gorfchampion
New member
I found this 1950's Perey turnstile at the August 2011 Goldrush Days in Rochester, MN. I had only seen one other turnstile for sale in all our years of going to Goldrush Days. This one generated a lot of interest throughout the day. The seller had turned down many offers, all of which were lower than his asking price. I didn't even make him an offer until the end of the day when I discovered the turnstile was still sitting there. After a brief confrontation with another would-be buyer (who had made an offer earlier and was rejected), the seller and I came to an agreement and he helped me load the turnstile into my van. The other would-be buyer was not happy!
The turnstile is really heavy so I asked my neighbor to help me unload it. Then I started disassembly. Once the top cover was removed I then realized the extent of the damage that had occurred over the years. The hydraulic mechanism that provides resistance for the tri-arm was broken right off. The casting had snapped off in 2 places, rendering that part of the mechanism useless. There was also duct tape wrapped around various parts of the "guts" for reasons I'll never understand, and it was missing one important return spring as well.
The entire "guts" is held in place by 4 main bolts on the bottom and 2 smaller screws from the front. In order to get the assembly out of the body, though, I had to grind off the top cover screw mounts from the inside of the body, which must've been welded into place at the factory AFTER the mechanism was mounted in place. I suppose they made it that way never thinking anyone would ever remove it.
Even with those screw mounts removed, getting the casting out of the body was a nightmare. The "arm" had to be removed first, and do you think that was easy? Hardly. The arm casting is not mounted to the shaft with a press fit machined pin, but rather a tapered double ended bolt, the strangest thing I'd ever seen. It took me a while to figure out how to even remove it. In all my years as a machinist I never seen the likes of such a bolt.
Back to the hydraulic mechanism. My attempt at using JB Weld to fix it failed miserably. I finally had a professional weld it, and luckily it held even though the casting was not of the best quality after all these years.
Another hurdle was trying to remove the diamond plate (that you walk over) from the bottom. Those screws were NOT coming out! I tried using a torch to heat them and had no luck at all. I finally had to drill the screws out.
The turnstile was too big for me to sandblast, so I took it to Winona Welding and Sandblasting. $35.00 for the entire thing. A very reasonable price.
I disassembled the "guts" as far as I could (the main gear hub drive pin would not come out) and cleaned it all up, put fresh lube on the bearings, attached the welded hydraulic mechanism back in place with a new return spring, and primed, painted, and clearcoated the face.
I drilled and tapped new holes in the base for the diamond plate, which is really cool because you can see the wear marks on it from people walking over it thousands of times. I also countersunk the holes deeper for new bolts. It turned out pretty good considering all the rust that was underneath the plate!
I primed, painted, and clearcoated all the parts separately. The body was sitting on top of a 4x4 block of wood, freshly clearcoated with maybe half an hour of dry time when my 2 year old son somehow got past my wife while they were playing in the driveway….and he made his way into the garage and knocked the body over! Luckily it didn't land on him, and it miraculously only had a few scratches, which I promptly repainted and clearcoated again. It looks good and you can't see any flaws.
The hydraulic mechanism has an adjustable pressure screw that I set just right, and it gives the tri-arm bar a small amount of resistance as the patron walks thru, and the new return spring allows the arm to snap back into place.
I shined up the brightwork with metal polish. The armrail is aluminum, and the top cover and tri-arm bars are stainless.
I don't know where the turnstile spent it's working years. I wonder if people going to a ball game or a concert were the ones who wore down the diamondplate. It more than likely was not in a subway, as it is not the "token" type of turnstile with a counter. It was probably used for simple crowd control. One thing is for sure, people were a lot thinner when this turnstile was made! I wear a size 34 jean and I barely fit thru it without turning sideways!
I hauled the turnstile down into The Lost Highway Arcade in pieces, and assembled it there. I made tickets special for my arcade that gamers can hand over to the "ticket-taker" (me) before they walk thru the turnstile. I hope that people will walk thru and find it fun. It certainly is a good conversation piece. I had a lot of fun restoring it!!
