I got this in a trade today, and I’ve never seen another like it,

it’s a “Lancaster forge an blower company”401 model made in Buffalo New York,

(NOTE) every champion I’ve ever seen, found, had or have had, says the words blower and forge company

NOT forge and blower company,

it’s overall shape resembles a champion 400 but it’s most definitely not a 400 by a long shot! 

it’s has bolted on access plates, one on the back and one on the side,

brass holders for the shafts,

and a completely different mount than a 400,

has anyone ever came across one of these? Are they some sort of copy on champions design from the competition? 

The only place I have seen it is on a 401 forge, which if I remember right came out after Champion changed hands. I have this bookmarked.

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=40257

Randy,

I’ve seen that one when I was looking for it, if you zoom in an the picture that’s actually a champion 400 blower on that forge 401 forge,

The picture won't zoom in for me. Just thought the way it's mounted could be a 401 blower too. Have you got a copy of this Champion catalog. The 401 blower is in it page 8.

Champion_Blower_Forge.pdf

Yeah when I tried every search term I could think of I came across a couple pictures of those, 

if you look at that one you can see the two screw access cap on top with all the writing, and the grease caps,

and it’s got that 400 style that’s got the two ribbed shaft that slides into different champion mounts,

I just added a Champion catalog attachment to the above post, didn't know if you have a copy.

Thanks!
I do have a paper copy from a different year, 

I must’ve looked at hundreds of blowers so far and haven’t found much about the company but I honestly believe that’s it was a separate company from champion, but it wasn’t near as big a company,

in my search I came across another Lancaster forge an blower co, blower that was a different model but also really weird,

and I found some old sales bills on vintage machinery’s website for the company too,

leave it to me to drag home another really strang blower lol

this makes the fourth blower I’ve found that has hardly information on the company available

Back when there was a large market for smithing stuff there were lots of different companies making it.  As it dried up most of the smaller ones disappeared leaving the larger ones who had economies of scale working for them.  Finally most of them gave it up.   So what we find is predominantly the large makers; but in some locations a local manufacturer may have had a lot of the local market and small amounts of their stuff end up moving out through "Brownian Motion".  (Sort of like how I've found British Broad Arrow sledges at the NM/TX/Mexico border fleamarkets---but quite rarely!

If you can find any of the 100+ year old blacksmiths journals you can often see ads for makers you have never heard from!

I think I’m need to start recording all the blowers I find, 

not just the weird ones but even the big three brands because I’ve noticed there are some differences even between the same models from the same manufactures,

and some models are completely unmarked but you can set them next to an exact identical one that is marked

When I saw the notice for your post I was thinking Audio recording. Photo and written is more practical but now I'm wondering if audio might help folk evaluate what different conditions sound like. You know, this is what blades rubbing sound, this is gears not tracking, bad bushings, etc. It would work in an online site.

Frosty The Lucky.

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of writing and photographing, for identification and historical purposes, 

but audio an video would be an excellent idea for showing how to repair blowers!

That's kind of what I was thinking. A catalogue book and a companion . . . "Blower's Manual" sounds better than a anything I can think up on the spot to pun "Chilton's." 

Adding "published author" to your resume wouldn't be a bad thing would it?

Frosty The Lucky.

Kinda what I was thinking,

it Might be fun to collect blowers an or photograph other peoples blowers and dig up the history on the companies and put it all in a book!

id bet I could sell a whole 5 copies!!! Lol

I think "Pushing Air, a Compendium of Hand Crank Blacksmith Blowers"  would be less prone to misinterpretation. 

Thomas!

ive got a few different ideas for a title but I’ll have to do some more research,

I wonder if it’s legal to use old pictures, logos, advertisements ect… from old catalogs?

the stuff is over 100 years old so I’d think the original copy write protection is over

but since there’s companies that have started reprinting some of those old catalogs I wonder if you’d run into trouble?

