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Another thing this Westy WD 10 has on the cooling unit that I've never seen before is a Visible Gauge site glass for the Freon... This unit still works like Day one and it's cool to see the Freon bubble up in there as it's flowing... tried to shoot video,,, didn't work that well... but neat little assembly...

That is pretty sharp looking, I'd definitely be interested in seeing a video of it!

These sight glasses are very common on commercial refrigeration equipment, the idea was ( in the past with R12) was to provide a quick general "gauge" of the system charge without connecting a system pressure gauge to the unit. & you'd charge (IE; "top-off") the system until the sight glass became "clear" of foaming bubbles with only a few tiny champagne size bubbles flowing by the glass "window" this approximated the charge in the system. basic, but it worked.

Similar devices are still in use today, but they are for diagnosing a systems charge "at a glance" & really aren't ( supposed to be anyway) used to charge up a system. you weigh in the charge of refrigerant now a days. in fact they are quite useless when you use a mixed R12 substitute like "Hot-Shot & such. there are many more specific practices involved in properly charging a modern system, but the again this is just a basic overview of the little critter.   

Hmm..can' say I noticed that on mine.  How far on you on the Westy WD-10?

Jared

I just thought it looked cool... the unit is a nice working originall.. going to restore it will all parts as is.. Thanks for the insight JohnnieG... I'll see if I can get a video shot of it.

Slapshot42:  I have just started tearing it down, it's all in peices,, at the body shop now..

I have a photobucket album if you are interested of the WD 10.

The sight glass in the system is most likely not original, only if it has a expansion valve will you use a sight glass, the sight glass is used to make sure there is a full column of liquid at the expansion valve.   The small coolers use a capillary  tubes which is a critically charge system and if you use a sight glass and clear the glass you will most likely be over charged, the best way to charge a cap tube system is to weigh the charge in, and on a expansion valve system you should charge to super heat.

Good advise, but most junior woodchucks don't have means to weigh in a charge, best to leave it to the pro's in most cases.  :blush:

so...if we're not "junior woodchucks"...what are we?  :Oo:

"Junior-Woodchucks" IE: soda-machine hobbyists who remember dumping a 3-cans of R12 into the ol' Chevy  on the weekends in summers past to keep their AC running for the Saturday night date. or perhaps sellers that claim the machine runs fine the last time they ran it ( if it ever ran) & it just needs a "shot" of freon.
but I digress. 

Sight glasses are neat, but as stated earlier, they usually aren't found on a small vending machines with a capillary cooling system. I have seen them on "giant" size chest coolers of the day that had semi-hermetic type compressors (belt-driven)

yep....just needs a little shot of freon!   :tounge:

Thats my fav line " It was working when it was new just needs a shot of 100 dollar a pound of freon you can have it leak back out" :darn:

Is that what R12 is going for these days? I had no idea...

im not 100 percent shure just a guestimation, last time i charged auto ac's late 90's it was over 70 a pound. I was just making a point if there no freon in it theres a reason why llol

easy to find out, Google it..but be sitting down so you don't crack your head when you hit the floor or the ceiling!  :tounge: