March 12, 201214 yr Author Painfully slow and with little/no progress to show so far. Had a lot of non-critical or life threatening family stuff to deal with over the last few months so very little shop time. There will be something soon, things are starting to clear up time-wise so I'll be able to devote some shop time to them.
March 12, 201214 yr Took a look at your website. Nice looking railcar truck sets. I have spent a lot of time working on patterns and coreboxes for full sized sideframes and bolsters. neat to see models. You would have hated to see us throw out thousands of train part drawings when I helped clean out the pattern shop at a foundry that closed near here.
March 13, 201214 yr Hey OD hope all is well on the home front, look foward to see what your doing when you can get back to work. B)
March 28, 201214 yr Author No pics yet. The gear drive blower is still in the works, I have a bit of a learning curve and equipment construction with my mill, I should have the gear drive version ready to go by summer. I sincerely appreciate everyone's patience, and I'm looking forward to seeing some in action soon. Mod note: advertizing removed.
March 29, 201214 yr Odd Duck, I've been saving up for one of your hand-cranked models! I can't wait until they come out!
April 1, 201214 yr Author Here's a pic of the first blower kit, I'll be adding parts in the near future. I am planning on having the belt drive add-on kit by the end of this week. I'll post some pics of it then.
May 20, 201214 yr Really looking forward to doing business with you, Pete. You're going to go down in history as the guy that rejuvenated the American iron industry, and it all starts right here! Question, though, and please don't take this wrong. But, you've been delayed fairly well because you're trying to make gears. While wanting to do the entire thing is admirable, wouldn't it make sense, in both time and money, to purchase gears from a company that makes gears? That way you can concentrate on making the parts that are not available any more. Making everything from the ground up would sure bring a feeling of satisfaction, though, and I'll not discourage that. I only ask because I can't imagine Buffalo or Lancaster casting every single nut and bolt in their blowers when they could have more easily ordered them from a company that does nothing but make nuts and bolts... and gears.
May 24, 201214 yr Author Simple answer is that I just don't have the cash. I did research commercial gears, and a single set would have set me back almost $100. If I bought a bunch, yeah, the price per gear would come down, but it was still expensive. Besides, I'm stubborn enough that by jimminy, I'm gonna make the whole durn thing. (Stubborn or stupid, you be the judge... :rolleyes: it's a very fine line.)
May 24, 201214 yr Totally dig that. I looked around for gears after posting the above wisdom and was quite surprised to see how proud their makers are of them! Silly gits! I'm currently researching forge designs so I can build everything I need as soon as my fire pot comes in. Even found a relatively close coal supplier. Things are definitely looking up!
May 28, 201214 yr Im am suprised you did not try a simple chain drive. Parts from Bicylces would be readily avainable and cheap, could last forever with only a few drops of oil, and could make it in about any ratio you would like.
June 23, 201213 yr Chain drive? Brilliant! Sprockets and chain are pretty cheap, even for top-of-the-line stuff. Maybe make it a 10-speed blower so you could shift gears depending on whether your working with coal or charcoal.... or plain jane forging versus welding... mild steel versus old wrought iron.... That could be fun to tinker with! Pete, I think I might have screwed up my Buffalo "climax" blower so some new gears could be needed in the near future!
September 29, 201213 yr Did any blowers ever make it to market? or do I have to build one from scratch
February 22, 201313 yr I just finished reading this entire topic (thread?). Wow, what a journey. I visited the ODF website, and have to render my compliments. So many people today don't have the gumption nor dedication to see a tough project through. Although I'm new to metalworking, I've handled plenty of difficult projects in the woodcrafting field. My hat's off to you, Odd Duck. If I owned a large company and was looking for a "fixer" I would actively seek you out. Again, my compliments.
February 25, 201313 yr Author Thanks, Farm Hand, I appreciate the compliment. The project has been stalled, I have a bunch of things going on at the moment and just don't have the time (or dough...) to finish up the set of tooling ( dividing head, repairs and tooling to lathe and mill) to make the gears. I will finish the project. Eventually.... Stay tuned, might surprise you all by spring. You never know. Every time I go out in the shop I look at all the bits and it has been bugging me that I haven't made much progress on it. Thank you all for your patience, you will be rewarded for it.
February 25, 201313 yr Looking forward to a good blower set up for belt drive! I am very fond of the looks of the European portable forges that have a treadle driving and wheel driving the blower. I hope you have some for sale this year.
February 26, 201313 yr Looking forward to a good blower set up for belt drive! I am very fond of the looks of the European portable forges that have a treadle driving and wheel driving the blower. I hope you have some for sale this year. Martin if you are looking for a belt operated blower you could buy the blower (they are being sold on the OddDuck website) and make a mechanism from bike wheels, although it it not exactly a belt it does essentially operate like one.
May 4, 201313 yr Odd Duck, if/when you get this blower ready to produce, contact us--I'd love to sell the Whitlox Wood-Fired forge with an optional American-made crank blower!
May 7, 201313 yr Author Whitlox, it may be sooner rather than later, necessity being a mother, I am going to bull through on the gear project because I now have several pressing applications for gearing and they are just too xxxx expensive to buy. I may have results in as little as a month or so, stay tuned...
June 13, 201312 yr Totaly looking forward to buying one of your kits, the progress of this thread has been down right interesting. Waiting with baited breath to see your project come to a end, and purchasing one of your products.
March 3, 201412 yr I would love to buy one so i don't have to run extension cord series around the house.
March 5, 201412 yr Author Life keeps getting in the way, that's all there is to it. I'm getting incrementally closer, but it's still somewhere out in the distance. S'all I will promise at this moment, I'm covering for my manager at my real job for the next couple of months and it is the latest thing to severely hamper any shop time. Be patient, stay tuned...
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