Coke machine

stryped fired this volley in news:e7ca32b4-f4b7-42f9- snipped-for-privacy@x3g2000yqd.googlegroups.com:

For years, until we grew bored with it, I had an old drum-fed nickle machine.

Including the refrigeration work and the coin rejector, it only took about four days to get it back in working condition. Re-painting took longer.

LLoyd

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What did you have to do? Did it perform well?

stryped fired this volley in news:bed53e5a-6656- snipped-for-privacy@c36g2000yqm.googlegroups.com:

I had to repair two corroded spots in the line on the hot side of the compressor, evacuate and re-charge the system, clean and bead-blast almost all of the mechanics, including the inside faces of the coin rejector flap, lube everything, and fix a worn latch plate.

That was back in the day when R12 was over-the-counter. Nowadays, you'd have a choice of doing the repairs then having a pro re-charge it, or perhaps converting it to propane. Except for flushing and replacing the oil charge with a compatible lubricant, there's not much to that. There wasn't anything unique about the compressor, and the system was a simple capillary tube type, except that the whole system was a bit over-sized to accommodate heat gain from sitting out in the sun all day. On cool days, duty cycle was very short, which is frowned upon today -- matching the compressor accurately to cooling load is considered "green". I guess in the 50s when that thing was made it was, "whatever's enough, plus some."

Getting the exterior back to snuff was more difficult, requiring a good deal of "body work" to fix pits, dents, and general rust around the gasket line of the door.

Oh... and it only accepted the little 7oz (6oz??) glass bottles.

But it worked great. It even had a built-in water cooler/fountain. Didn't make change, almost always accepted coins properly.

Earlier, I had said it was a "nickel" machine. It was a ten cent machine that accepted one dime or two nickels.

I originally got it for free for the hauling from a church that wanted it out of their basement.

LLoyd

I have the equipment to charge my car and my certification to buy refridgerant.

They were 6 oz bottles. 7UP was named as an advertizing thing because they gave you 7 oz. Trivia mode off. I might be better to get a compressor out of a more modern refrigerator to get a little better greeness. ;>)

Of course, last I checked there were four different types of certification. Your "charge my car" suggests that you have the cars certificate.

The high side lines were often steel. A bit more trouble to service, compared to copper.

Thanks for the trivia. Now, a jingle: "Pepsi Cola hits the spot. Twelve full ounces, that's a lot. Twice as much for your nickel, too. Pepsi is the one for you."

Most compressors don't list their horsepower rating. But the LRA number give you a good indication.

608 Type I, II, III and R-410A, plus Type 609.

Type I Certification ? Small Appliance (5lbs or less of refrigerant) Type II Certification ? Medium, High and Very-High Pressure Appliances. Type III Certification ? Low-Pressure Appliances.

Universal is all of the above. R-410A is add-on training for 609 folks.

609 is mobile A/C only. However it does NOT cover hermetically sealed R22 systems.

you guys mentioning coke, i just read this just last night, someone here posted this link in another tread,

you'll have to scroll down 4/5ths the way down the page to...

"Corporations and the Military-Industrial Complex"

to get to the part about coca-cola. trivia about coke during WWII.

b.w.

[...]

Someone mentioned "drum-fed". Is this the same as the "big rotating honeycomb" I recall seeing at one time?

[...]

If I recall, these were actually 6-1/2 oz. bottles.

Frank McKenney

-- A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems. -- Paul Erdos

-- Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887 Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)

Frnak McKenney fired this volley in news:AYCdnfv3-qL4F1nWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Yes. It had a drum that would hold about 50 (51 or 54, IIRC) bottles in a staggered pattern three bottles high. The drum was rotated by a ratcheting handle on the front of the machine that was only mechanically attached to the drive after coins were inserted -- otherwise it just moved freely.

Each bottle came around behind an aperture plate with its holes arranged so that the bottles were presented 1-2-3 bottom to top as the drum was indexed through three delivery positions. A bottle could not be extracted through a hole unless it was perfectly aligned, so even though you could see (and even grasp) the other two bottles on (say) the 'bottom' delivery, you couldn't pull out any but the one.

It was simple, almost foolproof, and rugged, but it lacked "loading density". The same sized stack-fed machine of later years could hold 2-3 times as many drinks in the same footprint.

Coke also realized fairly soon after this machine was made that putting a cold water fountain on the side of a cold drink machine was a dumb sales tactic.

LLoyd

LLoyd

LLoyd,

Thanks for the memories... especially since yours are clearer than mine. I had even forgotten about the bottle/hole "partial match", which is surprising since I spent a bit of time as a pre-teen trying to figure out how to wiggle a bottle _just_ right...

Haven't seen any of the horizontal-loaders recently either -- the long-slotted drop-a-dime-and-lift-out-one-drink coolers with an inch or two of cold water in the bottom.

Ah, nostalgia.

Frank McKenney