Bellows, Blowers

Greetings, I am making my first two stage bellows and have read where people have covered them with canvas insted of leather. Does this work well? Has anyone done this?

What are my opitions on change from a hand crank blower,change to a electric blower. I seen a while back a person made a blower out of a clothes dryer, and also need to be able to shut of the air.

Hello everyone , Im Scott and Im new to blacksmithing. Thought it would be a fun way to spend time in the backyard. I found a place to pick up a blower for the coal forge I made , it's called www.Surpluscenter.com they have a bunch of blowers and odds and ends. I found the pricing on E-Bay restrictive for a used blower and this place had stuff right in my budget . I dont work for them and have no attachment to the company.( thought other might want to know about it) Ill post some pictures as soon as I can . By for now

I didn't see a CFM rating in the description of this blower: SurplusCenter blower Do you think it would have enough pressure and volume for a Centaur fire-pot? Thanks, Don

I was trying to get a blower I had unstuck. When I pressed the shaft out to replace the keyway, the race came with it and it looks as if the shaft has been flared oblong with the race...take a look...do I need to redo the shaft on the lathe and turn out another race or what?

hello , i just pickecked up an old forge blower. It sems to be in good working order, but the fan inside makes a noice like the think is loose, and when i touch it, it is infact loose. Is this how it should be, or should it be nic and snugg in there?

here are three champion 400 blowers of three different sizes 8 "------ 12" ------ 16 " all three have the same gear box arrangement but different blower housings. I have right many 400 blowers but just got the 16 " so I changed out one of the 12" ones. thought this may be of some interest to anyone contemplating purchasing a champion 400 blower

Hello. My schoolfriend a few days ago found an old electric forge blower in his barn (he lives on a farm) and I was intending to buy it from him, being under the impression that it was a small thing with a broken motor. Boy was I mistaken. He refused payment for it, and said he tested it and it works beautifully. He told me that I might want to divert some of the air away from the forge. I wasn't sure until he held up his hands to show how big the air expelling hole was it's about 6 inches diameter, and the whole thing is darn huge! I'm definately going to use a hose valve to regulate the amount of air put into the forge, diverting the excess back out into the air! It'…

Hello, I picked this up at a auction a few years ago. I think I paid a $1 for it. It's loose, although it does need cleaned. It is missing the caps on one side, but I can make them ok. The question I have is what is the deal with the weird bearing housings? I've asked some of my engine buddies about wether you use oil or grease to lubricate these bearings. The 2 differnt resevores with a drain valve is just way weird. I'm thinking the resevore closest to the blower housing, is maybe for grease (wheel bearing) and the outside one is for oil as it has a wick. The drain would be for draining off the used oil everyday or so, maybe. It has babbit bearings that I thin…