I recently picked up an old rivet forge made by Canedy - Otto Mfg Co, usually known for their drill presses and larger blowers. I don't have a lot of info so I hope some of y'all might be able to help.

 

Well I went to work restoring/refurbishing it as well as making upgrade like repairs in the prossess.

Here are some pictures of the forge as I got it. The blower does turn but its not smooth and I worry that with every turn it could break a tooth. It's definitely not clean or lubed. Inside the forge is a brake rotor and tongs. The rotor will come into play later.

As you can see, its been neglected for quite a while. We'll start with disassembly and wire brushing.

It all started off easy, but then there was one stubborn bolt.

I cleaned out and cut the slotted head, but it broke one of my flat head bits.

So I cut into the back of the bolt, still to no avail.

So finally I cut it off with the angle grinder.

With a bit of gentle persuasion I got the extension off. 

As you can see its in pretty bad shape. I continue disassembly with the legs.

The hardware was dirty and rusted. A little brush down with a wire brush and some WD-40 got the bolts out.

The blower was attached with two bolts. Those came out without incident. Now I get to really clean it.

I started brushing it down and found the gearbox had a separation where the lid goes on, so I opened or up.

Here is a before and after showing how it is now compared to how gunked up it was.

I cut a layer off the rotor so it'd sit more flush to the bottom if the pot. I also cut the pot to fit the rotor. It is so cracked and decayed that I don't feel bad about cutting it to make room.

I prepared the metal for welding.

As I welded in sections to stress the metal less I disassembled the legs further, wire brushed them, and painted them with rust converter.

Put it all back together (plus some spacers under the pot and some new hardware where needed), grease the gears, and you're done! I'll make another post just for all the finished photos.

Hope y'all enjoyed. If anyone needs pictures of stampings or numbers for research purposes just let me know. I fired it up today and boy does it blow aor.

Edited August 2, 201510 yr by ARKtest

More than likely the welds are going to crack on you when heated/cooled. Be sure if they do that you don't get hurt. On a another site a guy had his come apart while he was forging. Hot embers dumping all over wasn't fun for him. Cast iron can be a pain to weld if not done properly. I did a bit of cast repairs when I had my shop.

Thanks for the warning but the welds are only to keep the rotor from sliding around too much. The rotor sits on top of the original pot and the blower is bolted to both the pot and rotor. Gravity keeps the rotor in the hole and the blower is hanging from the bottom of both. If the legs where attached to the blower this might be a problem, but I made sure everything worked out.

Good idea using the rotor for a repair part. 

Personally I would have bolted it instead but if the welds hold it is fine. I would be absolutely sure that it will not cause failure though, because it could be severe. 

Like I said, the rotor is basically sitting on top of the pot. The welds could have been bolts set outside the rotor against its rim and it would accomplish the same purpose.

is there a trick to separating the gear housing?

4 hours ago, Johnny M said:

is there a trick to separating the gear housing?

How exactly do you want to separate it. I was able to get the gearbox open and lube up the gears, but taking the gearbox off of the fan housing just won't happen for me. Pictures of your setup would help.