Restoring a vintage kenwood food mixer

[Nozzle]

I'm restoring a vintage food mixer that my late Nan used to cherish. I've taken, plenty of photos as I pulled it to pieces and cleaned it up and I've shot blasted the aluminium case and sent it away for power coating. The mains cable strain relief is okay but the cable was very worn where it went through the ali housing which was quite a concern as...

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..the further I took it to pieces I realised it doesn't have an earth, though somewhere on a plate I can see the double insulated symbol. Despite this, should an aluminium housed appliance with an open framed motor and switch REALLY have no earth?!?! There is no obvious earth terminal inside the electrical housing, but that's not to say there wasn't originally an eyelet to a chassis screw. There is good evidence the entire cable has been replaced in the past, perhaps by a family member who didn't replace the earth eyelet too. Naughty if true, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Perhaps a DIYnot member has such food mixer and would be kind enough to tell me what theirs looks like..

Though the question is still out there, should I retro-fit an earth eyelet?

Nozzle

 

[EddieM]

I would suggest that as it seems of great sentimental value, that you cosmetically tart it up and have it as (a somewhat strange) ornament, and then buy a new mixer. IIRC correctly double insulated appliances should not be earthed.... although I could well be wrong on that.

 

[wkdhd]

That's a Chef isn't it? Excellent machines with loads of attachments. I'd love to own one but 2nd hand ones are really quite expensive.
Kenwood chefs are highly desirable machines

 

[richardrich79]

I've just bought one of these, so much better than the modern plastic rubbish.
May I ask where you sent it for powder coating?
there's a yahoo group 'Welcome to We Actually Collect Electric Mixers!' search WACEM in Yahoo Groups, there's loads of info there.
And no ours isnt earthed either.

 

[Nozzle]

Hi everyone, thanks for your responses. I can confirm it is a Kenwood Chef A701A to be precise!!

Richardrich79 - I did the shot blasting myself then took it to Aerocoat near Yarmouth for the powder coating - I've taken alloy wheels there before and they do a great job. I'll post up some photos of the returned items when they come back. can you confirm that the flex on your mixer is two core not three core? When I took this one apart the lead was three core but it was obviously not the original as all the cores had been tinned with solder before screwing into the terminals (this is very much something my Dad would have done)

It doesn't feel right to have a metal cased appliance without an earth :-s

Nozzle

 

[Nozzle]

Well, the restoration is finally complete. I had the aluminium chassis pasts powder coated after I shot blasted them all. Since the powder coating is a little thicker than the original paint finish then I had to cut out some clearance spaces with a burr in a Dremmel. All the screws are BA which is a bit of a pain working with, but some were missing and replaced. The motor speed regulator set-up seemed okay so I left that well alone. Polished/buffed all the plastic parts (some of which are early "bako" type plastic) but it all looks nice and clean now.

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Nozzle

 

[wkdhd]

I'm jealous! That looks great

 

[Nozzle]

Thanks, it was quite a rewarding project.

Nozzle

 

[richardrich79]

That's a lovely job you've done. sorry for not replying that my flex is indeed 2 core not 3.