Cody G

Thanks for all the input everyone, Sorry I haven't been on to post for a bit. Got the fan blade issue straightened out. now she spins freely, and blows like a champ. In addition I build a new ash dump, and what i would refer to as an ash screen. I have yet to get anywhere to pick up clay for the forge, but I used high temp paint to paint it all up.

Thanks everybody for the helpful hints, I haven't had time since I made the initial post to dig deeper into the forge, hopefully tomorrow evening I will do so. This weekend I will hopefully get to town and get sufficient materials to get the forge looking a little better, and to clay it. Just wanted to pop in and say thanks thus far, hopefully in a day or two I will have an update on what I have figured out. Cody

To start off, I am new to forges, blacksmithing and a lot that goes along with them. I would however like to setup a small forge for now to tinker with and learn from. I have acquired a champion blower/forge setup, I do not know the model number or anything like that, it is an an old hand crank blower and small forge. My lack of experience leaves me in the dark on running/rebuilding one of these old things, so I will start off with what i have discovered so far and some of the questions I have. In simply turning the old hand crank I discovered that the blower fan was hitting, so I disassembled the blower, finding a bunch of rust/buildup. I attempted to wire brush the rust out, the fan blade is still hitting, I can't tell whether the fan blade is bent, or if the blower case (I don't know if I am using the correct terminology so I hope my explanations make sense) used to have a gasket and therefor the inside dimension used to be larger. In trying to get set up to run the forge I would like to get it in a bit better condition, so I was wondering if it was worthwhile to paint the exterior of the blower and forge with a high heat paint (like auto exhaust paint). If others have had experiences with paint just burning off or what paint works it would be greatly appreciated. Sorry I have a lot of questions and such hopefully I am not just blabbering on and on. Onto my next thought/question I know I need to clay the forge before using it, but I don't know which clay would be best to use and where I might get such clay. I am in rural Wyoming, so if anyone knows of sources in Wyoming or northern Colorado that would be great, otherwise I will be shopping online for clay. Anyway thanks for reading, and I wanted to say I am enjoying the website and forum already.