I finaly got my forge blower that I won on ebay. All in all I gave $77 for it. It is a Champion Midway Spiral Gear Blower. Does anyone know anything about it? I can't find much of anything online... at first when I tried the blower it felt a little rough, but then I filled it up with motor oil and now she runs great, and puts out a heck of a lot of air! I would say it is probably comperable to a Champion 400, but I would have to try them side by side to see for sure. I've never owned a hand crank blower before so any kind of tips would be appriceated. also the gear box seems to sort of wobble a little back and forth if you grab onto it or anything and there is a piece of leather (watch band size) that is wedged between the gearbox and blower housing, is that normal/okay? is there a certain bolt or something that i should tighten to fix that? Well here are a couple of pics. (the auction actually)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261082483475?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649



The leather strip starts inside of one blue circle, goes between the gearbox and the blower housing and then ends in the other blue circle.

I'm not familiar with a Spiral gear blower though I'm not surprised they're out there. You FILLED the gearbox with oil? Is it leaking? Dripping and drizzling on the floor? I have a Champion 400 and all the oil it wants is a little bit on the gears before you use it, if you fill it it'll be empty in about 30 minutes.

I'd guess the leather is a shim to help or eliminate the vibration you mention. OR maybe a gasket to keep the oil in?

Were it mine and the rattly shaky aspect not too annoying to ignore and it made good air I'd just use it. Sure, I'd keep an eye on it to make sure nothing mechanical was failing a bit at a time but I wouldn't worry about oddnesses in the machine, they're aren't as precise as you might think, they were intended for a HARD life in a rough dirty world.

Of course, I could be wrong I'm just thinking atext.

Frosty the Lucky.

Yes, it is leaking a good bit of oil, and when I crank it I can hear a definate sloshing sound :)) , but I suppose it doesn't hurt to flush the system once in a while, right? Did you say that you put a little oil in EVERY time you use your blower!?

I've been playing around with my new "toy" :) all afternoon and have determined that there is much more friction when I crank clockwise than when I crank counterclockwise. It is also a little bit more noisy going clockwise. Is that normal? Should it concern me or is it just a really common thing? I've used hand crank blowers before but I never payed such close attention :( .



Oh yeah,

"I'm not familiar with a Spiral gear blower though I'm not surprised they're out there."

Is a "spiral gear blower" any different than a "regular" gear blower!? (the Champion 400 for example). I thought they were the same... what would be different? something in the gearing I would assume...


Thank you SO MUCH for answering all of my dumb questions! :) I'm very grateful.

I probably can't answer any pertinent questions. I have a small graveyard of old blowers, so I took pics of 4 that are Midways. One does not have the raised letters. They have all been used in the distant past, but now their works are "frozen." I write on my blowers with Presto white correction pen which I get from the office supply. You may be interested that a mark with the pen on iron to be heated will last into an orange heat.

I've been asked, "Why the blower graveyard?" I'm kind of like the guy I met who purchased a large, Philadelphia, multi storied mansion to live in. It had seven bathrooms. I asked him, "Why get so many bathrooms?" He said, "When one quits workin', I just use another."

Besides that reasoning, there is always the possibility of taking a frozen blower apart and making it work again.

It looks like Midway may have been the gear case maker for a number of different styled fan cases. One Champion case is quite large; the other Champion is regular sized. The other two fan cases are oddballs.

Most blowers do not need a deep oil bath, just a few drops every now and again.

I'd LOVE to have a grave yard of old blowers!! I only have the three 400's and one 140 Eureka all made by Champion. From what I can remember reading in the catalog, the 400 is much different in that it is the top of the line with it's six ball bearings. The others don't use that technology and may only have a set of bearings on the high speed (fan) shaft if there are any at all. Other models use the iron friction "bearing". I find the friction bearings to be very stout and forgiving, where the ball bearings will not tolerate any dirt/rust or pitting.

I don't really understand what blowers were Landcaster Gear and which are Champion made in Ladncaster. I think they used all sorts of names within the same company sorta like Ford, GM etc.etc.

Midway
Eureka
Champion....there are many others used by Champion

I could be wrong, and I often am, but I'm pretty certain the Champion 400 has four ball bearings. Both ends of the "crank gear" and both ends of the "spiral gear" have ball bearing assemblies. The intermediate "bronze gear" that meshes with the spiral gear uses friction bearings. The Champion 400 is a beautiful machine. I recently worked on one with the standard three-legged stand, that had been setting outside in the dirt for many years. The bottoms of the pipe legs had rusted away but the blower itself was still in remarkably good condition. I also devised a way to refurbish the bottoms of the badly rusted pipe legs using pre-bend conduit and 3/4 inch self-tapping screws.

I just picked up a set of newly made legs for one of my 400's The fellow has a machine shop and tubing bender. Black pipe and a tubing bender, and I'm in the candy!!

You R right, the blowers can be in nice shape, but them pipe legs rot away. I soaked the cast base w/siezed legs in Diesel fuel for a week and they came loose.

I'm going to look in my catalog again. I havn't had that bronze gear out, but remember reading all the shafts in the 400 are mounted on ball bearings.

Thanks, SReynolds, I'd be curious to learn what you find out.

Looking in the cataglog, the 400 is described as adjustable ball bearings only, while the cut-a-way shows a bronze bearing (bushing) on the bronze gear.

Upon looking at the catalog, I also noticed there is no Miday 40. There is a 40 which is the Landcaster geared blower and there is the Midway which is the Champion #70. The 40 is the low cost blower per catalog.

The Landcaster 40 is a horizontal mounted gear box and the Midway 70 is the verticle mounted gear box.

SReynolds, I appeciate the update.