Hey guys. Looking at my options for blowers. I'm building a new pretty good size coal forge. I was wondering more than centaurforge blowers and bouncy castle blowers. What other fans out there are radial blade and attainable at a decent price? Looking at Dayton blowers, they are 3x the price for the same performance as a bouncy castle blowers. Which are made to run continuously in the sun. Lastly, most bouncy castle blowers advise not to use extension cords. Is that for child safety, or is the added resistance an issue (I'm no electrician)? Thanks guys. Btw I've seen lots of curiosity about the TFS anvils, I just bought a 150#, and will have a review soon, probably to say the same as quenchcrack said. However more voices are more reassuring.

How big is pretty good size? Lots of things are economical. Laugh if you will, but I've been forging for four years and just had to buy a new hairdryer. Some people use a dc converter and run a fan from a car a/c or even a bathroom fan. My firepot's about 10 or 11 inches across at the top and I have to use a dimmer switch to keep it from blowing far, far too much air..

As a blow dryer puts out too much air for most forges I think the bouncy castle blower would be way overkill.

 

As blowdryers are not continuous duty stuff I'd look for a exhaust assist blower for a high efficiency house furnace; probably find one on a HVAC company's bone pile for the cost of a trinket for the office.

 

BTW how much experience do you have smithing so I can weight your review properly?

Five years as a hobby. I've used a big old Trenton, a vulcan, a forklift fork haha, and now this. I've read a lot about those blowers not producing enough pressure for anthracite. However I used to use a roll film dryer for my plow disk forge, and it did fine, so idk. My plumbing system is all 2". With a gate valve. So I can regulate flow. My firepot will be 12" square at the top. About 3.5" deep. I wanted it deeper so my work zone near the top of the fire is a reducing atmosphere hopefully. I just wanted a larger group of ideas for options as blowers. With that anthracite I'll need a continuous duty blower for sure.

i use a heater fan out of a car (thanks Moony), works great on charcoal.

My first Coal Forge utilized a Blower from a Clothes Dryer.

 

Still works just fine.

 

 

.

I like side channel or regenerative blowers

have just bought a new one that should run 5 forges

Another alternative is an air mattress, raft, etc. inflater.  I have two "Coleman Inflate Alls". They're 12v with cigarette lighter plugs or alligator clips. They put out enough air to inflate a 4 man rubber raft in about 4-5 minutes or less. I've used mine several times in field expedient forges, that's a Y-1K forge W/ electric blower. A 1" pipe has the capacity but the air comes out WAY too fast so running it through 2" or larger with something for a baffle softens the blast nicely without reducing the CFM enough to not make a heap BIG fire. I've always had to throttle the air intake back or it puts out WAY more air than I've needed unless I was just boosting a camp fire.

 

They are plastic so you have to either keep them a few feet from the fire or use something for a heat shield, in the field I've used rocks, blocks of wood, piece of tin, etc. to block radiant heat. The blower draws enough fresh air it won't be effected unless it's directly in the face of the fire.

 

Oh yeah, a 12v converter/battery charger is needed of course, that or work out of your pickup, station wagon, Subaru, or. . ?

 

Anywho, that's my 2 bits and experience for a common plenty enough blower for any normal one man forge and then some.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Another alternative you may want to consider is the humble push button public bathroom hand dryer. One of our members bought a pile of them from  a machinery disposal yard for peanuts.

They may require a bit of metal fab for a suitable casing to adapt to your circumstances but they blow a lot of air and would be cheap to run(once you disconnect the heater element)

 

Rob K

A.B.A.S.A 

My standard anthracite coal fire will be around 6" deep. The cfm of that little mattress blower won't be enough after static pressure if figured in. Also I'm not running a y1k forge. I'm running a full sized shop forge. With that anthracite I'll definitely need something continuous duty. Or my fire will keep going out.

Y1K does not indicate size, it indicates fuel: charcoal; conformation: sideblown; and air handling: single action bellows, generally paired.

 

 Large ones for things like anchor smithing were around.  So your full sized shop forge may be larger smaller or the same size.  

with your Y1K forge did you have any trouble with the millennium bug?

Y1K does not indicate size, it indicates fuel: charcoal; conformation: sideblown; and air handling: single action bellows, generally paired.

 

 Large ones for things like anchor smithing were around.  So your full sized shop forge may be larger smaller or the same size.  

 

You are SUCH a purist Thomas! The blower may be late 20th. century but the forge is as . . . well heck, year -6k as it gets. The blower is the yellow thing to the left in the pic. And YEAH, Bob caught me holding my tongue on the wrong side of my mouth, no need to point that out.

 

 

Back on topic: Unless you plan on pulverizing the coal so air won't pass through it one of these blowers will certainly push air through 6" of coal, anthracite, bituminous or the crud available for sale up here, sub-bituminous.

 

I'm not trying to sell you on these blowers, I'm just saying don't write them off on supposition.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Did it have problems with Y2K ?  Why Yes,---I had to build two of them...

 

Frosty I've also used a campfire with one "corner" set up to forge out of---at "Real Viking I"

 

I have found that I now tend to "cheat" and build my Y1K forge on top of a work bench as my knees are not

happy with me and my campsites won't allow me to construct a stone&dirt pedestal for it.  I use a layer of soapstone as the fire shield underneath it.

"Gasp!" Why Frosty... No safety glasses? But... but... you are a role model for so many young(in terms of smithing time) aspiring smiths... :P

 

Back to the op... I use a bathroom exhaust fan and (-waiting for the redneck jokes-) duct tape to hold it onto the 2 " pipe. I baffle the intake to reduce flow to more appropriate levels. Oh yeah... I too am using anthracite in my Brake drum forge which has about a 3" depth and almost 13" diameter. It will WAY overpower my forge without the intake baffles.

good idea

                              www.rayrogers.com/blower.htm

 

     

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a "bouncy castle" fan?  Squirrel cage??

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22bouncy+castle%22+fan?&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=59D2U5TrOof7iwKT9oCoBg&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a "bouncy castle" fan? Squirrel cage??

Not really, squirrel cage style fan won't produce much static pressure. Doesn't work well for a deep coal fire. A bouncy castle blower is a radial blade type. It has blades like the impeller in a turbocharger for example. Won't produce as many cfm's at low pressure, but more cfm's at high pressure.

ahhhhhhh "bouncy castle" fan as in fan for "bouncy castle" Duh! :wacko: I was over thinking again. Maybe need to start using one less scoop of grounds in the coffee... :ph34r: