Hey guys, 

I've been doing a lot of research on the topic but haven't come up with much. So my question is, Will my buffaloe 210 hand crank provide a sufficient amount of air to keep coke burning?

Thanks,

Sam

I have always used an electric blower on my coke forge.  It needs a more constant air supply to keep a good fire.  I know a couple of smiths that use a 50/50 mix of coal and coke and this may help.

Yes it can be but it can be a pain to always be cranking often enough to keep commercial coke from going out.

 

Some folks mix in coal with the coke to help this out a bit.

how often would I have to crank it so it dosnt go out? would I have to shorten the time at the anvil or just not take long breaks 

I have been using coke with an electric blower 3 nights a week past year. For me it depends on what size stock I am working and how hot my anvil is to determine if I leave the blower running while I am at the anvil. If I am working small stock say under and inch I will run out of heat in the bar before the fire has lost a significant amount of heat. At that size I switch the blower on while taking a heat and turn it off right before take the stock from the fire. If I am working something larger or my anvil is hot and not taking heat from the stock as fast I will slide my air gate almost closed before moving to the anvil. Instead of playing with the air gate I have also tried turning the blower off every other hear which works almost as good and is a lot less trouble. When the blower is turned off it still spins for 20 or 30 seconds and keeps the fire hot part of the time I am at the anvil. I have used a hand crank blower with my forge and coke before and while it did work I much prefer the electric blower.

How long?  Exactly the ammount of time *YOUR* set up and *YOUR* methods require.

 

If you are light on air it can die while you are at the anvil.  If you like to rev things up it might be fine for most hammer times and only die when you go long.  In general it tends to die at the most inconvient times possible.

 

If you don't have power to your shop; get a car battery and charger and a heater fan from a car and *bring* power to your shop as needed!

I use a hand crank blower with coke and have no trouble keeping the fire. I have walked away from the fire for several minutes working at the bench or vice.  I keep the fire deep with lots of material around the fire. It depends on the coke.  If you are using coke intended for heating boilers it won't work.  You need to get coke intended for blacksmiths.  James Van Moosh in Oregon has good blacksmiths coke.  Contact him through the NWBA.

The Gunter school used a 'Y' pipe system with a slight but constant fan draft to keep the fires alight when you were busy at the anvil or power hammer. When you wanted more heat on the iron in the fire, you spun the crank on the hand blower, as much or as little as you deemed appropriate.

It should be one quick step back to give the handle a flip. At least  that is how I always kept it going.