Failed Attempt

Thank you Neil. I didn't know dassault had a free cad version available. Very helpful.

So I started at 8:00 this morning and made the pipe fittings for the blower and finished connecting it to the forge. Once I got the forge fired up about midday, I started heating metal and practicing some simple things like tapering. I learned and noticed a lot of things today I need to address. -The hot spot in my forge seems to be deeper in the firepot than the hearth level. I may need to lift the grate from the original 140mm depth to about 120 or 115 and adjust the depth and shape with bricks as needed. -A trench shaped firepot with even steeper sides might be more fuel efficient. -The blower struggles if I pack too much small bits of charcoal into the firepot. -I need to learn to manage the fire better. Sometimes it looks like it's hot enough, but when I take the steel out after heating, it's only dull red. I probably can't "read" the fire properly due to my inexperience. -I need to add an adjustable railing in the front of the forge to support longer pieces. -Smoke hood and stack required ASAP. -I need to remember to take care of my own needs while going at it. I started at 8:00 with the blower build and proceeded to forge afterwards. Got a head ache at 3pm and suddenly remembered I had not drinked or eaten anything during the day. -My hammers are awful. Mainly because they are not blacksmiths hammers. Apart from a light ball pein I bought recently, but It's so light it's like hitting an elephant with a pillow. I've got a 1kg one with a fiberglass handle that's too long. Another with too thick wooden handle that's good length, but the head is too heavy. Most of the little control I have over the hammer is lost due to the awkward handles and excess weight. The heads are sharp edged and leave dents on everything I work on, including my "quality" russian anvil. I need to fix the hammers before I try anything else. -I need tooling for the anvil. I had to cut against the edge of the anvil since I haven't got a hot cut tool. Need to look for an old axe blade. I also need a jig for bending. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38517-blower-hooked-up-to-the-forge/ Blower connected to the forge. Finally. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38518-old-file/ An old file I stuck upright into the forge against the bottom grate in order to see the depth of the fireball. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38519-my-slack-tub/ My slack tub is an old milk churn. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38520-done-for-today/ Covered the firepot with a brick and left it to cool. And the flock of barnacle geese flying by just as I stopped working. Here's a video of heating steel. First bit is a 12mm round bar. The other one is the file. No youtube link, sorry.

If I calculated correctly the ratio is about 6,75. I wish I could get it higher, but those were the only gears I had, and I'm hoping the large diameter of the blower will offset the lack of rpm.

After looking into different options for my forge blower (hairdryer, electric duct fans, vacuum cleaners, car heater blowers) I decided to try building my own. After a lot of research on this site and others I concluded that I want a handcranked blower. I didn't have a build plan other than that the only case suitable for a blower was 200l barrel. Other than that I had to use whatever scrap I had lying around. The case is a 230mm cut from the top end of the barrel. The lid sealing the case is a piece of 1,5mm sheet I already had. The axle for the fan is a length of 30mm hydraulic tube and the fan blades are cuts from the barrel sides. The back plate supporting the fan blades is a piece of 4mm plate I also had lying around. The stand and the frame is mostly pieces of steel frame from scrapped sofa and various other bits of scrap. I couldn't find gears large or small enough to get the gearing I needed with just 1 set of gears so I butchered and old excercise cycle for the secondary gear set and the primary is from an broken bicycle. I didn't have any suitable bearings for the fan axle so those I had to buy. Sorry about the lack of pictures from the fabrication. At the time I didn't think this would ever amount to anything but a failure so I found no need to document it. It took me about 12 hours spanned over two weekends to make this. I didn't aim for anything more than a proof of concept so I can see if it's even a functional design. Tools used. 125mm angle grinder, power drill and 150A mig. Now I just need to hook this contraption into my forge and HOPE it pumps enough air. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38495-barrelblower-mk-i/ This is by far the ugliest thing I've ever built. http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38496-barrelblower-mk-i/ Front side http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38497-barrelblower-mk-i/ Back side http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38498-barrelblower-mk-i/ Barrelpiece fan.

The sidewalls sit on small hooks bent from 13x3mm flat bar. Didn't want anything complicated like nut&bolt fittings. Now you can just lift them off.