Wiles Senior cooker.

I had the Wiles junior at a local car show doing its normal thing these days.

I bloke came up to me and said his father or Gran father worked for Boyded who made/assembled 235 Wiles senior cookers and that he had access to an old photograph of the site in Sydney a told me the location was 150 Forbes St East Sydney.
I didnt have much time to talk to the bloke, but I did give him my card with Email .

When I got home I checked the address and the building still stands and Boyded/Buick built a large Three story car dealership/assembly/repair factory in 1937 which was fully equipped.
This is a break though until now its been guess work.
Then this gem was e mailed to me and I had to share it......the Chrismas Dinner 1943 inside that building showing Three senior cookers in the background.

Also Two pictures of the Wiles Junior at the car show the other day, note the tea urn was used without its insulation on the copper tank and current progress on the stainless steel replacement jacket for the urn.

regards

Ron

A new stainless tea urn jacket fitted
I ended up purchasing a small spot welder.
I didn't have the sheet metal skills to do the interlocking folded seams like the original tin plated and soldered set up.
I would be flat out finding anyone still with the skills too.
The urn jacket looks almost exactly like the original.
I used on the base some hard heat resistant fibrous insulation meant for a wood heater and the rest of it insulated with expanding foam which was poured in and filled the gaps..
The stainless jacket was sandblasted so the paint would take to it.
A stainless steel hose clamp is used around the neck of the urn instead of soldering and will help any future disassembly if required.
The last time I used the cooker the reflex water gauge started leaking.
I found the glass is cracked and my spare one was too.
Now trying to track down the correct 15mm thick Boron glass and make non asbestos replacement gaskets.
This Wiles junior only needs two more steaming bins to be remade in stainless steel to be completely finished and 100 % usable from a cooking point of view.
The original soup bins if restored , because of their soldered design wouldn't be a good idea to use except for static display.

A small improvement was made to the tea urn in that a copper baffle in the neck of the tea urn has now been made removable so it's alot easier to clean out any sediment in the bottom of it.
Photos to follow later.
The curved angled stainless around the neck was done.by cutting stainless steel metal strip's, then folding to make 90 degree angle.
The curve in it was done by hammering one flange with a hammer and small metal drift to expand the metal in the flange creating the curve which was spot welded to the top covers.
I am happy with myself that I could do some old fashion hand forming of metal.

pictures

Pictures

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Originally Posted by 101 Ron

I had the Wiles junior at a local car show doing its normal thing these days.

I bloke came up to me and said his father or Gran father worked for Boyded who made/assembled 235 Wiles senior cookers and that he had access to an old photograph of the site in Sydney a told me the location was 150 Forbes St East Sydney.
I didnt have much time to talk to the bloke, but I did give him my card with Email .

When I got home I checked the address and the building still stands and Boyded/Buick built a large Three story car dealership/assembly/repair factory in 1937 which was fully equipped.
This is a break though until now its been guess work.
Then this gem was e mailed to me and I had to share it......the Christmas Dinner 1943 inside that building showing Three senior cookers in the background.

Also Two pictures of the Wiles Junior at the car show the other day, note the tea urn was used without its insulation on the copper tank and current progress on the stainless steel replacement jacket for the urn.

regards

Ron

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Great progress there, Ron.:TakeABow:
White coated geezers stick together separated from all others for lunch, was there a Hierarchy back in those days? :Thump:

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Originally Posted by 4bee

Great progress there, Ron.:TakeABow:
White coated geezers stick together separated from all others for lunch, was there a Hierarchy back in those days? :Thump:

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Not just the white coats - all the suits and ties were at their own table as well. I would say there was most definitely a hierarchy.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Not just the white coats - all the suits and ties were at their own table as well. I would say there was most definitely a hierarchy.

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"Good Evening Gentlemen, Dress for Christmas Lunch for General Hands will be Navy Combinations with as much Grease Stains as possible.

Middle Managers Dress will be White shirts & Neckties.


Inspectors Dress will be Spotless White Dust-coats



Maybe it is just me that sees the inequality. [bighmmm] [bigrolf]

I noticed alot of small.details and why that photo was a gem.
One was the number of young faces not fighting in the services.
If you had a trade you couldn't sign up.

The Australian made 60 tonne servex hydraulic press in the back ground and a belt driven drill press and other machinery
One of the cooks is wearing a white cooks apron......I have found one of these......as new condition marked D arrow D.
The type of tubs sitting on the back of the Wiles/Boyded cooker is described in certain information I have on the cookers,but didn't know what they looked like.
The hydraulic press in the back ground I have just finished restoring one and why the interest.....we seem to be unable to make our own stuff in Australia any more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 4bee

"Good Evening Gentlemen, Dress for Christmas Lunch for General Hands will be Navy Combinations with as much Grease Stains as possible.

Middle Managers Dress will be White shirts & Neckties.


Inspectors Dress will be Spotless White Dust-coats



Maybe it is just me that sees the inequality. [bighmmm] [bigrolf]

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Or simply that people are wearing dress appropriate to the work they do - office workers in suits, boilermakers etc in overalls, those working in the drawing office wearing dustcoats to protect their suits from chalk dust (remember the use of "pounce" when drawing with ink. (And I'll bet most of those in dustcoats are wearing ties under them, and even some of those in overalls, with their jackets in the cloakroom.)

You need to remember that everyday dress for men at that time included white shirt and tie plus jacket unless your work required something different. Even in wartime - and even in the armed forces a lot of the time!