Hi guys a local auction has this massive blower for sale and I was wondering what it would have been used for. The listing says 32"-34" diameter. I haven't had a chance to look in person and probably won't until Monday.

Is it worth trying to pick up at all? 

Cool item.  Probably turned by a belt drive either off an overhead ine shaft or a dedicated motor in an industrial application.  IMO it is too large for a forge that most of us could use.  OTOH, you could use it and have it turn fairly slowly and only move as much air as you needed.  For feeding even a large forge in a 1 or 2 man shop if you had it on a 1-10 rheostat you would probably never move it above 1 or 2.

Personally, I would pass on it as being too large for requirements even if it was in good shape and turned easily.

It might be useful if you wanted to build you very own home blast furnace.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Maybe it was used to supply air for multiple forges at once, in a factory setting it might've been more efficient to power one or two of these blowers instead of 10-20 smaller ones.

~Jobtiel

I'd pass unless it were dirt cheap. I have one about half that size I picked up to power my in-floor shop exhaust system. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Industrial like factories, rail yards, ship yards and oil fields had big forges with big blowers, and like Job said sometimes multiple forges ran on single air supply’s,

personally if that was at a local auction here I’d be all over that!!! 

do a body need something that ridiculously large?….

No but then again people don’t need 1000 pound industrial anvils and swage blocks either! We just want em! Lol

i say go for it as long as it don’t go for stupid high! 

8 hours ago, Jobtiel1 said:

used to supply air for multiple forges at once

That is what the 1896 Buffalo catalog says. Also it puts out an enormous air blast and each forge controls the air with an air gate.

Took a lot of scrolling, looking and reading to figure that out, I think starting on page 208 is it...

1896 Buffalo forge catalog.pdf

Not to mention agricultural uses like silage blowers and grain dryers,  Mine ventilation,   Etc and so on. 

Shoot I just picked up a large fan to ventilate my shop: 54" on a side with a 2blade propeller; runs off 220 VAC.  Fills the garage door opening fairly well.

Thomas,

You need another one? There’s still one here settin in the yard! 

I promise it would look better in your yard then mine!

AngryOninon,

if you get that big Buffalo blower an decided ya don’t want it, you can always haul it down to Peavine America!!!

I’ll trade ya an anvil or a post vise or something else rusty for it!

 

Checked it out in person today since I was looking at other stuff anyway. Seemed to be in good condition and spun freely. I wasn't paying too much attention when it ended and went for under $50