Vintage Leland 100# Dual Action Mixer Rebuild

Ulma Doctor

Infinitely Curious
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Feb 2, 2013
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I get to work on some interesting equipment in my normal work.
last week was no exception.
i had a new customer look me up out of the blue, sayin' that he heard through the grapevine that i worked on
food processing equipment.
he made an appointment to drop of his industry venerated leland 100# capacity dual action mixer for evaluation and repair.
i was ecstatic to see an old mixer that may have come over on the Mayflower, in my shop :cool:
it's a pleasure for me to work on old things.
i'm fascinated by the engineering the makers employed to create their products.
i often marvel at how well things were made and the attention to details normally missed or overlooked or, maybe i'm just strange :oops:

here are the pictures of the unit nonetheless!
Leland 100DA70 (circa 1960 est)

For those who have never seen a mixer,
this workhorse was designed to mix 100 lbs of food products, dry or paste
we usually see them being used as sausage mixers.
ground pork is spiced with dry ingredients and allowed to thoroughly mix.
the action of the mixer quickly and evenly distributes the spices.
that's a very important attribute.
in sausage making, the product gets hot easily and relentlessly sticks to everything.
if they use a mixer quickly and at low temperatures, the product stays firmer and therefore easier to deal with

leland 4.jpg leland 1.jpg

the disassembly took place, it was not pretty
leland 13.jpg
leland 10.jpg

the gearbox may have had the original oil in it :confused:
the gears are cast iron with the exception of a fiber reduction gear
the motor is a Master's Manufacturing Co single phase 115v, 1/2HP- capacitor start
leland 6.jpg

the simple gearbox has radial bearings and a box seal to keep oil out of the electric motor.
the bearings were kinda a PITA to get out by normal means, so i had to think out of the box...

IMG_2566.JPG

i welded a 1/2' bolt to the blind bearing and used a stub piece of pipe to create a fulcrum point.
i used a small picklefork to wedge the bearing/bolt from its bore without damaging the case.
i installed modern ABEC3 bearings to the gearbox and motor, and replaced the box seal.

unfortunately for the dual action driveshaft, it saw too many hours of unlubricated use and was no longer serviceable, replacement was the only option.
leland 8.jpg

i replaced the driveshaft and reassembled the unit and gave it a test run.
i had to reset the driveshaft endplay after a few moments of operation for sufficient running clearance
here is the unit reassembled and ready to go another 50 years!

leland 2.jpg

as always, thanks for reading!:)
 
Cool, that brings back some memories. My Dad had a job working in a bakery when he was in high school (1940's). One day he was cleaning the mixer and managed to flick the power switch on. "tink", off went the corner of his front tooth! Us kids always thought it was pretty cool that he had gold corner on his tooth like a pirate or something, but of course it wasn't quite a dramatic to explain it happened in a dough mixer!

-frank
 
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