The World's #1 Vacuum Cleaner Advice, Repair, Discussion & Information Forum

Author Topic: Goblin Commander S  (Read 6309 times)

Offline beko1987

  • Member
  • Posts: 5044
  • Country: gb
  • Gender: Male
  • Let's take it apart!
    • My blog
Goblin Commander S
« on: December 23, 2014, 11:59:38 pm »
I found this machine languishing as SWMBO's friends mums spare vac! Said friend had it whilst I changed a broken cable on her DC04, and asked if I could refurbish it. These are VERY rare, rarer than I thought going by comments given! Me, I just see it as a cool old vacuum. Said comments allured to the designer of this machine being previously employed by Hoover, and designed the Turbopower 1, arguably my most favourite machine (I know  :underchair:_

Anyway, one thing led to another, and in late November it came home to be rescued!







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K11WrxNKTiY&list=UUv0y2E43HyJMX85p-Wxro0Q

It's not without it's faults:

The brushroll (unobtanium) is VERY worn
Belt was comical, I could stop the brushroll with my finger
Handle is cracked at the top, with previous glue there before
Bag has a few worn corners sadly
Rear wheels are quite worn internally

However, the poor thing looked like s :censored:t, and I was intregued, and being so rare I'll probably never see another one, so let's find out!



Luckily the bag top isn't broken, just untucked!

But then, what's this?





Lol

My car at the height of it's popularity! (Well, a lesser car than mine, I have a Volcane TD)



£10k for a boggo one!

Was hiding nothing, just packing it out for reasons I'm not too sure of







WTF...

Was blocked solid







It's a shame about the brushroll, still, it's the best I've got!

I popped the hood





Spring reference







I pulled the bumper off



And moved onto the handle



As well as the original bolt, there are 5 machine screws holding this together, I see it's had problems before!





A reference shot of the wiring



The motor pulls out rather un-gentlemanly, but once out it's out!



The handle release mechanism comes out. I thought it was broken, it turns out it's not (although its very worn), just missing a spring

Onto the motor



Fan wasn't broken luckily



Fan off



Pictures jump a bit sadly, but the 3 screws hiding under the fan release the motor, then I took the top off! 3 screws on the side, unplug the carbon brush wires and the top comes off



Carbons are good



Motor was full of hair



I had a go at getting the coil out but it's crimped in, so left it alone. I drizzled some oil into the bearings which did work well tbh



Luzzed the motor back together and finished the bag



Everything was then washed and dried, and polished where needed



There should be a spring under here. Luckily a random spring, possibly from a Dyson fitted in perfectly and now the handle lock works!



Motor back onto the fancase







I cleaned the wire a bit before it was fitted, and fitted it!



Nice clean motor back in



I decided to quickly fire her up to check...


nothing...

 :censored:

There then followed a week of trying everything I could think of, checking all cable joints, checking the cable by wiring it onto the 652, ask a fellow collector with a commander s for a pic of his wiring, bombarded another collector with tons of questions!

have a pretty picture of the coil assembly



Double, triple, doubted myself and checked the wiring again!



Someone elses Commander s to check my sanity



Eventually, I took it to my stepdad who ran his multimeter over it, and detected one side of the coil was dead... After looking at the coil assembly and noting only the 4 top tags hold it in, I borrowed a vice, small screwdriver and hammer, and tapped the locks out, and with a bit of levering, with only a slight bit of damage the coil came out! The issue was quickly spotted



Where I'd buggared about trying to remove it before I caught the internal fan on the coil. Other side looked worse but had continuity so left it alone



Some soldering later, this VERY lunchtime I went over, and lashed it together...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhN6pMHO3Nw&list=UUv0y2E43HyJMX85p-Wxro0Q

Yeey! So tonight I put it back together



Motor wired in again!



Since the motor was in anyway, I put the bumper on the hood and the hood on the vac!



I had some belts that someone said would fit





It fitted well. Gave the brushroll ends a lick of grease and fitted that too



Baseplate on



Put the handle back together



The damage on the handle top. I did try to glue it up sympathetically but I put one initial tweak on the screw and it went again, but didnt get any worse whislt I nipped the screw fully up so it can stay!



The bag was re-assembled and fitted





Only joking, she stands now!





Jobs left to do:

Test it tomorrow
wait for the bags to arrive off ebay that I bought today...
clean the cable fully, it looks really shit now!
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!


Offline Madrat

  • Member
  • Posts: 2923
  • Country: england
  • Gender: Male
Re: Goblin Commander S
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2014, 10:50:33 pm »
Well done  :tiphat:  I can't believe how few Goblins are left now  :(  Friend had a tiny Goblin rio cylinder, it was fantastic.

Offline MVacs

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6374
  • Country: gb
  • Gender: Male
    • Manchester Vacs - The Independent Dyson Specialists
Re: Goblin Commander S
« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2014, 12:45:09 am »
That crack should fix with Evo Pipe Weld.

What age would that be? Late 70's?

Offline beko1987

  • Member
  • Posts: 5044
  • Country: gb
  • Gender: Male
  • Let's take it apart!
    • My blog
Re: Goblin Commander S
« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2014, 07:40:53 am »
Ah I would fix it but as its not mine, didn't. Well, slight lie, I did dribble a bit of glue into the cracks which fixed it right up until I nipped the handle screws up whereby it split again...

Was only a vanity project really, the owner is having it back when fully finished, although she did express an interest in selling it, have had a surprising amount of interest already, seems a lot of parts are unobtanium, which this machine has!

70's?, nah, early 90s. Came before the more popular Laser uprights. Its not done bad for a £60 boggo plastivac of its day!

Another thing I did notice was the shopvac logo is moulded into some of the housing parts. Must have been built under licence!
Collector and restorer of vintage vacuums, Dyson Appreciator! Come and see my blog, where I am uploading all my mountains of brochures, manuals and other vacuum cleaner paperwork, and also my youtube channel @beko1987!


 

 

Trade Dyson Spare Parts

 

 

Dyson Spare Parts

 

 

Freestanding Dyson Cordless Vacuum Stand

 

 

Buy a Dyson DC04 Wand Handle

 

 

 

 

Buy a police truncheon

 

 

Instagram

Dyson Spares, Parts, Advice   Follow us on Twitter

Manchester Vacs on Instagram