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I Forge Iron

Royal forge crank blower


Paul Crosby

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The works real well part---do you know this or is it something the seller told you? (And how do they/you know good working from ok?)

I've had several folks try to sell me blowers that were "great working" ones that when I checked them out were fair to bad. They thought that if it moved it was working great whereas I wanted the handle to make 3 or more revolutions *after* I let go of it. (and knowing when gummy old oil was the only issue can take experience.)

Note that this is an international forum so it helps to tag stuff with the type of money---like US$145 (you could be looking at one in Canada after all...not much difference now but at times....)

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What I do is to crank it at a pace suitable for my common forging needs. Then I let go of the handle and I want it to make at least 3 complete revolutions of the handle on it's own. This means that I will have time to switch tools, take a drink of water, etc in between cranking and pulling the hot piece out.

As I mentioned a perfectly good blower might just be gummed up with ancient oil and work fine once cleaned out; however slop, grinding, chattering in the gear box is a bad sign!

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What I do is to crank it at a pace suitable for my common forging needs. Then I let go of the handle and I want it to make at least 3 complete revolutions of the handle on it's own. This means that I will have time to switch tools, take a drink of water, etc in between cranking and pulling the hot piece out.

As I mentioned a perfectly good blower might just be gummed up with ancient oil and work fine once cleaned out; however slop, grinding, chattering in the gear box is a bad sign!


I might add that the "3 turns" coasting can also be relative depending on whether the counterweight is present and where it is located on the crank handle.
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I have 3 of the Cannady Otto blowers, and indeed as far as I am concerned the best blowers every made. Becasue they actually hold the oil in the case instead of dripping it out they do tend to get gummed up. I like to drain the oil and fill with Kerosene (Pariffin for the UK folks). If I have time I soak the entire blower in kerosene and after a week or so drain. Then mount in the correct attititude. That is with the oil fill hole straight up. The trycock (Test Valve) will be at about 45 degrees. Then fill with a 50:50 mix of kerosene and light oil(ATF). I then try turning and on these symetrical case blowers they can be turned either way. Most have worn in and turn easier in one direction. Once i find the easy direction I turn gently for a couple of minutes and drain. Surprising what gunk will drain. I repeat till I get a clean drain. Then I fill with ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid- Dexron-Mercon in the US)
ATF has a great anti-wear package and has a very low pour point and is about perfect in these blower gear boxes.
I change the oil yearly. I have a shop that can drop to -10F and be as hot as 100F and the blower turns fine at any temp I have tried. I don't forge at -10F but have turned the blower and it was fine.

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Causes: worn out bearings causing mis-alignements, old grease or oil that has solidified to rock, too heavy an oil causing more force needed to turn. Mud daubers nests in the fan shroud (or mouse nests)

You could even have a marriage where two worn blowers were frankensteined together and so the wear patterns and alignments are subtly off.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have married two of these blowers into one and just sold it for 100.00. last weekend. I couldn't honestly sell it to an end-user for top price. I woudn't have felt right about it.

I had to tweak some parts inside to get all them pieces to turn/work together. It is really loud, but it works. It has no broken items. No cracks. A new handle and fresh paint.It is/was complete and ready to use. It just wasn't a cream-puff like I'd desire for MY operation.

A blower pictured, complete and turning free. Low noise, missing the handle............I'd pay 145 for one many times over!!!

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