simmonds

A beautiful piece from sculpted steel. I'd call that Art for sure.

Very nice.

That is a sweet anvil !!! He did a great job. :)

My local hardware has 3 inch aluminum flex dryer vent hose as well as the 4 inch. I am currently using the 3 inch. It was a little tight fitting over the blower. This works very well but it is ugly and does not seem very durable. I think I will be checking out the auto parts flex exhaust pipe option soon.

brian - now those are some cool pics!

Why dont things like this ever happen here in Oregon. :(

The few I have seen here at our local scrap yard were cast. Not good for much.

Those look GREAT! Fantastic work.

NICE toy Aaron!

His shop is almost as clean as mine!!! Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Nice anvil! Where did you find it?

Great Job!

Murch - PLEASE do post pictures when you are done.

Looks like a good time to me! Great job.

I have no experience with babbit bearing and have never done them myself. What is the exact process of pouring babbit bearings? Also, what advantages or disadvantages would this have over converting to pillow block style bearings. Chris

BT - GREAT idea!!! Hmmmmm, now I have some thinking to do.

Thomas - Great idea! If the grinder idea doesnt work out like I hope that would also be a great option. Here is a picture of the old grinder I am thinking of using. I broke the old grinding wheel off of its hub and what is left looks perfect for a flat belt pulley!

Aaron, great photo! Great idea. Thanks for sharing that. that could be another cool option if the grinder idea doesnt work out the way I think it will. Chris.

Thanks for the great replies. I was thinking of loosening (hopefully) the pulley on the existing shaft and sliding it in 1/2 inch toward the impeller. The pulley will still stick out of the housing plenty far enough for a leather belt and that will give me enough room for a pillow block bearing assembly on the existing shaft. The existing shaft is 1/2 inch diameter. Just have to fab up some mounts for the bearing to keep the impeller centered in the housing. I figure the crank grinder will turn the blower at just the right rpm. We'll see how it goes. If anyone has pictures of what this blower looked like originally that would be great too!

Here are a couple pics of a old belt driven Canedy Otto blower I got from a old blacksmiths scrap pile located on my neighbors property...see story at: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/followed-me-home-51/index38.html This blower seems to be missing the bearings and the cast assembly that holds them. I am guessing at the age of this blower to be late 1800's or so and as such would have had Babbitt type bearings. I have not been able to locate a picture of a blower like this one and am trying to come up with ideas to get that great fan floating smoothly inside her housing again. The only idea I can come up with is pillow block bearings and some steel or wood blocks to mount them at the right height to center the shaft in the housing (if that makes sense.) Anyway, any ideas or help would be great. Also I was thinking of running this blower off a old hand crank grinder with a belt pulley in place of the grinding wheel. Then I could mount the crank on the forge with the belt running down to the blower mounted below the forge.

These two items followed me home today. The geared, chain block and tackle was 15 bucks and the other threaded turn buckle bar was 50 cents and will be used as the drive shaft for my power hammer I am building. Not a bad day at all! :D

Beautiful;)

I've been hammering away on the wrong kinds of projects all this time :o

I had heard that my neighbors property was once owned by a Blacksmith who resided there from the early 1900's to about 1955. The other day while we were heading into town we noticed the current owner of the property tearing down the old barn that had been leaning badly and my wife asked to to stop so she could inquire about buy some of that old barn wood. As soon as we pulled in I noticed a small pile of rusty metal in the distance next to a small building. From the distance I could make out a engine block and what looked like a clutch - or maybe an old blower! I asked the owner if I could go over and look at the pile of rusty metal and he agreed. Upon arriving at the pile I knew instantly that I had found the old Blacksmiths scrap pile next to what had been his (very small) smithy. The clutch was in fact an old Canedy Otto belt driven blower minus the bearing assembly. He said I was welcome to the take what ever I wanted from the pile so I returned quickly with my trailer and proceeded to dig out ALOT of old wrought iron including several wagon wheels, wagon seat buggy springs, lots of leaf springs and chunks of iron bars square and round in different lengths. The small pile turned out to be a fairly large pile that the earth had tried to claim from all the years and I had to dig about a foot down yanking out piece after interesting piece of iron and steel. That old Smiths pile made it from his old forgotten smithy to mine and is once again a active pile of useful future projects. This has been my best find yet!

Does anyone know if there is a plan or blueprint on building a belt sander. I have a nice 1 1/2 horse motor that turns 3500 rpm and was wanting to build a nice belt grinder from it. If anyone has pictures of a homemade belt grinder that would be great too. Thanks, Chris.