A few before/after pics:
For more pics and info, go here:
http://s1142.photobucket.com/albums/n601/gorfmaster/1950s Perey turnstile restoration/?start=all
The turnstile is really heavy so I asked my neighbor to help me unload it. Then I started disassembly. Once the top cover was removed I then realized the extent of the damage that had occurred over the years. The hydraulic mechanism that provides resistance for the tri-arm was broken right off. The casting had snapped off in 2 places, rendering that part of the mechanism useless. There was also duct tape wrapped around various parts of the "guts" for reasons I'll never understand, and it was missing one important return spring as well.
The entire "guts" is held in place by 4 main bolts on the bottom and 2 smaller screws from the front. In order to get the assembly out of the body, though, I had to grind off the top cover screw mounts from the inside of the body, which must've been welded into place at the factory AFTER the mechanism was mounted in place. I suppose they made it that way never thinking anyone would ever remove it.
Even with those screw mounts removed, getting the casting out of the body was a nightmare. The "arm" had to be removed first, and do you think that was easy? Hardly. The arm casting is not mounted to the shaft with a press fit machined pin, but rather a tapered double ended bolt, the strangest thing I'd ever seen. It took me a while to figure out how to even remove it. In all my years as a machinist I never seen the likes of such a bolt.
Back to the hydraulic mechanism. My attempt at using JB Weld to fix it failed miserably. I finally had a professional weld it, and luckily it held even though the casting was not of the best quality after all these years.
Another hurdle was trying to remove the diamond plate (that you walk over) from the bottom. Those screws were NOT coming out! I tried using a torch to heat them and had no luck at all. I finally had to drill the screws out.
The turnstile was too big for me to sandblast, so I took it to Winona Welding and Sandblasting. $35.00 for the entire thing. A very reasonable price.
I disassembled the "guts" as far as I could (the main gear hub drive pin would not come out) and cleaned it all up, put fresh lube on the bearings, attached the welded hydraulic mechanism back in place with a new return spring, and primed, painted, and clearcoated the face.
I drilled and tapped new holes in the base for the diamond plate, which is really cool because you can see the wear marks on it from people walking over it thousands of times. I also countersunk the holes deeper for new bolts. It turned out pretty good considering all the rust that was underneath the plate!
I primed, painted, and clearcoated all the parts separately. The body was sitting on top of a 4x4 block of wood, freshly clearcoated with maybe half an hour of dry time when my 2 year old son somehow got past my wife while they were playing in the driveway….and he made his way into the garage and knocked the body over! Luckily it didn't land on him, and it miraculously only had a few scratches, which I promptly repainted and clearcoated again. It looks good and you can't see any flaws.
The hydraulic mechanism has an adjustable pressure screw that I set just right, and it gives the tri-arm bar a small amount of resistance as the patron walks thru, and the new return spring allows the arm to snap back into place.
I shined up the brightwork with metal polish. The armrail is aluminum, and the top cover and tri-arm bars are stainless.
I don't know where the turnstile spent it's working years. I wonder if people going to a ball game or a concert were the ones who wore down the diamondplate. It more than likely was not in a subway, as it is not the "token" type of turnstile with a counter. It was probably used for simple crowd control. One thing is for sure, people were a lot thinner when this turnstile was made! I wear a size 34 jean and I barely fit thru it without turning sideways!
I hauled the turnstile down into The Lost Highway Arcade in pieces, and assembled it there. I made tickets special for my arcade that gamers can hand over to the "ticket-taker" (me) before they walk thru the turnstile. I hope that people will walk thru and find it fun. It certainly is a good conversation piece. I had a lot of fun restoring it!!
A few before/after pics:
For more pics and info, go here:
http://s1142.photobucket.com/albums/n601/gorfmaster/1950s Perey turnstile restoration/?start=all
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