How about a Sunday morning respite from the usual bleak news..

This is a Sunbeam Model T-9 toaster, introduced in 1939 and produced until 1949, when it was replaced by the legendary Model T-20, which was the subject of a diary I posted here last summer.  Over August and September, I bought three more of those T-20s and refurbished them.  We gave them, plus the first one I’d fixed up, to family members as Christmas gifts.  I finally decided it was time for us to have one of our own, so later last fall I went back to eBay, only to discover that prices for these had gone up.  I’d paid about $125 each for the first four, but now similar T-20s were going for $150-$200 or more.  Yikes.

So I nosed around and found this Model T-9 for only $45.  The seller stated that it worked, and the price was good, so I went for it.  The design is about as pure 1930’s art deco as you can get; I really liked the overall shape and proportions.

The T-9 was immensely popular in the 1940’s.  It wasn’t cheap.  They cost about a half a week’s wage for the average worker of the day, so buying one of these wasn’t a trivial decision for many customers.  But back then, you bought an appliance with the expectation that it would last for decades..  It was an iconic design in its time.  Norman Rockwell featured it prominently on a Saturday Evening Post magazine cover in 1948, on the eve of the Truman vs. Dewey election:

OK, back to my toaster.  I was expecting to get something with the insides so gummed up that I would have to disassemble and clean everything, along with replacing the power cord and who knows what other issues.  But no!  This thing is some 75 years old, but it’s in great shape.  It works perfectly; all of the controls are functional. 

The power cord is the old woven cloth style, and those are usually, well, toast.  This one is nearly unblemished, and I don’t have to do anything to it.  Nice.  The innards are surprisingly clean; I really could not find any reason to take it apart.

This is what the guts look like as-received.  Awesome — No baked-on gunk, nice and clean.  Wiring looks great.  See all those little vertical springs?  They provide tension on the wire guides that keep the bread from touching the heating elements and bursting into flame.  Holy shit, that’s incredibly expensive to manufacture when you could just bend some spring wire into a shallow arc and form attachment hooks at either end.  Which is exactly what Sunbeam did with their next-generation Model T-20. 

Damn, if someone tried to exactly reproduce this thing and sell it today, it would have to cost thousands apiece just to break even.  Nobody would buy it..

This toaster has three controls.  There’s a darker/lighter rotary knob on one side, and on the other side, there’s a similar knob that lets you have the finished toast stay down for a while to keep it warm, if desired.  This is the warmer/pop up adjustment: 

 The third control is on the bottom.  The power grid back then was subject to voltage fluctuations and regional variation (It still is, but to a lesser degree).  So this third adjustment lets the user compensate for that.  I haven’t had to use it, but here’s what it looks like:

And here it is, still dutifully making toast on it’s way to it’s 100th birthday in twenty years or so.  I love how the little lens at the bottom center lights up to let you know it’s working.  A totally unnecessary feature, but still kind of cool.

Lastly, here’s a workshop/garage update.  I’ve decided to panel it all with knotty pine.  Here’s where I’m at as of tonight:

I’m all out of knotty pine panel boards, so I figured I’d go to the building supply store and buy some more.  Nope.  They had none, and said they couldn’t get any more.  Checked a couple other places, and same thing.  Well, shit.  I live in northern Michigan, and there are pine trees everywhere I look.  If I can’t find knotty pine here, I can’t find it anywhere.  Some searching connected me with a sawmill about an hour away and they told me they could have my 500 square feet ready in about a month.  So I said go ahead and asked if they needed a deposit.  She said if I don’t show up, someone else will snap it up straight away, so no problem.  Huh, OK..  Anyway, my wood should be ready in a couple weeks.  I’ll hook the fishing boat up, tow it up to the sawmill, pile the boards in/on it, strap ‘em down, and drive back home.  The wood will weigh 800 pounds.  The car can tow 3500 pounds, and the boat/trailer only weighs about 2500 pounds, so it should be fine. 

Oh, here’s a recent side project. I bought a piece of ironwood last year, just out of curiosity.  Ironwood is so dense it sinks in water - It grows in the desert southwest and in northern Mexico.  Very gnarly and tough to work with.  I finally found a use for some of it.

I made a handle for another 3/8” tungsten-carbide burnishing rod I had, shown here alongside a piece of the parent wood.  Turned out nice, I think.