Can any of you find gents recommend to me a common item that can be jerry-rigged into an acceptable forge blower? Other than a hair dryer of course. I have an old Buffalo forge that is missing the blower, I would like to locate a period correct hand crank blower for it, but in the meantime I would like to be able to just get it working. I was thinking something along the lines of a 120 volt electric leaf blower or possibly a vacuum cleaner motor. 

A blow drier makes too much air for most forging operations, a leaf blower or vacuum cleaner is un-useable in a forge. It'd be like dropping a 12 cylinder Rolls Merlin airplane engine in a Cooper Mini. 

If you want "period" correct Snohomish is still antique central isn't it, or have I been away too long? 

Check garage / yard/ etc. sales for electric mattress inflators, they still make WAY too much blast but the 12v DC ones can be controlled with an inexpensive voltage controller. They make 120v AC versions too but speed controllers are expensive for induction motors. Last season Wally World was selling both for around $20-25.

Frosty The Lucky.

I’m using a home gas furnace combustion air blower I got for free from a HVAC guy I know. The furnace was fine, but the homeowner was upgrading… I put a cheap speed controller on it and it works great. Ask around, you never know what places throw away that they’ll pass on, especially if they’re curious about what you’re going to us it for. It’s been my experience that most guys really get into the idea of blacksmith and want to help out!
 

Keep it fun,

David

I'm using one of those take-offs from high efficiency furnaces...Dayton blowers are great.

I've been using a 115cfm bathroom exhaust fan. I mounted a switch on the top and rigged a dump valve with a pvc 'Y' and a sliding gate from a dust collector  system. I had it all just laying around, so no cost. Works great. Few other parts not mentioned, but you should be able to figure it out.

Steve

20 hours ago, Frosty said:

a leaf blower or vacuum cleaner is un-useable in a forge. 

Qualifier: unless you have some way to control the motor or dump the excess air. I've used a leaf blower, a shop vac, and a vacuum cleaner (admittedly not all at once) with either a variable transformer (variac) to control the speed or a homemade gate valve that vented the extra air. All six combinations worked great.

True it CAN be done but it's a pita and too often expensive, especially if you get it wrong.

There are too many better, less expensive and obnoxious alternatives. Shop vacs, leaf blowers, etc. are VERY LOUD and you could have several thousand cfm of 300+mph air to dispose of.

Doable, yes, practical not.

Frosty The Lucky.

For my first forge I bought a $20 tiny shop vac from Walmart, a cheap extension cord and a dimmer switch. All in probably $30 or less. I cut the extension cord in the middle and installed the dimmer switch to control the shop vac. It worked great for a few years until I got something better. Later I added a foot switch to the whole thing and I could just step on it as I took the metal out of the forge to kill the air. I think the foot switch came from Walmart as well. I still have both cords but I no longer have any need for them

The two forges we use at Tired Iron have a large noisy blower, mounted outside in an enclosure, with the air piped inside to the forges and air gates to control the blast. Works very well.

Almost any squirrel cage style blower will work. I didn't have much luck using a dimmer switch to control the speed. In the end a piece of sheet metal slid over the blower intake made a quick and effective way to control the air.

Micheal, do you know what CFM your set up is?