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I Forge Iron

Good bellows?


natkova

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On 11/5/2019 at 3:29 PM, natkova said:

Here is  interesting

Desing by French army i think, i can see how they add weight on bottom board, and i saw i forge iron Americans used to glue nozzle on top of midle board and under board , but i had issue with that  (lot'.s of plaining and messy glue) and here yo uhave one solid block that is put inside middle board and it fit, i was confused same thing did Austro Hungarians as i saw their bellows and nozzle.

And interesting they make top chamber twice as bottom and they insert two ribs in top, i saw that bellows at my blacksmith guy who is 80 years old and and he have that tradition even i think from Ottoman era or older to the Bosnian kingdom  i don't know, his father was blacksmith his brother in my vilage is blacksmith .

 

soufflet_de_forge98738_1.jpg

IMG_20191105_143118.jpg.a44f7cb02918e70c8b016c662f5db74d.jpg

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Awesome! It's really great to see this come together.

A friend and I built a bellows for my first shop. Memory says it was the one I liked the best. I will prolly build one for my new shop. The double chamber on the top is intriguing.  

Thanks for the timely inspiration

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You are welcome one tip , dont make them smaller thn 3 feet long and 2 feet at least wide, those were restored, if you make them smaller prepar yourself for more pumping :D
This forge is poorly made by some boars, just to test bellows.

 

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Thanks for the tip. My first(and only) bellies were made from a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I suspect the second chamber means you can make them smaller and get the same air flow.

I'll follow your advice on minimum size.

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On 5/9/2020 at 6:38 PM, anvil said:

Thanks for the tip. My first(and only) bellies were made from a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I suspect the second chamber means you can make them smaller and get the same air flow.

I'll follow your advice on minimum size.

I.made top chamber litle bit less than twice of size that bottom chamber have.

Rule is make top chamber bigger, bottom chamber wouls already pump air but you need to have some reserve in top chamber.

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Air flow is more based on nozzle size and weight compressing the upper board---which is why smiths will toss a hammer on there if they need a bit more boost.

Size of the upper chamber is more a factor in how long it takes to empty---so how long you can coast after you inflate it all the way.

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16 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Air flow is more based on nozzle size and weight compressing the upper board---which is why smiths will toss a hammer on there if they need a bit more boost.

Size of the upper chamber is more a factor in how long it takes to empty---so how long you can coast after you inflate it all the way.

I was thinking how much time you have to let leverage for example grab some fule or grab pliers , tongs etc, i let my bellows and top chamber work alone for 5 6 seconds.

This give me a lot's of advantage becasue i don't need to stay at bellows handle all time.

 

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I agree with Thomas on this. To say it a bit differently is, the airflow that happens when you are not there is important. The more rotations the better. And these free rotations happen at a descending rate. Thus your iron will not burn and relatively maintains it's forging heat. This is the key to having multiple irons in the fire and not burning or having to add heat to get to forging temp after being at the anvil..

With my old bellows, and to be clear I'm running on old memories here, I used a rope and pullys attached to the bottom leaf. So when I pulled down the bottom leaf rose. When I let go of the rope, gravity pulled the bottom leaf down. I think throwing a hammer on the top is a good idea, but I used old horse shoes on the bottom of the rope to control the rate the bottom leaf fell. I set this rate of fall to ~ equal the time it took for a forging heat at the anvil by adding or removing horse shoes. Working a piece of 1" square took fewer horseshoes than a piece of half square.  ;)

And that's the joy of a bellows even over a hand crank, or so my memory tells me. And that's the reason I'm thinking of a bellows in my new shop.

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