October 7, 20169 yr I bought a bunch of smithing stuff today, one item is a "David Cumming" blower that is attached to a steel pipe, brazed to a clunky tuyere. I've searched for this blower and only come across a few hits on "Worthpoint.com" (wothless.com) of one or two being sold in the past. I am curious about this one as it appears to WANT to be attached to a pipe based on the curved bottom/saddle. Any ideas of what this would have been attached to and how ? plus, can anyone ID that Tuyere ? (It's about 8" dia and 1" thick at the flange. all cast) Thanks, Todd (Not visible is the 125# Hay Budden and somewhat visible Rivet forge)
October 8, 20169 yr Hi Todd, I'm afraid I've never heard of or seen that type of blower but it certainly looks interesting. If you could post up some more pics of it some folks might be able to help you out. Looks like you got a great haul though. All the best Andy
October 9, 20169 yr Author Yep, same results I got as well. Here's the patent https://www.google.com/patents/US386771. And here's a pic of the complete portable forge. "Made almost entirely of wrought iron and steel, and is practically proof against breakage" Would be great to see a complete working example if anyone has or knows of one.
October 25, 20169 yr Author So, I have a nice section of 3" schedule 40 stainless pipe, which is what the above pipe measures based on the chunk I have left and the blower saddle. Me thinks I shall use said pipe and blower to recreate the above forge. Seems the blower is the only real "part" that had to be foundry made, the rest all appears to be basic pipe, wing nuts, bolts, plate etc... If anyone has a real example of this forge, please post pics.
November 21, 20169 yr 19 hours ago, caintuckrifle said: Is the addition on the post drill flywheel so it can be used with a flat belt? The larger post drills often came with pulleys for belt driving. Generally they're listed as "tight and loose" pulleys so that you could shift the drive from an idler pulley to a driver. When they had a true flywheel, it was often horizontally mounted at the top of the spindle.
November 21, 20169 yr Once at the Guild Show I met a knifemaker that was trying to save some money by converting his hand crank drill press to a motorized version so he didn't need to buy a modern drill press. Well when working on some fiddly bits he was watching the drill bit and reached up to advance it and ended up feeding several fingers into the moving gears instead. After some very expensive hand surgery and several months of rehab and zero work going out the door he confessed to me that he could have bought the fanciest modern drill press at full price and still have saved money over working on one without the modern safety guards---and his fingers were still not working right.... I've posted this story many times and I am willing to keep reposting it if it can deter anyone else from having to go through the same experience!
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