Bellows, Blowers

After having the opportunity to use a hand crank forge blower, I really want one. The reason? They're "organic" feeling, in that the flow is much easier to control and make fine adjustments to than, say, a ball valve (my curent setup) Also, they use no electricity, and they're extremely quiet. This is a huge bonus in comparison to the little vacuum I have as a blower right now; I wear earplugs more for the vacuum than for the ringing anvil. And for all that, they put out a pretty decent amount of air. I've been looking for a vintage one, but they seem somewhat rare, and tend to be expensive on ebay... so I'm considering building one. After looking here: broken link I ca…

I have a blower and need help in determining the manufacturer. Part of it is Champion but have no idea who made the majority of it. There are cast marks for Philadelphia, Wilmington, Trenton. What do you think? Thanks, Craig

A recently completed project that seems worth sharing…I inherited an old cannedy Otto blower some years ago from a shop clean out when a friend was moving. This poor old blower had lost all its gears and been converted to a belt drive from an electric motor. I needed a hand cranked blower for my portable forge so I piddled a bit with different ideas. Chain sprockets seemed to have potential… then we went through a half dozen gear motors at work in a short span…this is a gearbox off of a sew gear motor. The foot broke off, but it was otherwise perfectly good. It took a bit of fiddling to get it to run, but it actually works pretty well. The original gears would be better o…

Just picked up a small handheld bellow for $180. Not intending to use it, just thought it would be a neat piece to hang on my future shop wall. It is in good shape but needs a new rubber belt. It currently has a shoestring for a pulley drive belt. Does anyone know if an auto parts store would carry a rubber belt for this size? If not, is it possible to custom cut and reattach rubber to size?

Happy weekend, I recently got a Canedy Otto, Western Chief blower. The handle does not have a counter weight, and if I spin the handle and let go, It stalls pretty fast. Is this because I don’t have a counterweight, or is it just other friction? The gears have oil up to where the casting itself says, and the shafts are oiled. If it is indeed a counterweight problem anyone know where to find one/make one? Thank you in advance. Asa

We proudly present: Overall dimensions: 67" x 62" x 60". (And yes, it's sitting on a standard 40" x 48" pallet.)

Never done maintenance on a blower. It turns with some vibration. It feels like the bearings are loose - sort of like loose bearings on the old Ashtabala bicycle cranks. No binding at all. The gears are in good shape. I've only taken the front blower cover and top off for a look. There is a little bit of play in the fan. I am having a little trouble loosening the nut holding the fan. How much force will that fan take? The fan blades are at right angle to the blower shaft and they appear to be undersized. They set about an inch from the top of the blades to the inside of the blower housing and about 1/4" from the sides. Is this normal? How many sets of bearings does this b…

The blower motor in our forge ( controlled by rheostat) surges at mid range setting. Does this sound like a rheostat problem or a motor problem?

Hi, I'm Jent I'm building a gas forge. I'm currently debating wether to use one or two burners. The volume of the forge is 18x18x33 cm, and the insulation is made from insulating bricks and ceramic wool. I was thinking about using the double burner from devil forge but i have no experience with this burner. Can someone please help me with this? Thanks in advance.

Earlier today I replied to a 3 yr old Lancaster blower topic, but scratch that... I acquired a Lancaster blower in not the best condition. Improved several aspects already, but now getting to the keep-or-toss decision. A key problem is the blower shaft bearings. Here's a photo of the "balls" and the inner race from the blower-side end of the shaft. If I were to replace these bearings with actual polished 1/4"bearing balls, what will happen? No doubt it will initially roll a lot smoother than now, heh. Longer term, will the lousy race "win" and ruin the balls? Will smooth balls roll ok and tend to smooth that lousy race? The outer race looks about like the…

Since late April I've spent multiple evenings and sometimes been out well into the next morning when my schedule allows figuring out exactly what happens when you ask a metalworker to do a carpentry and upholstery-adjacent project. I also discovered my love for pneumatic staple guns. This will hopefully become probably the largest functional Viking age forge in the country with a slightly anachronistic double lung bellow but we let that slide since having someone man the period accurate dual single lung bellows for the whole day at a week long festival could get rather boring after an hour or two. the bellows have a circumference of 2.65 meters/8'8" and the dista…

I got this in a trade today, and I’ve never seen another like it, it’s a “Lancaster forge an blower company”401 model made in Buffalo New York, (NOTE) every champion I’ve ever seen, found, had or have had, says the words blower and forge company NOT forge and blower company, it’s overall shape resembles a champion 400 but it’s most definitely not a 400 by a long shot! it’s has bolted on access plates, one on the back and one on the side, brass holders for the shafts, and a completely different mount than a 400, has anyone ever came across one of these? Are they some sort of copy on champions design from the competition?

