I stopped by a flea market at lunch, and by then you would expect all the good stuff to be gone. I still located the following items.

 

Leaf blower that works $35 as marked. Has gas in the tank, you want to hear it run?
Shop vac that could be used as a blower AND to clean up the shop, Marked $35 but will take $30.

 

Either one could be made to work, both have way too much air for a forge but could be choked down to the amount of air you need.

Heater core blower from any/all junk yard cars.  Off grid forging with a car battery... recharging with a solar trickle.  Easy.

You can also use a 2 or 3 speed hair dryer. A 3 Speed dryer is better but if you can't find one a 2 speed dryer with tied into a rheostat works ver well. I picked up a replacement blower for 5 dollars at the local Goodwill and on low speed with the rheostat turned all the way down I have a nice flow that keeps me at a decent working temp. When I turn the rheostat up to full I can reach welding temps very fast.


I also like the vehicle ac/heater blower idea as well. If you can scavenge the speed control from the dash as well you can easily adjust the speed of the fan with only a few minutes of wiring to tie them together. And if you are like me, a car battery and a solar charger from Orielly Auto works as a great 12 vdc supply system.

I also like the vehicle ac/heater blower idea as well. If you can scavenge the speed control from the dash as well you can easily adjust the speed of the fan with only a few minutes of wiring to tie them together. And if you are like me, a car battery and a solar charger from Orielly Auto works as a great 12 vdc supply system.

Yup!  :-)    (where is the "like" button?!!!)

I have a 55 cfm bathroom fan.  Has a 3" outlet, wired up a spare cord and added an on off switch.  About $15.00 at Home Depot or Lowes.  Got mine at a clearnce for $9.00

 

Can also use on of those fans for the kids blow up bouncy houses.  You can find them on ebay all day.  The small Fisher Price bouncy things, not the commercial giant ones.

 

Glenn

I put one of those 3" bath fans on my forge and it worked great. I used 2 1/2" black iron pipe for the tueir spelled wrong? Fittings were too expensive (crazy expensive) so I cut and welded it. The three inch flex duct slides right over the 2 1/2" pipe.

Big yellow bouncy castle blower, £15, never used from a car boot sale. Could have bought new new for £30. Usually place it a bit away from the tuyere inlet to reduce the airflow. 

Sluicebox and guest_

 

I've been using one of the HD bathroom fans as well, 60CFM, for nearly two years now.  "Takes a licking and keeps on ticking".  Mine has the black pipe plumbing and a blast gate (sliding air gate) for air control.  I only open it about 1/4 for most forging, sometimes to 1/2 open, rarely wide open.

I'm going to wire a light switch to that bath fan,and mount it on leg of forge. As soon as I pull iron out roof of coal pile lights up. I spend more time wetting down roof to keep pile from burning up. With switch I think I could pull out iron and kill fan till I return to forge. That air gate is a good idea, I think that I will try that too. I know this has all been suggested in other threads but I guess that I had to experience the problem first hand before I took the advice.

I seem to be starting a small collection of bath fans. I've got at least 2 all metal ones right now I've pulled off jobs and I'll have another one some time this spring as soon as I get a weather window long enough to go down to the parents house to pull out the existing bath fan and replace it with one with a light and heater. Based on the age of their house it won't surprise me if this isn't another all metal bath fan when I open things up in the attic to access it.

 

 

I just wish they'd mentioned they wanted to add the heater when I had the bath floor up 2 weeks ago and I could have pulled new wires with no issues. GRRR!

Big yellow bouncy castle blower, £15, never used from a car boot sale. Could have bought new new for £30. Usually place it a bit away from the tuyere inlet to reduce the airflow. 

Seems these are pretty common place in the UK. I have one for this exact purpose having seem people here using them. Got mine for a tenner though with free postage ;) :P

 

I stuck mine on a dimmer switch, which works pretty well as a rheostat.

I seem to be starting a small collection of bath fans. I've got at least 2 all metal ones right now I've pulled off jobs and I'll have another one some time this spring as soon as I get a weather window long enough to go down to the parents house to pull out the existing bath fan and replace it with one with a light and heater. Based on the age of their house it won't surprise me if this isn't another all metal bath fan when I open things up in the attic to access it.
 
 
I just wish they'd mentioned they wanted to add the heater when I had the bath floor up 2 weeks ago and I could have pulled new wires with no issues. GRRR!

Bath fan with light and heater, those used to run about a hundred bucks. I hope you can put a timer on it, My Wife would leave it on all day long on accident.

Good thought. No one in that house seems to know what a light switch is used for. I can see it running nonstop.

How about Wood Pellet Stoves Fans?  they use two on a stove one for combustion and one for heat output.  They are designed to run for months on end 24/7.  In my case after about  3-4 years they get  noisy and you have to replace.  $$ wise I doubt you want to buy a new one but finding a noisy one you wouldn't care.  They both run in  housings my combustion one has a 3" inlet & outlet round.  Heat one is 3" sq. outlet and inlet is direct to fan 4-5"

 

These stoves would be found mostly in the northern cold US states but you Texas guys check out manufactures of stoves as mine was made there and they might have a warranty one to let you have.  I'll not mention names to keep out of trouble. 
There are a number of different brands made all over the country.  My pellets I use come from down Glenn's way in W Virg.