It followed me home

[Thomas Dean]

Nice score KeyKeeper! I have a blower like that one, sorta on a permanant loan from a friend, I just need a reostat switch for it. Get a tee for the tuyere and if needed a reducer to weld to the branch of the tee for the air intake. Cut a donut for the flange to bolt onto the firepot, cut a plate and hinge it at the bottom of the tee for an ash gate. You can weld a length of bar onto the bottom of the ash gate giving you a handle to dump the ash and the weight of the bar will keep the gate closed. (this will be running with the hinge side.)

[keykeeper]

RBrown: Those are carriage bolts. They came out real easy. The bottom slots in the firepot would require a 6" pipe to cover them, the bolt holes are about 7" center to center. I'll probably try to find a large black iron bell reducer coupling to build into a tuyere. I found one that goes from 6" to 3" online, will try locally. Fab up and weld on some ears to bolt it on. Then use a 3" tee for air and ash cleanout/dump. At least that's what I'm thinking at this point.

KevinD: Thanks. My domestic engineer had just mowed it while I went to pick up the firepot and blower. Love that woman! (She is really supportive of my blacksmithing endeavors.)

Thomas Dean: Thanks. The air grate is sort of bubble shaped. Will take a 6" tee to cover it. Do they make a 6" tee? I was thinking bell reducer to match the shape of the bubble, then tee for the air and ash.

[KYBOY]

21 nice new raiload spikes came home with me today. 13 or 14 of the HC's..I can easily get more but this will do for now

[Thomas Dean]

That would work great also. Pictures when complete, right? And yes they do make large tees. We have 2- 36" tees in our laydown yard now. They were for a job that got canceled, also about 80' of 36" pipe....sure would make on heck of a gasser!!

[yesteryearforge]

Keykeeper
I did one like that one time that I found at the dump
I used a Tee that was 6 " on each end and 3 " going out the side.
I used black cast iron sewer pipe fitting and just welded it together.
If that blower is a champion 50 then you have really got something there.

Mike Tanner

[keykeeper]

Mike: Yep, I think it is a 50, marked on the side near the bottom. So, it's a good one, huh? I need to figure out how to wire it up. Do I need a rheostat, or just wire it straight?

Thomas D: Sure would like to see a gasser that big, the burners would be huge!

-aaron c.

[BT]

Keykeeper

Nice Blower. That should be a universal motor (brush type), designed to run on a rheostat. A light dimmer switch or a fan rheostat will work, but you may have to replace it every few years. I use one of those old ceramic rheostats on my Buffalo, which has a similar motor. These rheostats show up on Ebay all the time.

[Thomas Dean]

Definitly would be a BIG gasser, and you would need to hook it up direct to a gas well to supply the fuel! IIRC, you can get 15-20amp reostat switches at the big box stores to use on this type of blowers. I just need to wire mine up but the problem is with the blower I have the wires were cut off less than an inch from where they go into the motor! The big DUMMY!

[yesteryearforge]

Keykeeper
I havent used one before but I know several guys that swear by them.
I have bought several for them off of ebay.
These guys are pretty old school and dont do computers.
They all use the old reostats on them.
It should be a very strong quiet blower from what they tell me.
Great find

Mike Tanner

[Frosty]

I have a similar Buffalo blower (2" outlet) and motor but use a modern motor instead. I choke the intake to regulate air though I do have an electronic cycleydoodle rpm controller for induction motors but power drops with rpm.

For all the hassle of finding a 6" cast iron fitting to adapt for your tuyere you might consider the exhaust pipe option. Nobody but NOBODY has noticed what mine is made from even when they looked. The only thing that'd give it away in an obvious manner is my use of a flapper exhaust cap for the ash dump.

It's fast easy, cheap and looks fine.

Frosty