How about "An Impelling Compendium of Hand Crank Blowers?" Just joking punning isn't a good idea for a blacksmith related book. I couldn't help myself though.

Frosty The Lucky.

so this Lancaster 401 blower looked pretty on the outside but it growls worse than a junkyard dog,

so I decided to tear it down an take a look at the bearings!…. Well that an i was super curious to see the guts! Lol

turns out one of the bearing cups/races has some pitting in it, 

Ended up having 14 ball bearings per side

ill have to do figure out how to get the cups out without breaking them, so I can measure an find some replacements,

If I can’t find anything to replace them then I’ll just re assemble it and add a little grease to quiet them down

 

 

 

 

The gears look pretty good especially the bronze one, which are bad to wear out. I have smoothed out bearings by packing them with grease that I added powdered graphite to. Still need a little oil for the gears though.

Goodness Billy you're having too much fun. I take it the wasp nest wasn't occupied. 

How long did it take you to disassemble it?

Frosty The Lucky.

13 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

with grease that I added powdered graphite

That’s an idea I haven’t thought of before thanks Randy!

Jerry, 

I always have fun when messin with a new machine I haven’t tinkered on before! 
 

ahh those waspers won’t hurt you, ive only got a half million of em arount the shop, yesterday I saw my first mud dauber of the season,

I wasn’t timing myself but just guessin I’d say maybe 20-30 minutes to tear it down?

Deb's anaphylactic, allergic and can't seem to help but start doing the sting me dance when a bee or wasp gets close. I almost never get stung but am starting to swell around the sting and feel it more. I just stop moving and they go back to what they were doing and we're good. Still, I can't have them close to the house. "When in doubt, scream and shout,  flap your arms and run about!" can't have them around. 

Most guys posting about disassembling blowers spend a couple days at it and we usually don't hear back about reassembling an using them later. 

I have a tube of IIRC Lithium graphite grease in a gun I use on the power hammer. It's really thin but it's really sticky and slippery. It works really well on the LG ad probably would on the blower bearings.

Frosty The Lucky.

Lol, this ain’t my first rodeo Jerry,

but I know what you mean, I recently took a champion 400 in on a trade, that someone had completely dissembled and threw all the parts in a bucket an never got around to rebuilding it…

I’ve torn down blowers before to clean them out and get ‘em movin again,

it takes a lot longer to clean one out then it does to take em apart an reassemble,

if I ever have to pull a gear off a shaft I always mark it before removal so I can put it right back where it came from, 

I found out long ago slow is fast an fast is slow,

if you get those gears outta wack you’ll be there half a day adjusting them back an forth till you get them right again, 

And I rebuild stuff for a living with years of experience! 

even I have got over my head on occasion with workin on old an unfamiliar machines, 

so I wouldn’t suggest that most folks attempt to tear down old machinery,

if someone don’t feel comfortable rebuilding, just flush it out instead an keep it oiled, 

now on another note, I really like the brass carriers an the shaft adjustment screws on this one! It’s a good design!

Found these advertisements for the company while doin some more research

I've acquired a similarly-marked Lancaster blower.  Mounted on a tripod stand.  Just the stand and the blower, nothing else attached. 

My unit has some differences from the one described here.  The ends of my blower shaft are covered by screw-in brass caps.  The blower wheel blades and spider are a sheet metal assemblage welded to a hub.

It is missing the brass bushing on the crank shaft, the non-handle side.  That bushing seems common design with those on the secondary gear.  I jammed a PVC pipe fitting in there for the moment.

The blower shaft turns, but rumbles like crazy.  And occasionally it jams.  I'm guessing flat spots on one or more bearing balls.

The crankshaft and secondary shaft bushings are very loose.  Assuming this is wear.  I set their adjustment screws snug.  Gears feel ok, look ok.  I've had the gear box open, inspected, not cleaning it yet.

What might my luck be were I to replace only the bearing balls?