socket, that he sucked it off as a baby, etc. Washer was the real reason, and we have a picture of him not long before it happened, and the way he's sitting displays that thumb very prominently. Didn't stop him from playing piano and multiple instruments and being an auto mechanic for decades. Neat washing machine!
Had to laugh at the bench press being used as a “portable” drill... love the videos mate.
in the early 70's, in my town - the old lady across the street STILL used one of these (and we lived in a City, NOT rural at all) I was in elementary school, and she got too old to start it and would call me over to kick it for her
Great video. I helped my grandmother wash clothes 66 years ago with a Maytag which started out with a gas engine like that, but the gas engine was replaced by an electric one in the 1940s when rural electrification came along. We used home made laundry soap. The tub was filled with cold water from a garden hose, then the water was heated with a drop-in electric heater, with exposed heating elements. My wife learned to wash clothes with an electric wringer washer as well. We sure didn’t try to wring the water out of the clothes before running them through the wringer. There were galvanized tubs of water to rinse the clothes before they went through the wringer again, then got hung on the line. These washers did a great job and didn’t need repairs as often as modern ones.
When I first got out of the military, I lived in a cabin in the mountains of New Mexico, and I had a Maytag ringer washer. It was a lot of work to do laundry - especially in the winter. Thanks for the jog down memory lane! I’m never roughing it again on purpose.
Wow, what a can of worms that project was. All those castings and machined parts, it would cost $20,000 to build that machine today. Well done! It looks beautiful and works surprisingly well.
22:22
Gotta love the old-time ‘hit-n-miss’ engine! Coolest,
I love old machines like this. They built stuff to last back then, and you could usually fix it yourself when it broke down. As a millennial, I'm constantly amazed that someone can take a rusty piece of junk from 100 years ago and not only make it work again, but make it look brand new!
The perfect gift for your better half on Christmas day a two stroke washing machine.
“See you got one of them new washing machines. How many loads to the gallon??”
Adults in the 80's: "Remember how our grand parents had to use a gas powered washing machine."
Nice job. In the 50's we had a neighbor who used one of these (electric version), but she mostly used a washtub and scrub board. Her husband was a cheap SOB who spent the money on liquor. My friend grew up and his mother divorced the cheap skate. I don't know what happened to the washer!! You do good work and have much more patience than me. Thanks!