In 2011 I posted that I was going to rebuild an A200 mixer. I did not get a chance to tell the story and would like to do so now. Mind you, I wrote this story about 11 years ago.
My Hobart A200 Mixer
By Paul Bisceglia 15 December, 2011
Hobart invented the dough mixer in 1908. The first Model A-200 dough mixer was introduced in 1933, and has been touted as the world’s largest selling mixer.
My particular A200 model mixer was built in early 1985. This mixer endured much abuse and overuse in its short operating life, which came to an abrupt end in an industrial fire in 1988.
When I came upon it shortly afterward; scorched and soot stained; I asked the inevitable question, “What are you going to do with it?” “Why?” everyone would reply. “It doesn’t work!” I asked how they knew, and they answered “because it was in the fire!” I knew then that I had to rescue this hulking, sturdy work horse of a machine before it ended up in the scrap heap.
After lugging it back to my garage, I plugged it in, turned it on, and…it worked! Albeit, with minor grinding noises in the transmission. So, I took it completely apart to repair. Unfortunately, there it sat… and sat. In that same condition, it sat in the dark, dank corner of my garage for the next 23 years, collecting dust and grime and rust.
Discolored by fire. 23 years later. Disassembly of parts
More dissembled parts
While I always enjoyed baking, it recently became a real passion for me once again. So, I decided to try to bring this “old friend” back into service.
Spending nearly 4 months and quite a bit of money on it, I am just about ready to return it to an operational status. I’ve replaced quite a few of the components, including a broken shaft, a worn worm wheel, and all of the bearings. I also stripped it down to bare metal, primed and repainted it a shiny red color.
Collecting reusable parts
Some of the painted sections curing, before reassembly
Wiring it back up was a challenge, though. I had previously removed the rotor; the stator; and the capacitor switch plate assembly so that I could clean the inside of the motor housing. Unfortunately, over the years I had forgotten how each wire was supposed to connect. Trying to find the correct wire diagram, let alone a service manual, became an exercise in futility. There was none to be had, as far as I could tell. I even asked some seasoned electricians, but they really couldn’t help much. After much trial and error, I finally wired it up correctly. And without burning anything up!
Another real challenge was assembling, then disassembling, and then reassembling the transmission gears over and over again to ensure that everything went in correctly. At one point, I accidentally dropped a lock washer into the motor compartment, and had to take the rotor and stator completely out again to find it! Talk about a set-back! But, not enough to deter me.
After that, everything else started going back together more smoothly than I anticipated. Probably due to my in-depth knowledge of how the gears go together; having done this way too many times!
Once all buttoned up and wiped down, I cautiously powered it up. The motor hummed, and the agitator shaft started spinning in first speed. Good news! I watched and listened to the agitator shaft rotate. I did not hear any abnormal noises in either the transmission or the planetary. I shut it off, and then shifted to the second speed. It worked. All that was left was to try the third speed. Powered it off…shifted… powered it on and… it worked also!!!
Completely reassembled
Sitting atop the stand inside of my garage, ready to go!
This has been quite a journey for me and my mixer. I want to thank all those people who have helped me out. They include Eric Lutz from Hobart; the people at Fixya.com; and the numerous websites that I gleaned vital information from. All that is left for me to do is to hoist it up onto my mixer stand and do the final test. Mix some bread dough!
Well done and a great story; these full stripdowns and rebuilds are real labours of love - and very satisfying when your newly refurbished mixer sounds like a sewing machine!
Do add some pictures to your post once you are fully up and running. I recently split down my Kenwood Major PM900 and got the pedestal powder coated (bad paint peeling) - not a complex job like yours, but it's always satisfying to see and use a well refurbished piece of kit.
Lance
Find some of the pictures that I took in 2011. Sifting through my PC. Once I find them I will try to upload them.
upload pics. They are on my hard drive. I do not see a "tree" in the edit bar when trying to insert jpegs or any pic. I did manage to find my pics when rebuilding. But it might take some time to upload them.
Another way to add pictures is to upload the image to a hosting site; I find https://imgbb.com pretty good.
Then when creating or editing your TFL post, position the cursor where you want your image and click the mountains icon on the toolbar and paste in the imgbb direct link.
I resize my images to 650 pixels wide before uploading to imgbb - I'm not sure if that's necessary or not.
Lance
Followed your suggestion. Uploaded pics to imgbb. Will try to upload them from there. Thanks Lance!
Update: Finally got the pics uploaded. Very confusing process. Wanted to put in photo descriptions under each pic. Sorry.
Well done with the pics and your mixer looks great!
Regarding pix, just press enter twice to give a double space below your text, then insert the pic. Then single space, put in the text you want, then two more line spaces and insert next pic and so on.
Lance
None of the pics will download.
Not sure what you are referring to.
There are no pics posted & they can't be uploaded.
I can see seven pictures, not sure why you can't?
Lance