Royal Blower

[Luketheviking]

Now that im working on a new solid fuel forge I decided to pull out the old crank blower thats been sitting in a corner of my shop. At first It seemed locked up, but after dissasembly I realized the gearbox was solid mud-dauber nest. After cleaning, scrubbing, and re-oiling the gears, redoing the gasket on the gear box, and partly reassembling it seems to work like a charm. Two questions, A. How much is a blower like this worth? Its a Royal Western Chief with a stand (ill get a pic if it later). B. What kind of oil do yall use in these? Will higher viscosity gear oil like I run in my mill work? Or do I need something thinner? Any tips or tricks greatly appreciated!

[George N. M.]

I'm going to say that a blower alone, assuming that it is working well (works smoothly enough that it will windmill a couple turns after you take your hand away after cranking it at normal speed) would have a fair market value of $US 150-250.  Maybe more or less depending on the part of the country and how hungry the buyer is.  Check on line auction sites to see what is being asked for similar items.

I use automatic transmission fluid in my blowers.  I would go with lighter rather than heavier oil.

Others may have different opinions as to value.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

PS The Royal Western Chief was a model manufactured and sold by the Canedy-Otto Manufacturing Company of Chicago Heights, IL (company existed 1894-1942).

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I use sae 30 weight oil in all mine but I’ve read about a lot of guys using chainsaw bar oil, 

as far as the value, I find forge blowers from with an without stands around here pretty regularly for $50- $75 all the time, that being said the Craigslist prices are much higher, 

im about 4hrs north of you so I’m kinda in the same region but prices may be higher down there,

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Being down in Hope, I would say the gear oil you have will work. In colder climates thinner is used. For years I ran 80 wt tractor gear lube without any problems. When I didn't have any on hand chainsaw bar oil with a little STP or equivalent mixed in works well. The main thing with the old hand cranked blowers is to not over fill them with oil because they will leak like a sieve. They use a splash oil system so oil only needs to be enough for the lower gear teeth to run in the oil which will distribute it throughout.

[Luketheviking]

Thanks for the input everyone, got the mud dauber nests cleaned out, the rust brushed off, and a fresh tank of gear oil along with a fresh coat of oil on the outside.  The blower works like a champ, the only thing left is to forge a new handle as this one was missing one.  Ill post pics soon.

[ThomasPowers]

One of the Foxfire books mentions using mud dauber nests as flux for welding---did you save them?  (I was thinking it was probably used for real wrought iron which can stand a higher temp when welding than modern mild steel and often used clean quartz sand as the flux.)