Hey everyone. Just wanted to show my new forge im busy building with my home made blower. Tell me what you think. 

 

Regards

Rayner

Looks good so far. You going to do a bottom blast with an ash dump?

Yes thats the plan JHCC. And i will be burning anthracite coal in it. Im just not sure how long the motor will last its from an old clothes dryer. Only time will tell.

 

Rayner,

Everything looks like it's coming along nicely.  That dryer motor isn't ideal.  It has exposed windings, bearings, basically everything that's vulnerable about the motor is unprotected.  What your situation calls for is a totally enclosed, fan cooled (TEFC) motor.  Those have cast-in fins on the housing with a shaft-connected fan that blows air over the aforementioned fins to cool everything down.  That would last a very long time.

At a bare minimum, please consider looking for a motor with a dust resistant housing that is either double insulated or grounded.  Make sure you are running this on a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protected circuit.  

Make sure you build a clinker breaker for that fire pot.

Also ... if you build a large fan don't expect too longer life out of that fire pot. It will burn rather quickly. You will need a gate to reduce air flow. 

Fire pots can be made of plate rather than buying expensive cast pots, or resort to automotive parts, but plate should be 10mm or so. Even 6 mm burns if you have the fan on all the time. 

A grill of 10mm bars welded in place will do fine, and save the hassle of building a clinker breaker. Just make them parallel and about 6-8mm apart, so you can clean them by running the point of a poker between them.

I will start keeping my eyes open for a more suitable motor but in the meantime this one will have to do. I did install a piece of plate on the suction end of the blower that i can open and close to regulate airflow, i was thinking of lining the fire pot if someone maybe has a good recipe for the lining material. Ive read someting about using cat litter but what is it mixed with? And i have no idea what a clinker breaker is lol 

This kind of firepot doesn’t require a lining, so don’t waste your time. A clinker breaker is a chunk of metal at the bottom of the firepot that can be turned both to regulate the airflow into the forge and to break up the clinker as it forms. Nice, but not necessary.  

Ok nice to know. Thanks JHCC. I made some progress over the weekend with the forge but forgot to take pics will take some and post when i get a chance.