Swan Toaster Plastic Case Removal

[G3NDI]

I have an old Swan Houseware Ltd toaster, Cat No 00434. It is still giving good sevice but I need to remove the plastic case in order to get at the two aluminium(?) reflector panels behind the two coiled wire, ceramic elements. They need cleaning as the over the years the burnt crumbs, carbon on the surface, etc., have caused the toast to now brown unevenly.

I suspect the case is held by plastic clips or similar, as the screws on the base by the label appear to be holding the thermostat assembly. I am reluctant to undo the assembly screws as it is not obvious they hold the case to the internal metal body.

Does anyone know what is the procedure for removing the plastic case?

Rodney Fry

[Martin]

Re: Swan Toaster Plastic Case Removal

Radio Hams do like to tinker and in this case Rodney I think if you attempt to remove that plastic case it will just crack and break. Judging by the overhead photo you supplied it could well go silent key on you. 😉

[G3NDI]

Re: Swan Toaster Plastic Case Removal

I hope it won’t be a SK toaster, Martin, but thanks for trying! The trouble with modern assemblies, such as in cars, many plastic items are not assembled with screws, but depend on formed clips with wedge shaped ends which are easily pushed into the main body, slipping into a small aperture. The problem then comes in pulling them apart assuming one can actually access the clip.

I have had a further look at the casing and found with a little gentle bending of the
plastic case there were just visible three further flaps/clips with angled wedges on the case back; also there was a single flap below the control knob. In addition there were three clips below the metal decorative front panel. I smeared some high temperature silicone grease on all the wedge sliding surfaces and using a scriber and small flat screw driver I eased the clips below the panel out of their apertures, then starting at the top of the case furthest from the control assembly, which had a little more flexibility with a little judicious bending of the plastic I eased the three clips out and then the one below the control knob. The lone screw at the end opposite to the controls was also undone as it held the end of the metal assembly. See image of removed upper part and bottom part with metal assembly.

Now I could see the pressed metal assembly and found it was all held together by
small “ears” in slots and twisted. Also the four Philips head screws underneath the
control assembly were not screwed into this part, but into the body of the base that now remained – I tried looosening these, but bottom case need not want to come apart.

I managed to free the front reflector by untwisting the small tongues and ears. I did not manage to extricate the rear reflector. Using Brasso and Silvo cleaners and a glass fibre pen I was able to clean the front reflector to a mirror finish and with the pen pushed through the bars cleaned the couple of burnt carbon patches off the rear reflector. I vacuumed the dust away to remove any pen glass fibres. It was reassembled with a small dab of silicone grease on the push down lever pistons and the plastic clips.

It still works, Martin, but took all afternoon!

Rodney

[Author]

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