man powered blower alternatives

[Teachingclay]

I for the life of me am unable to locate an actual forge blower. I have the hair dryer thing and all but would like to go non-electric. Does anyone have a hand powered alternative they could share?

[Mike BR]

I've seen exercise bikes that had paddles/blades mounted in the rear spokes for air resistance. It looked like you'd be able to add a housing around the wheel and have a pretty powerful blower. Actually, it might be easier to get the clearances right if you used your own blades on a standard wheel.

[racer3j]

Hand crank blower with sprocket and bicycle pedal crank in a welded up frame. Spose you could get really fancy and have 5 or 10 speeds. Skip the joke, the first sentence is for real.mike

[welder19]

Watch e-bay and craigslist and check antique shops and farm sales, those are the normal places that you'll find one, sometimes you just have to be patient, they arn't exactly real common these days.

welder19

[trying-it]

Clothes dryers have a great blower inside. Check some of your regional appliance repair shops. See if you can find one with a bad electric motor. Don't take much to remove the motor and add some sort of handle for the crank.

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

I've had an idea in my head for a while for a "box bellows" style bellows made out of large diameter pipe instead of an actual "box". Kind of a "box bellows butter churn" looking thing. I'm still working out the bugs in my head, but feel free to run with the idea.
-Aaron @ the SCF

[jayco]

racer3j, there's no reason I can think of why your idea wouldn't work..........It reminds me of the 'Arkansas' blower I saw pictures of somewhere.
It had a handcrank and a series of smaller and larger pulleys( conected with belts) to get the fan up to speed.

Aaron, I had an idea similar to yours.........using a smooth walled barrel and a big dash, but I haven't tried it yet.

One idea I tried, and could not make work.............was to make a bellows using a 33 gal. trash bag and 2 pieces of heavy cardboard as the top and bottom.....connecting it all together with duct tape! ( Sort of the 'Red Green' design strategy)
But so far.........no trash bag bellows!

James

[Finnr]

If the women don't find you handsome they should find you handy!!! Old Red is my hero!
Finnr

[HWooldridge]

A traditional great bellows works just fine for the normal hand powered forge. Three platens made from plywood about 3'x4' and the sides from either leather or vinyl will function well to blow a large fire. Takes a while to make but the results are worth the effort plus the raw materials should be relatively cheap and easy to locate.

[Sabre]

i made my own blower from a piece of galvey pipe and a car blower squrrel cage then added a motor... i am working on a hand crank blower now though

[ThomasPowers]

I started out with an electric blower back in 1981, then went to a hand crank blower a couple of years later because I preferred it---less fuel used and less steel burnt. Then I built a double lunged bellows and used that for a dozen years as I preferred it to the hand crank blower!

However a lot depends on how good a thing is designed and works; I have seen/used other peoples hand crank blowers that were miserable to use and have used a double lunged bellows at a historical smithy that actually would do dammage to you as you used it.
My double lunged bellows I could pump with my pinkie and get the fire to welding temps easily too. The one at the historical society smithy you had to reach way up and grab the strap hard and pull down with all your might/weight to get any air at all. The smith there has permanent shoulder dammage from using it for 10 years.

Chinese box bellows take up a lot less space than the "great" bellows and some folks like them a lot. The one I used I did not prefer it to my great bellows save for the space/loading/unloading considerations.