Archie Zietman Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Hello. The elctricity in the section of my house where my forge is has just blown. Since I use a small electric blower this means I can neither forge, nor use the grinder. It has been a week and I have been unable to make or do anything metaly, and am therefore going insane. I have scrubbed my blower top do bottom, and cleaned the motor, made a light anvil with a hardy hole, but I can't use anything because I don't have elctricity. Is there any way I could convert my little blower to a hand crank system? I have an old bike which will be thrown out soon, could I somehow use parts from that? Thanks, Archie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6013 Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 Scrounge a 12v blower from a automobile, a 12v battery and you got air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Pook Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 can't you reset the breaker? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swamp Fox Posted August 20, 2006 Share Posted August 20, 2006 When the wife's car won't start in the morning (dead battery), and she finds out why, it will not be pretty :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie Zietman Posted August 20, 2006 Author Share Posted August 20, 2006 I reset the switch and it didn't work, so I'll have to replace the fuse I'm guessing, and I can only get to the hardware store in a few days. My parents and brother suggested that I build a bellows, they think I'll get tendonitis from a hand crank. I don't have much room for a bellows though, nor do I have the materials. I'll think of something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Pook Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 does your house have real old electrical? most houses don't have fuses these days. If you reset the breaker, make sure you switch off then back on maybe do it a couple times. Another thing is alot of new houses have GFI (ground fault breakers) on the outdoor plugs. These plugs have a reset button on the plug themselves. Now not every plug outside has one because they can be daisy chained together with the first recepticle being the GFI and the rest being normal, so you'd need to find the gfi one and reset it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Roy Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Archie, See if you can find the old hand crank type blower. There are many around. Most of my blacksmithing friends use them. I could not find one in the time frame I was searching, so ended up with an electric blower. I think I would prefer the hand crank type. They have quite a bit of inertia and once you get them turning, they will keep turning for a little while. You don't have to crank constantly, just when you need air. Also get the electricity fixed, you need it for light, grinder, electric drill, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rantalin Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Spending the Summers working for my Dad (an electrician) has its advantages. It sounds to me like a breaker tripped, or a GFI tripped, as was mentioned, if the breaker keeps tripping, there is a short somewhere in the circut on that breaker, and should be fixed ASAP to avoid fires and electrocution. Check the outlets that run off that circut and see it any GFI's tripped, then reset them, if the breaker was tripped, make sure you turn it completely off before turning it back on again, that's how they reset. You can't reset them by just going from the "tripped" position to "on". If it isn't a breaker or a GFI, and you can't find the problem, there's a problem, and your parents should hire an electrician to troubleshoot that circut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie Zietman Posted August 21, 2006 Author Share Posted August 21, 2006 The electricity is very old. I've pushed the reset button several times, and it worked great for 30 seconds, then stopped. It may be that when I last tried, my blower was so crudded up with a mix of oil and dirt that it was hard to turn, also I had a choke on the input, which strained the motor a bit, and also the input was facing upwards so the impeller was weighing down on the motor. I have removed the input choke,and taken the blower apart and washed it with boiling water and heavy duty dishsoap, and scrubbed it with a toothbrush and scraped it with my finger behind a paper towel, and there in't a speck of dirt-grease (imagine oil based dirt, not water based) on the casing, impeller or inside the motor where there was a lot. It has had oil spilled on it a couple times and I sometimes douse my fires with water, and my lining is dirt, and the muddy water would often flow through the oily blower and motor which is where all of the greasedirt came from. Unsurprisingly it had 2 days worth of intense cleaning due. Now it is as spiffy and shiny and smooth as butter, and I will not abuse it at all, lest it rebel again. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted August 25, 2006 Share Posted August 25, 2006 Since sparks provide my daily crust, lets go over some common problems. The above posts are a good start, next buy a receptacle tester, available for less than $5 . plug it into the affected plug. the lights will tell you the problem, now the fun is "where is it?". A lot of times, the wires were pushed into the back of the plug. Everything is fine, until some heavy load is plugged in. Now the little clips will burn out, and you lose power. The solution? Figger out which plugs are affected, TURN OFF THE POWER!!!!!!!!!,remove the plug, if the wires are pushed in, replace it. Wrap the wire around the screw, and tighten. A new plug cost between $.50 and $2, work your way up the circuit until you find the problem. When in doubt, hire a LICENSED electrician, you'll sleep better at night.BBB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 26, 2006 Share Posted August 26, 2006 Having once bought a house from the widow with two small kids of a phone co maintenance man who electocuted himself working on a problem in that house I would also agree that if you are not sure of what you are doing an expensive electrician will be the *CHEAPEST* way to go! Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archie Zietman Posted August 26, 2006 Author Share Posted August 26, 2006 I figured out the problem about 2 weeks ago. My blower had a choke on the intake for air regulation which strained the motor, plus it has had vegetable oil accidentally spilled on it, and had fallen into a bucket of muddy water, and was generally clogged inside and out motor casing and fans, with oil based dirt. I scrubbed this out of every nook and cranny of the blower and motor, and now it works beautifully. The problem was that the intake and dirt caused the motor to strain, and the switch in the fusebox would flip to off becauyse it couldn't handle the strain, but now it works fine. I now need the builders to give me back my drill which, along with my circular saw and leather/kevlar forge gloves they have taken without my permission (to protect their hands when cutting down a tree, come on!) and they aren't giving them back. I need the drill to put a valve on the outtake of the blower so I can regulate the air without the strain on the motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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