I didn't see any posts on this yet if there are I am sorry.  I just picked up a whole bunch of stuff at a farm got some anvils, tongs, hardy tools and a what appears to be a complete Canedy-otto forge minus heat shield and belt and a separate much larger canedy-otto blower. I am normally a gas forge guy but have always wanted to work with coal. So my question is first does anyone have any videos or manuals of the proper way to replace the belt and what size belt is needed and any gaskets that should be done as well. If no videos or manuals exist could you recommend what I should mess with and what I should stay away from

Welcome Timber Ridge. Nice find for sure.

The forge belt is just a strip of leather either sewn or stapled together and can be easy to make by measuring the width and circumference around the pully's. As far as the blowers go, if they turn over easily the only thing they would need is cleaning and oiling, I would try that before taking them apart. Soaking them in kerosene will sometimes do wonders for them.

BTW: If you will go to your profile and add your location, you might be surprised how many of the gang are near you and a lot of answers are location dependent.

Thanks just added my location I am going to see if there is a upholster nearby and see if they got some strips of leather castoffs is there a thickness you would recommend? 

It's been a while since I made a belt for a friends forge. We went to the local thrift store and bought a couple of leather belts for a dollar each, they were in good condition and cut them to fit.

Remember that because the belt runs in one direction, you need to make sure that the joints overlap the right way. 

Yes the ends need to be skived down to a taper then overlapped, glued with contact cement and stitched together.

I know one guy who made a belt with a link v-belt.

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Yeah i saw someone using a v-link belt i suppose since the rotation is so low that should work even if it's not authentic it should be functional the screws are pretty rusted on it and the gasket looks to be getting to the point that once taken apart it will need to be replaced so the v-link might work to start

 

Just be careful using anything that might melt if contacted by an errant piece of hot steel.

The bellows you show are gear driven. There is no belt. You should be able to take it apart using regular penetrating oil. WD-40 is not a penetrating oil. If the hand crank turns easily, you don't need to take it apart. If you do, use high-temp wheel bearing grease to pack the gears. There is an oil hole in the casting to oil the crank from outside. There's no need for a seal, however, if you want to use something, use high-temp sealant without a gasket.

Edited May 6, 20224 yr by Unklebuck
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He was talking about the blower that is mounted on the forge pictured, it is belt driven. The hand crank blower is an extra blower, not for the forge pictured. Also the hand crank blowers do not use grease for the gears but oil.

I use sae 30 in all my blowers it’s comparable to chainsaw bar oil