I recently purchased this blower for the forge I am planning on building. The guy I bought it off of said he found it inside a garage he was hired to clean out. It works great and pumps out a lot of air. We easily unbolted the blower and legs from the stand to fit it in my car. My question is what should and shouldnt I do before I put it to work. I am planning on replacing the oil and lubing everything up. I would like to wire wheel the entire thing (it is covered in saw dust) and throw a coat of paint on it. One question I have is, when I am cranking the blower and then rlease the handle the couterweight spinning does not seem to last as long as I thought it should, could my gears be messed up? Other than that it works great, so again is there anything I should or shouldnt do to it before I put it to work? Thanks.

new lubrication may answer all of your concerns. Mine doesn't spin on very long either.

The most likely reason it doesn't spin for long is that the lubrication inside is almost solid and needs to be cleaned out. Mine was almost solid when I got it in '76 and I sure it is that way now. Everything gets thick and gummy after time. Take it apart and clean it up a bit before painting.

Clean it up - lube it up, you may be surprised how well it works.

Give it some thought before you paint it - might look real nice just cleaned up.

A good soak in a bucket of diesel, enough to submerge it, for a week or so should do the trick. You may not have to take it apart. Then use THIN oil for lube. I use a mix of 30wt and ATF, 50/50. 20wt is even better. (30 is what I had at the time) Heavier lube will make it harder to turn and in cold weather even more so.

too much oil will make it not turn long too

Thanks for the replies. I decided I am not going to paint it. Just hit it with the wire wheel and be done with it.

I am going to take the top off to clean out any sludge and build up and fill it back up with fresh oil. According to what I have researched I am only suppose to fill it up to the drain plug with oil, is this correct?

Thanks again for the replies.:)

1st question is how many turns? Had a newbie stop and ask why he couldn't get 4-5 turns with clean oil. I only get about a turn and a half.
Ken

Well I just took the top off and well.... the oil isnt bad because well there is no oil in it.

Here are the pics

Weldor,

The oil is bad. That front gear with the circle and shield shaped holes is a shiny brass in it's natural habitat. That brownish gunk in the bottom is the oil solidified. It is also coating your gears. Inside each of those protruding cylinders on the side and front and back are ball bearings that will be covered in that old oil as well. Be careful when you take it apart, because the ball bearings are loose and held in place by a cone shaped nut. when you remove that, the ball bearings may come rolling out and find all sorts of places to hide. A wife with a bowl held under it is perfect to prevent that though. In mine, only the bearings on the fan shaft were free, the ones on the hand crank gear shaft were held in place by a retaining collar. There are 12 ball bearings on the front and back of the fan shaft and 9 each on the hand crank gear shaft. Good luck cleaning it up.

Mark

I wouldn't take it apart any further. Slosh it out with diesel, squirt some oil in all the moving parts and put it back together.

Grant, is there a particular reason you wouldn't break it down for cleaning or just the general difficulty in realigning all the moving parts?

Mark

Nothing broken, seems like just sloshing it it out is all it needs. I don't need a reason NOT to take it apart, I need a reason TO take it apart. Looks fine to me.

It looks fine to me too. A little grease and/or oil in the two grease cups on the side opposite from the handle might help too. They should unscrew with relative ease.

I would say, just clean it, lube it and put it back together and you are away. Spend more time forging and less time trying to find where that left over bit really goes.

Cheers

I'm with NakedAnvil and rmcpb on this, it ain't broke, and seems to work, so don't try fixing it. Clean it out and lube it up. Maybe repeat in 6 months to a year since the residues will soften in that time and may come off with a simple wash of diesel or kerosene then, when they wouldn't now.

Phil

I am not going to tear it apart any further. If not obvious I am a noobie and do not want to mess it up and as already said if it aint broke dont fix it.

Here are some pics of it cleaned up a bit.