The neighbours had a household Bay Marie (food warmer) on hard rubbish. It's a 1960's era gizmo complete with the original instructions and warranty card. It belonged to the neighbours mum and attempts to sell it had failed. It was pretty messy from food and actual dirt, and tripped breakers when trying to run it.
The instruction page clearly states that it eliminates cooking drudgery. I *HAD* to fix this thing... I got sick of running outside to re-trip the breakers while trying to fix the electrical issue, so took it to Dad's garage which is isolated from the house. It wasn't tripping 10 amp power breakers on cheap household adapters, so the assumption was it had a ground leak which was tripping the fusebox safety switches. Dad found the thermostat controls were actually servicable and basic contact cleaner solved the problem...probable arcing inside.
So Garrick, dad and I gave it a speed-strip-down and washed everything and reassembled on Christmas eve (I think...). It was ready to go for Grandma's Christmas Day lunch. 1000W lower internal element, and 300W top element.
Seems to have worked for the occasion.
