TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 I’ve spoke about this blower several times on the forum and I finally got around to digging it outta the barn, it’s a star drilling company blower, it’s pretty pretty big an heavy, when I found it several years ago it was half buried an sunk in the dirt in an old shed that was about to fall in, The impeller was in good shape but one blade was broke in half, so I measured out using the existing blades and cut it outta mild steel plate, and riveted it back on like the others, all the casting is in perfect shape, but the shaft and Babbitt bearings was toast , so I took a steering shaft out of a mtd lawnmower and threaded one end and put a modern v belt pulley on it because the original was missing, then I used bronze bushings to replace the wire out Babbitt, it’s a little stiff turning over so I need to thin those bushings out a little anyways ive finally got around to digging it out and getting some pictures for y’all, it’s setting on a 225 PW for size reference, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkie Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 WOW!! That thing will blow coal into earth orbit...watch out Elon Musk and your Starlink satellites!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 Happy New Year, The pulley looks like the one on the shaft/spindle of the deck of my Husqvarna ride on mower. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 42 minutes ago, arkie said: WOW!! That thing will blow coal into earth orbit...watch out Elon Musk and your Starlink satellites!!! Lol, I don’t know about that but it can push some serious air, I looked it up once several years ago and I believe star drilling company was one of the early equipment suppliers when oil was starting to become a thing in the United States, I could be wrong but if I remember correctly I think this blower was used on a big forge for heating big rivets on oil field towers, SHC, I can’t remember what exact pulley i used several years ago but I’ve been in the small engine repair business for years so it’s very possible I modified a splined spindle pulley to fit on a round shaft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 Do you have Mower in your Blower? Which letter is silent? Maybe it will be German vocabulary, 'All letters in a word are pronounced' BLMower or MBLower. If we attach a Tiger Tail what will change? Seriously, a Paddle type blower discharges way more air pressure/volume than a squirrel cage impellor. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rojo Pedro Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 Nice one TW.I would guess it is for ventilation. Are you planning to use it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 12 hours ago, swedefiddle said: Seriously, a Paddle type blower discharges way more air pressure/volume than a squirrel cage impellor. That’s interesting, I would have guessed the squirrel cage pushed more air, RP, I might hook it up an play with it one of these days, right now I got more projects than time lol, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 As has been mentioned blowers were used for a lot of different things---especially on a farm where grain drying, silage moving, ventilation are all needed. Also instead of large rivets what about all the large forges for reforging cabletool drilling bits; goes along with all those battered bridge anvils still found around the old oil patch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 I don’t remember it’s been awhile I just remember reading about the company specializing in oil field equipment and tools, IIRC, at one time they built something crazy like 90% on earth Of all oil field equipment, and something else about only two of their drilling rigs are left in existence, there’s one in a Museum in the United States somewhere and then one still operational in Africa now being used to drill water wells, I’ll try and look that article back up sometime, Thomas, I didn’t think about all the other forging that used to go on in the oil fields, but that make sense, I wonder how big the forge would have been? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 There are several videos on YT about forging the cable tool bits using various types of forges, (coal, gas and oil that I've seen) Perhaps take a mosey round there sometime? One thing to remember is that they tend to be "industrial" where speed and ruggedness are major factors heating large chunks of steel up to be worked with sledges. Of course nowadays the carbide button bit is replacing the repoint it on the fly ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 I’ll check YT an see what I find there, I did a image search using various terms oil field, shipyard, railroad ect… trying to see if I could find a picture of an old industrial forge that used a big blower like this but I didn’t find any yet, I did find a million pictures of bridge anvils though while searching lol, You’d think as many of those anvils as are out there that there would be big forges too? maybe I’m just not searching the right terms, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 Most of the ones I have seen looked cobbled together from firebrick and welded metal. They didn't worry much about efficiency back then. Also as industrial tooling a lot would be junked when not needed. examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjDpXUJrJUE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5wrGNUsKao nice bridge anvil in this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 That second video wore me out just watching it lol, I used to see those bridge anvils for sale cheap all the time but I rarely see them anymore, and when I do it’s for some stupid amount of money, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 And a lot of the bridge anvils were just cast iron! They were considered a consumable and were battered pretty fast so most you see are trashed. There was a 5th generation blacksmith in Stroud OK I was talking with back in the 1980's. He had one that he had built an angle iron frame for it and used it flipped upside down to have a large flat to true up plow points on. As it was just cast iron; I had my bridge anvil ground smooth; but I don't use it much, mainly for the hardy holes used to hold large tooling in the armour shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted January 13, 2022 Author Share Posted January 13, 2022 I’d like to find one just to have around the shop for something like that but I’m not gonna pay crazy money for a cast iron city park bench lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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