ISO a Gear Box Cover for a Buffalo "Silent 200" Forge Blower>

Hi all, Thinking of building a box bellows for some shows ive got coming up this summer. I'll be demonstrating and wont have any electricity hookup for my normal blower fan. I also do not have the budget to find an old hand crank bellows. I've been watching some videos and I get the gist of how they work (they look really quite cool). Is there any reason that they cannot be done vertically? I would prefer to run a bellows by pulling down on a handle rather than a hosizontal push/pull motion (just what I find comfortable). In theory I cant see why this wouldnt be effective allowing gravity to handle the downward stroke and just pulling it up. Also by transferring…

I picked up a lovely set of Alldays and Onions bellows on ebay and have restored them, and put them to use. Maybe 125 years old I reckon. Triple chamber, works smoothly. Leather is original, just treated with “neatsfoot” oil. A little woodworm, now treated. The top board is warped, but doesn’t affect the function and adds to its charm. At first I think one of the leather flap valves was sticking, I think, and the top chamber wasn't expanding, and I was dreading having to unpin the leather bellows but as I used it, it began working and now is working just fine. I have hooked it up to my modern side blower forge by cutting a hole in the back so I can run electric, manua…

I made this gate valve for my new JABOD forge and thought folks might like to see how the insides work. It was pretty easy to put together, and all the materials were screws and pallet wood that I had on hand already. Starting with the back board of the forge, I drilled a 2" diameter hole in the middle. I used a big Forstner bit for all the holes, but since the pallet wood was so hard (red oak), I had to hog most of the material from the middle of each hole with a twist bit. The middle layer has two holes spaced 2" apart: one that directs the blast into the tuyere and one that exhausts the excess air. The sliding gate has a 2" x 4" oval. …

Well I Didnt get much help from my fan so I converted it in forge blower Maybe it help someone . It's just old car squirl cage attached to fan. Will it work probably, will I use it in future Ian not sure. VID_20240802_105500.mp4 Got inspired by this video

I found this blower a few weeks ago in a pile of junk locally. It was unique enough I thought it would be a fun one to restore. The chain has individual cast iron links with no wear, I don't think it was used much if any. Really cool blower. I also have the same blower but belt powered rather than hand crank. Not sure what I plan to do with them since I use a Champion 400, anyone interested?

Hey guys! My first ever post in this forum, so hello to all you awesome people! So, I want to make a simple box bellows for a Jabod forge, and I'd like the blower to be as compact as possible. However, I'm not sure how compact I can make it while still having enough power to reach welding temperature. So far, I have already designed something I like, inspired by some YouTubers, with dimensions of 50cm x 22cm x 20cm. I assume this might be too small? Also, what coal should I buy to get started? Is there something you guys would recommend for newbies?

Hi everyone, Cleaning out an old blacksmith shop and we found this unique hand crank blower. Or at least I've never seen this style before. It took us a while and a lot of oil/wd40 to even figure out what it was for. When you turn the hand crank it powers two fans inside the box(?) And air comes out the exhaust pipe on the side. I can't find any makers marks and have never seen one like this.If anyone has any ideas or would like more pictures let me know.

This documentary short shows a traditional blacksmith shop in Alcántara, Spain. Please note the two-lung bellows, as well as the rather clever rig the smith uses when he doesn’t have an apprentice handy.

I had the good fortune to acquire a Royal Western Chief H blower. This belonged to my wife's great grandfather. Is there any way to tell when the blower was manufactured? If not, what is the time period that model was made. Thank you for any information you can share.

Hand Cranked Forge Blower Build Here are the pictures of my Hand Cranked Forge Blower Build, made using a Mole Hand Grinder found on the internet (which has a 1 to 10 gear ratio), some old side pannels off a PC, a few small rivets, some protective steel corners that came with a kitchen worktop and some 12mm Aluminium angle iron. Here are the picture's of the grinder on its own. The back piece with the right angled brackets. Starting to rivet together the fan blade using 12mm aluminium angle iron. Cutting the brackets to size and drilling the holes for the rivets. After riveting the first part of the fan case together. I then ran out of rivets but decided…

Is this good blower for forge I mean rpm? Speed can be adjusted . I have bottom blast forge I was thinking for charcoal to use this blower hook it from side

Hello all, if someone gets time, would you kindly measure the leg length for me? I got my hands on the blower mount but I'm going to have to have some pipe cut and bent. After that the restoration will be complete. Thanks in advance!