I was out looking for some stuff in the back shed, and I found a blower! It's meant to be used with those inflatable kid bouncing play structures. I totally forgot about it. We used to have a play deal for the kids and their friends, but the dog chewed through the plastic and we eventually got rid of it. It puts out a really large force, I'll have to try and find the specs for it. This is great If anything it will be too strong and too loud. I'll have to make a choke plate to control the airflow. I might try placing the blower 10+ feet away from the forge, and just run the air hose over.

Also there is a Saturday welding class next quarter at the local community college. My goal is to have a forge built by the new year!

Also after tomorrow I leave for burning man. Always a good time ;)

Excellent!

We have some larger blowers at the workshop. You might want to mount the blower in a box made out of MDF or plywood to if you're concerned about the noise. Properly insulated, it works a treat!

Also - Burning Man? - I am deeply envious :)

Chaos----If you happen to see 'The grinder girl' aka Kiva Kahl at Burning man, Get some pictures of her, like, Lots of pictures of her,,, if you did that , i would be forever in your debt.

-Andrei

This year doctor megavolt is going again. I'm excited to see one of his shows! He brings a huge #$% tesla coil out with him.


Also, good idea about the sound box.

I'm still using my wife's hairdryer to fan my forge, has lasted me two forging sessions so far, and after 5 hours the pressure seems to be too low to get the air through the densening coals.
Wim

Wim are you using coal or charcoal?

If charcoal the ash builds up and needs to be removed.

If coal, it tends to coke up a solid ring around the tuyere that needs to be pulled apart on a regular basis with the forge rake.

This is assuming that the motor is not overheating and slowing down.

Thomas

Great find!

Thomas, on my first couple of sessions, I used anthracite. The caols break up into a lot of small coals, and then the air cannot get through the 5" of coal. The fan has a little bimetal overheat protection switch, keeps cutting out.

I went to a combined demo on a exhibition of old cars with 8 other more experienced smiths last weekend. Learned a lot about forging, tools, coal, and had lot of fun. It was my first time interacting with other smiths.