SReynolds

That is what mine looks like. I use it all the time to no ill effects. In fact, the threads have cut throught (worn through) the box. It holds tight too and will use it till it strips and buy another.

Right! I blew the counterwieght clean-off this bellows. I have had a number of backfires, but none while I had visitors here, thank the Lord!

By the way, I was trained on this forge, which I operate for the society and waas told that the explosion(s) I have is generated by the steam when too much water is applied and too quickly applied. The air blast really helps out, but if you stop the air too soon, it will still backfire, although not quite as strong.

I have never opened the ash dump when I leave the fire for hours at a time. To my knowledge I haven't had a "gas" eplosion when I'm not there. Then again, if a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a noise??????

Yes. Keep the air moving when you add that water. You will experience little problems.

No. I do smear a light coat of grease on the threads of them thread-in caps and a bit on the inside of the cap simply to prevent any rust. Just as a precaution.

Most have experimented with all sorts of grease and oils as well as myself. I greased one up pretty well and had taken it back apart at a later date. The oils washed out the grease anyway. I have tried gear oil to diesel fuel and what works best is simply to assemble with engine oil (you know, like 15w-40 or 10w-30 etc.) and keep her lubed with a light oil. I like ATF and or hyd.system oil.

Packing them caps with grease and not on the bearings won't hurt anything. I don't know what the advantage would be outside of what I explained with a light grease film.

I hope that helps.

You are asking about bottom shaft only? That is the one in question? I have never had to change bearings, but it is done. If it is a bit loose then it is dead-on. Too snug and it won't operate correctly. We tend to think in terms of tapered rollers. One at each end of a shaft with anything from preload to as much as .001 end thrust. That won't happen on this. This is totally different engineering.

You will want to tighten that REAR set to eliminate the end thrust to the point the shaft turns free. Any binding at all and you have it too tight or there is a bearing problem or dirt etc causing the bind.

NO grease. Just light oil. Hydraulic fluid/ATF or 20 weight engine lube is just right. There will be some noise, but it shouldn't growl too loudly. The bearing covers won't eliminate any noise but that top case cover likley will.

Hope this helps................

Yes, the oil will run out from the front bearing set. IT may seep a bit around that rear cap/cover too. They don't require a fill of oil Rather just a film. Turn the crank and add oil at the same time. That splashes it around in there for the upper bearings. The lower set of bearings see the most oil as it should. It turns the fastest and is at the bottom.

Exactly. The 400 pictured above is a stand alone unit, thus that stand. I failed to mention that other 400 gearboxes are mounted right on a forge, but failed to as it does not pertain to the above post.

The forge you have appears to be the 147 or 146 model. It uses the mounted blower (model 40 perhaps) It uses no fire pot, thus it has none.

That 400 blower is nearly twice the size of the original. You have a pan forge that requires an 8 inch blower fan and the 400 you have is more like 12 inch. The 400 is designed as a stand alone unit, thus the stand. It doesn't attatch to that forge, but it can be if you use some dryer duct. The stand was designed to replace the leather/wood bellows found originally in a blacksmith shop.

Hey, did you get this solved? I have been through these and can help you out if need be.No not with parts. I don't have parts. I have a working knowldge of these old hand crankers. I use them. I like them.

Yeah, they are more like 70 years old................did someone tell you they were from the 1970's? I don't how you aquired this thing.

Someone dropped off a truck load of hard coal at the balcksmith shopI work at. It didn't work well. True, I could make some heat,but it wasn't right. I Had to clean it up by hand and haul it away myself.

It worked out well in that the blacksmith supply dealer HEATS with nut sized hard coal and WANTED this stuff!! So we did a trade for soft coal. What a difference.

This was some time ago, when I had just FIRST started smithing. I didn't know any better and thought it must be very difficult to smith with coal. Boy, was I wrong!!!

Hey,one thing I liked (love) about the hard coal......no fly ash. It was super clean.

