Sometimes I simply rather tinker than to forge.....

This is my latest (shop) project. I had bought two 400's and both require work so.............I will combine parts to build up a really nice unit and salvage the other unit with the highly worn parts. The worm gear of one has sharp edges on the middle teeth. It must have been heavily used. The other is like new inside but with a nasty case.

I will sell the worn-out blower unit to the local blacksmith supply shop who deals in new/used components/anvils/forges etc.

I'll post up some pictures as the project(s) takes shape.

The 400 isn't quite noiseless as the add portray, but I have built one that is almost so. These ball bearings are 1/4" and can be had new from McMaster Carr for very little outlay.

Someday I'd like to try my hand at a Canedy Otto-Western. I hear they can also pose a challenge.

"I will sell the worn-out blower unit to the local blacksmith supply shop who deals in new/used components/anvils/forges etc."

I'm in need of a bronze gear and the ball bearing assemblies that go with the crank gear if you would consider selling them to me? Alan

I have always felt the 400 design was a solution for a problem that didn't exist - i.e., the worm drive with the herringbone gear was overkill. The only reason I can conceive their engineers created it was to get around some patent that Buffalo already had - or an attempt to create a unique design that nobody else could easily make.

As you pointed out, they are not "noiseless" and I always preferred my Tiger 997 (which was supposedly a low end Canedy Otto) to the 400 blowers I have owned. Aside from an electric, the easiest and most reliable way to build a hand-powered forge blower is a gear train that uses simple spur gears stacked to build fan speed. Most every other manufacturer used some variation on this theme - but nobody else copied the 400.

In any case, they are still very good blowers and congratulations on the rebuild. BTW, I'm not dissin' 400 blowers but I think they are often overpriced when other makes are just as good for the work - and it does prove Champion knew how to market...

Working to assemble one of the blowers................gears are in now and fan/case soon to follow. I picked up the set of (new) legs from the machine shop.

I too need a replacement bronze gear, anybody have a spare one?

BTW~ That blower was designed by a 17 year old who founded the Champion company.

The bronze gear is a simple means of holding the "gear train" by means of a long screw driver or pry bar. You really don't want to do that unless you plan to replace said gear.

There isn't any need to hold the gears from turning when removing/reinstalling the jam nuts.You sorta have to think outside the box on that one and when it hits you, you shall see that familiar light bulb above one's head. -_-