Oster model 222 Latherservice machine

[KQY61]

Hi,

Anyone have one of, or know something about, the Oster model 222 Latherservice machines?

I have scored some soap pucks for it, and they work great in a mug with a brush for face lathering. But, now I am curious about the machine they were made to work in. There is precious little out there in cyberspace regarding it. It appears to have used a motorized brush on the soap puck to produce the lather.

There is plenty of information on the other style of lather machines out there that used liquid soap. My searches on B&B showed up enough about those, but nothing about this one. All I found anywhere was a photo of the instruction manual for it.



Here is a shot of the soap pucks themselves, and the only printed information on the package they came in:



Stan

 

[mattdenicola]

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has insight as well. I don't have one or anything, it just seems interesting!

 

[cpacamper]

Does the soap package list ingredients?

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

No. Nothing printed on the package other than what is in the photo. Soap used to be an ingredient in and of itself at one time. These have to be no newer than the 1950s by my guess.

Stan

 

[bassopotamus]

Oster is still around, although I suppose it is just some holding company that bought the name or something. You could email them and see if they have some kind of archive.

 

[bassopotamus]

Not the exact model, but same Idea.

 

[Tulsa77]

Great video link.

 

[bassopotamus]

Great video link.

Youtube literally has a video of everything.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

Well, the same idea in that hot lather comes out of a hole. That one has a tank with liquid soap inside. I was hoping for more details on exactly how the 222 does it with a soap puck and brush of some sort.

Perhaps it was not all that good an idea and died out and, as a result, none survive to find out more about. The soap is pretty good in the mug with a brush, though. Now, I need a bowl of Yardley to compare it to....

Stan

 

[bassopotamus]

Hi,

Well, the same idea in that hot lather comes out of a hole. That one has a tank with liquid soap inside. I was hoping for more details on exactly how the 222 does it with a soap puck and brush of some sort.

Perhaps it was not all that good an idea and died out and, as a result, none survive to find out more about. The soap is pretty good in the mug with a brush, though. Now, I need a bowl of Yardley to compare it to....

Stan

Aha, my bad. Probably wasn't a very popular design because it is pretty rube goldberg sounding

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

I found some pics online for the 222, so I thought I would add them to the thread. One day, I will find one of these at a reasonable price, and then there will be lots of pics!

Stan

The main unit:



Under the cover:



I think the water goes under the left side cover, the soap under the right.

From what I can gather so far, the water is heated in the unit, then pumped around the soap puck until it foams up, then out the spout.

These are the soap pucks:



Stan

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

Here is the patent for the unit, thanks to @Ryanshh. If anyone wants to see how the thing worked by pumping hot water over a soap puck, it's in the patent drawings. Clever.

US2925202A - Lather making machine - Google Patents

Stan

 

[RayClem]

See if you can find a traditional barbershop (not a hair salon) with a traditional barber, preferable one who has been barbering for a while and get his take on it.

 

[KQY61]

Hi,

Yes, I still use an old school barber who uses an Oster Latherservice machine. The problem is, every such barber I have ever been to where they use one, use the type that works with liquid soap. None have had this style. I suspect it didn't work so well as the liquid soap models.

I have never seen a model 222 in the wild. I didn't know there was such a beast until I won that eBay auction for the soap pucks. I did spot one on eBay at one point, but the price tag was too high for my idle curiosity. I'd get one just to see it work and then not use it. It takes a while to heat the water up as it is meant to be turned on in the morning and run all the while the barbershop is open. It isn't like the Schick thing that used canned foam they sold back in the 1970s. You know, for home use.

Stan

 

[Bobbers]

I had a similar lather machine like the model 222 but it was a different brand. It used a soap puck and it had brushes that created the lather. I was going to restore it for the fun of it, but when I started looking in to doing so I found that on most of the machines the brushes were almost always worn to the point that they did not work and replacement brushed could not be found. Got everything else cleaned up and working but without brushes no lather.