Hey all,
I scored a BIG forge at an estate sale last week, it wieghs about 350 lbs, has a smoke sucking hood and a blower, on separate motors, a built in water pan in front and is big and heavy, will get some pics soon, but I have never seen a power smoke sucker on a buffalo forge, I was told it was made for a railroad operation. anybody seen anything like what I am describing?

Sounds nice, looking forward to pictures. :D

Yes, sounds like a "RR forge" all right. I have one in much worse shape---the smoke hood was made from a VW hood, etc

Pictures! Pictures!

I'm a retired rail road blacksmith shoe somes pictures i might have used one.

well I finally got this monster in place, the thing weighs over 300 lbs, and has 2 blower motors. What a beast

well I tried to upload a pic, but it won't let me, bummer

_{it says my files are too big, I think that's why I gave up some months ago, just too difficult to do.}

ok here is another attempt

I have a similar one, Cast iron and it is a Buffalo Forge. It came from Georgia Power back when they had blacksmiths.

I dont know if it came from a RR shop or not. But I have seen many pictures of this type of forge in high school shops from the 20s to the 50s. Called a down draft forge or hood. It is nice that it dose not block any head room if you have cranes in the shop. Cool find. I have never seen one that complete.

We have one close to that in the local groups shop, minus the hood, looks nice yours is a great find

Looks great, there is a classroom picture with about 20 forges that look like that somewhere on here.

Phil

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photo-1890s-Univ-Calif-Berkeley-Forge-Classroom-/200577208104?pt=Art_Photo_Images&hash=item2eb3554f28

as with every new setup, this one is going to take some getting used to, it blows like a volcano when the damper is open, and still burns pretty hot when closed because of the fan power, but it is designed for big projects,so my 1" bar heated up really fast, gonna burn a lot of fuel in this sucker.

There was a equipment salvage place on the west side of Columbus OH that once was a big WWII surplus *equipment* place. They had one of those forges once in *MINT* *UNUSED* *ORIGINAL PAINT JOB* *NEVER HAD A FIRE IN IT* condition back in the 1990's when I lived there. Too rich for my blood but I found them a buyer for it as I wanted to be sure it went to someone who would *use* it!

I've also seen a smaller version where the blower and the down draft blower were run from the same *hand* *crank* system.

this could have been the same one, no real evidence of prior use, it sat in a barn in Ontario new york for the last 25 years, the guy just never got around to hooking it up, so I was concerned about the fans, one was a bit sticky till i stuck my finger in and gave the blades a push, then it thwacked me pretty good. Now it looks a bit dirty because i actually have used it, it is so big i was a bit intimidated about moving it around in my barn, but with 2 other guys and a tractor, we got it into place. I have been contacted about doing some work on an erie canal traveling museum project, this forge will easily handle the huge gate hinges they are talking about. It would be a cool legacy project!!

The forge, minus the dow-draft hood, is strikingly similar to the one we have at the state fairgrounds. We use the water trough for coal storage and keep a big slack tub in front of the forge.
Beautiful score. I really like that hood for shop visibility too

the front trough is a slide in plate, not a water trough, wierd how they arranged another hanging trough for placement wherever you can fit it. My other buff forge has a fixed trough in the front, but this one is way bigger, monster forge..gigantaforge!!