1950 Sunbeam T-20A Toaster Malfunction

[captainclock]

Hello Everyone, the other day I bought from a local indoor flea market for $3 a 1950 Sunbeam T-20A Toaster.
For some reason or another whenever I go to plug it in the automatic toaster mechanism activates itself on its own without anything being in it (it still works when you put toast in it though).
It goes through this process continuously until the toaster is unplugged or until a slice of bread is inserted and toasted, and then after the toaster goes through the toasting process it works fine for about 15-20 minutes or so and then it goes back to the "automatic activation" process again without having anything in it until its unplugged or another slice of bread is inserted and toasted.

Anyone on here have any experience with these old toasters that would be willing to share any repair tips with me? I would really like to get this toaster running (it had always been my dream to have one of these ever since I read about these marvels of technology online) and there doesn't seem to be much info online about how to repair these things.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[gadget73]

My guess would be the switch contacts are stuck together. Any toaster I've been inside of before has a switch that is pushed closed when you push the handle down to begin toasting. Its usually not too hard to find, basically just look for where the leads from the power cord go. One end usually goes to the heater element, the other end goes to that switch. If the switch failed internally, or if something is stuck that is keeping it pressed down, thats likely your issue.

 

[cubby01]

Even once you've fixed the old toaster may I suggest you put it on an outlet timer. That way if it gets left plugged in you don't need to worry about it burning down the place while you're out. I have a twist-to-set timer for my soldering iron.

 

[68custom]

my grandparent had one of these as long as I could remember. I found a similar one at a garage sale and thought I would restore it. never was able to get the contacts to work right consistently. sometime it would lie in wait for bread sometimes it would go in to auto mode. one morning I was making some toast (rye I think) and I look up and the damn thing is throwing flames . I put out the fire, cleaned up the mess, threw it in the trash and bought a new toaster. hope you have better luck but I would never leave one plugged in 24/7.

 

[captainclock]

I don't intend on leaving this thing plugged in 24/7. I would unplug the toaster after using it and put it away (that's what I do with my late 1950s Toastmaster toaster I'm using now). I just would be interested in getting it working like it was intended to. Also I did replace the old cloth cord with a modern heater cord so the chance of a fire should be reduced quite a bit.

 

[captainclock]

Ok, so I checked the switch that activates the elements and what not and I took it apart, cleaned the contacts and what not and put the switch back together and then put the toaster back together and went to test it.
Nothing happened.
Now the toaster is completely dead, it won't trigger the mechanism when you put a slice of bread in or anything.
I double checked to make sure everything was put back together like it was supposed to be and it was, but I'm still not getting anything, whereas before it was working but just not quite up to snuff.

Any ideas as to what could of happened to the toaster?

 

[captainclock]

My guess would be the switch contacts are stuck together. Any toaster I've been inside of before has a switch that is pushed closed when you push the handle down to begin toasting. Its usually not too hard to find, basically just look for where the leads from the power cord go. One end usually goes to the heater element, the other end goes to that switch. If the switch failed internally, or if something is stuck that is keeping it pressed down, thats likely your issue.

Well, this is one of those fully automatic toasters that Sunbeam made for many years, so there's no lever to pull down to activate the toaster as it does it all by itself when you put a slice of toast in it.

Anyways, I was able to check the switch out and take it apart clean it and reassemble the switch and what not but now the toaster is completely dead, so I don't know what I did wrong.
But I was wondering if maybe the switch could be bad or maybe when I cleaned the contacts (I used steel wool on them to clean them) I may have accidentally taken just enough metal off the contacts that it may have made the switch non-functioning because now there too much of a gap between them...

Any ideas?