Right. You are totally correct. It will NOT pull out untill you take the front set of bearings apart. You said that you had read the tips? I explained exactly how to go about this, in detail.

You wil have to remove that nut from the fan, and then the backing nut, them that dust cover/bearing cover and another set of nuts and bearing cones.

You will have to make a socket from a shallow well 1 1/16 -1/2 drive. A 6 point will be best. I cut 6 equally spaced notches in the sides. They are 3/8 inch wide notches and 5/8 in. deep. I used a die grinder, free-hand to cut. It don't have to be machine shop exact. if you cannot do this have a buddy make you one or buy the socket and take it to the machine shop. That will cost 100.00 an hour so.......................55 bucks most likley.

That socket as you have already read in my write-up contacts the HUB of the fan. The HUB. Where it is beefy. I hit it with the impact and it instantly spins the fan a bit. Don't go overboard here. Stop. Reoil the fan shaft threads and turn it off by hand. It really IS that simple.

The threads have to be clean before hand. Oiled etc. If this thing is total rust, then you must take percausions for that. Heat perhaps. OIl it for some days with WD or what-ever.

I hate to read about screw driver jammed in the gears and broken/stripped gear teeth. It isn't needed.

Here is an example of a forge that does not draw correctly. I get tired of explaining to visitor about the smoke/apologizing to them. Some really can't tolerate the smoke or smell.

The flue tile is 8X8 and quite tall. The State of Ohio realized it wasn't working so a fan was installed inside the flu to pull the smoke and gas inside. That still doesns't do it. The best mothod I found is to build a hot wood fire and slowly add the coke with no green coal. Keep the air flow up and get the fire up to forging temp rapidly. By maintining the fire properly, little smoke is produced. Keeping the doors/windows open also helps.

The roof has a very large vent to allow the smoke to drift upward and vent out doors, much like that of a maple sugar camp.

That large hood above the forge is designed to trap and hold the smoke/gasses and fly ash at head level. The hood is not vented in any way.

With the above set-up, there is certainly no problem generating the coal smoke effect of a real/operational blacksmith shop.

Never have seen that style either! If you require a stand, get a truck brake drum as the base. It won't move. They are VERY heavy.

I don't mean a pickup truck either. I mean a truck. 16.5 inch I.D. by 7 or 9 inches across. That will hold you and they have that flange with all the bolt holes too!!! I have several if you care to drive over and get one. Any truck shop will have them, or visit a salvage yard.

If you search thias site in this here solid fuel forum, you "should" locate my write-up on servicing this forge blower assy. There are also other sites that have some really good tip as well. Search them via the web.

I have sepnt quite a bit of time with these blowers and have yet to see a fan that is keyed. That key way is to locate the tang on the washers. You likely will have to make a "special socket" to thread the fan off. Yes, the fan is threaded on to the shaft and you'll ned to turn it off. That special socket is just a 1/2" drive 1-1/16" size that is cut to fit snug onto the hub of the fan.

I had been told about that wood trick to keep a fire. The old timers would pound a hard wood into the fire. I never really understood that as my forge will keep a fire for over three hours idle time with out any prep at all. All I need is some air flow and the fire comes alive again.

I use a 2 lb and 2.5 lb (cross pein) for making 1/8th and 3/16th inch nails. Also hooks of various sorts from 1/4 and 3/8 inch stock. Isn't that about right? I was told by an experienced smith that is far too light. A 3 pounder would be minimal weight.

I have a very similar forge. However, I made a false bottom out of 1/4" plate and bolted that down. Then, I welded the grate w/holes to that. I'd like to get away from claying the bottom of the forge, but with the fire direct on the 1/4 plate, the forge pops and crackles like a cast iron engine block after it has been fired for some time. I'm affraid something is going to split apart!

You get any loud metalic pops after it's been up to temperature for say 20 min?????

Pehaps I should have left all the attatching hardware loose.................................??????

