A little experiment I did with my new Champion 400 blower

[tulsavw]

Hello everyone. I bought a Champion 400 blower from a gentleman about an hour away the other day.  I've been using a gas forge for a couple of years and have been wanting to get a solid fuel forge, so over the last 6 months or so, I've been buying parts here and there to build one. I had a chance to use a hand-cranked blower at Ed Brazeal's house a few months ago, and since then, I've been watching for one to pop up on Craigslist.

 

The other day, this one popped up (picture from the ad):

 

 

The gentleman was asking $160 and said it was in good working condition (without a stand), so worried that it may be a long time before I come across another one for sale, I snatched it up. There are a lot of antique/junk stores where I live but you almost never come across blacksmithing equipment (let alone, at a reasonable price) besides the occasional tongs.

 

Here's a picture I took of it when I got home:

 

 

So, not yet having what I've bought for my coal forge assembled yet, I decided to try it out with what I had laying around. I gathered up some nut-sized charcoal left over from dumping the ash from my firepit.  It wasn't enough to get much of a fire going, but once I lit some tinder to get it going, it took off.  I duct taped a piece of 2" square tube to the end of the blower and with the whole thing laying on the ground, I cranked the blower to get a nice little fire going on my gravel driveway.  Nothing too impressive, but the impression that I took away is that with very little in the way of traditional equipment, you can get a makeshift forge going quickly. Sorry for the crummy night time shot, but this is the whole temporary setup with the fire going at the end of my "tuyere":

 

 

I put a 3/4" bolt right at the end of the tube and after a few minutes, I was able to get it up to red heat.  By then, the little charcoal pile I had was just not enough to get it any hotter.  Here's a picture up close of the fire:

 

 

Anyways, I'll stick to my gas forge until I get everything assembled and get some coal to burn, but like I said earlier, it was pretty interesting to see how little it takes to actually get a good hot fire going. Maybe I'll toy around with it a little bit this weekend.