Whitlox

I know this is very old news now, but we just came out with a hood for the Mini Whitlox Wood-Fired Forge:

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Hi-- we use this chimney as a sort of a hood/insulator for the forge at home and at shows, mostly for start up. We have not worked it up as an option on the forge, but you can see how it is made: a plate of steel, bent at edges to span the forge. A collar is welded to that to support 6" diameter stove pipe. It is not exactly an effective solution as an indoor hood, though. At some point we will probably offer something like this as an option because it is handy. 

Yes? I can believe that the grill might cut you if you forced a finger on it--that grill piece is thin aluminum, not the heavier material the body is made of. Did you see the gears? This blower comes either with plastic gears or iron ones-- I'm thinking it would be hard to break the iron gears by sticking your finger in the mechanism, but the plastic ones would likely break fairly easily. 

​I have no doubt that the imported blowers are uneven quality. I expect we will need to check through them before we ship to buyers, and will stand behind their quality with a one year warranty. I don't think they will be around 100 years like the antique ones, but I was surprised they felt more substantial than I thought they might. 

I don't know if this is the blower you saw those years ago, but we have imported some hand crank blowers. When I ordered a sample, I wasn't sure if it was going to be flimsy, but it actually feels like it will hold together and moves quite a bit of air.  

I've seen arguments on both sides of whether wood requires more or less air than coal--some swearing it takes more, some assuring that it requires less. I'd like to see the data on that. We use the wood forge with a 50 cfm household exhaust fan, and it is plenty adequate, even for using the foundry attachment for melting aluminum. 

We use raw wood for blacksmithing. It's true that it can make a lot of heat while the flames use up the wood gas, but you don't need to stand next to it while its burning high. It actually smokes less than a coal fire, at least when managed carefully (not too much new fuel piled on at once.) My hubby is making forges designed just for wood, allowing the deeper bed of coals and insulated to keep the heat in.  You can see his design (Whitlox Wood-Fired Forge) and some possibly useful videos at whitloxhomestead.com.

Odd Duck, if/when you get this blower ready to produce, contact us--I'd love to sell the Whitlox Wood-Fired forge with an optional American-made crank blower!

Welcome to the neighborhood! We live in Sandy, and used to live in the Front Range (twice!)