I'm not familiar w/where Tipp City is located. If you can plan a trip over my direction and visit Mt Eaton on US Rt 250, the Yoders Blacksmith Supply has more anvils than you'd care to look at. Your eyes will go cross if you'd try to look them all over. He will buy sell trade w/you.

Your anvils are worth 2$/pound and his are 4$/pound, but hey. He has them and he does own a full time business as opposed to a hobbie. He also has tons of new ones for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

There is a youtube video demonstarating the use of clinkers to START a forge fire.

There is a ferrier supply website w/demmos that clearly demonstrate wire brushing the workpiece (horse shoe) each time it is removed from the fire. I have never done that because I never really understood why you'd have to.

The village shop where I work on weekends, ZOAR (near Canton) Ohio.

Yeah, it moves the air. It turns super free and very very easily..............untill I fasten on the fan. Then, it's a chore to crank it. I simply cannot believe how difficult it is to turn simply by fastening on that fan! Perhaps I won't have to crank it quite so fast once I see how the fire reacts to this blower.

I havn't connected it to a forge, yet. However, I can compare the flow to my Champion #400 by simply winding the handle and this large Buffalo moves quite a bit more air by simply turning it slowly.

I did read that the Buffalo 200 is a two (2) inch outlet.......the one pictured above is three (3) inch outlet! So,,,,,,,,, shouldn't conventional wisdom dictate that a three inch outlet would be a model 300 ???? Duh! Oh, the above blower housing can be rotated to a number of positions to suite a variety of forges.

There is a brass tag on the back side of gear box. I have seen this once prior on a unit for sale on e-bay. It reads MARSHALL WELLS HARDWARE CO.

Buffalo Blower Model No. 201 I have zero info on this. I have seen pics of the 200 model and know nothing about them either. This must be for a very large forge (???)

Some facts about this model; The FAN size is 10.5 and the housing is 13 and 3/4 inches. I have seen nothing this large in hand cranked blowers. The ratio is 1 turn input to 46 at fan. I didn't receive the mounting legs and so made a support stand and clamp assy. Then fastened that to a 75 pound 16.5 inch truck brake drum.

It was/is in fantastic condition.I had a new wood handle made.There are ball bearings on the fan shaft only.

I would say that this is a very large blower as others I have turned only employ a 6 to 8 inch fan.

I'm going to use this on one of my forges temporarily anyhow. Perhaps I'll keep it around as a conversation piece...............or not.

Anyone have one of these 201 models??

I teach a first timmer class in North East Ohio for the Ohio Histsorical Society. I have them make hooks too. Some can actually do it and make it apperar as such. It takes all day, but they leave with one.

I begin with the draw-out method, and that takes some time. Then they work on bending the drawn-out item around the horn. Takes even more time, but that is what the class is for.

It is better to pay the Histsorical Society the $$ to be a blacksmith for a day than to buy all the equipment and find out that this hobby frustrates you to no end!!!

This is a bit extream and only done for a photo op. However, it can literally become this bad if I don't watch the fire. I have had students rake green coal into the fire and this is the result.

My point: even with a ridge vent AND the flue blower, I have smoke related issues!!

.............more pics Masonry

Please note; this forge has a fan (blower) to "suck" the smoke. I understand that forges have issues with draft....some more than others. There are hundreds of designes and much of that is related to the building it's used in.

This shop also has a vented ceiling, much like that of a maple sugar house. THis allows the smoke to vent out of the building. Some forges/buildings use exhaust fans and NO flue pipe whatsoever.

THis shop can become pretty durn smokey if I don't maintain contol of the fire. The coke is pretty much smoke free, but there is always a tad of smoke from the surrounding green coal.

I also use a portable forge indoors, that is in no way connected to any flue/exhaust/duct work. The smoke simply rises to the ceiling and out the ridge vent.

I seriously doubt that you'd get any one flue to draw enough to capture all the smoke, all day long, under all atmospherical conditions.