On November 20, 1986, this Oster Kitchen Center by Sunbeam came home with me from the Zellers store that used to be at the 5 Points Mall here in Oshawa, Ontario.
Wow… some days that feels like yesterday.
A couple of months back, I decided to get creative with some leftover turkey… for sandwiches — way better than tuna, by the way!
Anyway, here’s why I’m telling you all this…
While I was grinding up the turkey, my mixer kept starting and stopping until finally… poof! …it blew the safety switch.
When I shared my disappointment with a friend (let’s call him Bill), he mentioned he had an Oster Kitchen Center of his own, sitting unused, and offered it to me.
A few days later, Bill showed up with his Oster Kitchen Center.
Turns out, his was way older than mine… and… when he plugged his base and mixer arm in, in order to test it… well… his Oster started making the very same sound as mine had before it stopped working… so Bill quickly unplugged it!
After much fiddling with both his mixer and mine, Bill tried plugging in my base again… this time, without the mixer arm on top.
And guess what?
It worked perfectly!
Bill then tried turning the piece at the bottom of BOTH his and my mixer arms that fits into the base that make the two pieces work together.
Bill’s mixer arm would NOT turn at all… and mine turned but with difficulty!
Bill then suggested that he may be able to fix BOTH appliances.
I asked him to take photos of what he finds inside… so that IF this worked… I would be able to share this good news with YOU!
Here’s a photo of what it looked like when Bill got the mixer arm open… quite the mess inside, right?
Apparently, his mixer arm did not have the metal plate like mine has and so he had to remove that metal plate in order to get at the cogs.
With the metal plate out of the way, Bill started taking out each cog, one by one, for a thorough cleaning.
Here’s how Bill walked me through the repair process, in case you’re feeling brave enough to try it yourself (or know someone handy who can)!
Bill removed the outer jacket of the Oster mixer arm to expose all the gears inside.
After removing an internal plate that is part of the beater bar removal buttons, he had additional access to the gear cogs.
Three of these cogs were secured to their shafts with snap rings that had to be removed using special snap ring pliers.
Bill methodically removed each cog and laid them out in order on a piece of cardboard to make sure they went back in, in the correct order.
The old grease had turned to varnish on the shafts and spindles, which is the reason why everything was stiff/ceased to turn.
Bill cleaned the shafts and spindles with a spray product called Gunk, and then he lubricated them once clean with a white lithium grease.
The Gunk and grease were purchased from Canadian Tire.
Everything was reassembled in the reverse order and once the cleaning and drying was finished, my Oster Kitchen Center by Sunbeam ran as smooth as it used to!
Once destined for the trash, it’s now back in the cupboard, ready for action whenever it’s needed again.
Did this post bring back memories of your own vintage gadgets?
Or maybe you’ve got a repair story of your own?
Drop a comment below… I’d love to hear all about it!
