Hi,

I'm currently using a small camp bed pump with my forge and aside from leaving me shattered the air flow doesn't seem to be consistent enough. After a bit of research I have found out that buying one new will set me back a bit more than I can spare at the moment.

Can anyone suggest a good, readily available alternative?

Thanks in advance,

Toby

I use a squirrel cage.( heater motor) outta a 64 chevy truck. it works pretty good,Plenty of air, I just need to fix a switch on it so I can turn it off and on easier.

Lots of folks seem to use car heater fans, but one idea I came across the other day was to fit a standard domestic extractor fan into a steel Jerry can and feed a pipe from it to the Forge. There are some good ideas out there! ;)

Or use a metal ammunition can from your local army surplus. Then you can run control wires inside and mount them through the wall, and open the lid for access.

Or use a metal ammunition can from your local army surplus.

Yes, I thought about that too.

Yes, I thought about that too.

everyboddy's always talking about these amunition cans around here... never seen one, wouldn't know where you cold get a thing like that...
are there just bulits lying around everywhere over there in the US?

:rolleyes:

try going to a heating or airco repair companny, sometime they have broken units , but , with a working fan in there. you can get em at junk prise usually, but you'l have to take apart the unit yourself.
also an old vacum cleaner in reverse.. but thats a bit of a noisy sollution.

The Military sells the empty cans for scrap to the highest bidder. They usually end up in "surplus" stores.

a shop vac on a dimmer is what i used for awhile..on the lowest setting thevac still put out too much air so i made a valve form pvc and carboard!
worked great...just hook the hose on the vac to the blow spot and your ready to go

Try ebay for a hand crank blower...got mine from there for 70 bucks! 10 bucks to ship it
witch =80 bucks.....blower works GREAT

Find a local heating and cooling repair business and get one from a usit they pulled. The new gas furnaces here in the states have a nice small blower for the forced exhaust that should work a treat.

Also photo copiers contain blowers.

A hair dryer or a vacuum cleaner,are things I have heard of.

I use a ten dollar hair dryer with a valve made of pvc "T" and steel sheet, the sheet fits into the opening thats 90 degrees from the two others but cardboard would be better because it could be cut easier and get a better fit because of that.. also the one that the carboard fits into needs to be parallel to the ground so it won't fall out and should be left open to allow the air to escape when the valve is closed completley

I use a mighty electric Champion 400 blower, I could power at least 4 smiths at welding heat with it. I have to barely crack the air gate to get welding heats I started with a hair dryer. Worked real good.

Hand cranker for me, total control. Not much good with coke though as it goes out if there is no air pumping through it.

m brothers champ is a real wonder. It is the fan and housing from a 14 inch champion that Some long past smith updated with a GE electric motor. When I first hauled it home and rewired it I shot a mouse nest clear across the yard with it. I'm glad he's happy with it.
Finnr

I have a blower from a Kodak photo processing machine. Squirrel Cage type, cap on blower is twin bore, looks like a shotgun. It fed two pipes so I'll use it to power the forge and create a forced air chimney.

My shop forge (coal) has a blower/injector from an oil furnace with adjustable air flow that can be tuned with a lever on the front of the forge from a slight breeze to enough air to blow the fire outta the pot! The furnace was being replaced with a natural gas heater so I got the blower and a bunch of working stock just for hauling it off.

m brothers When I first hauled it home and rewired it I shot a mouse nest clear across the yard with it. I'm glad he's happy with it.
Finnr

John or the mouse?

Frosty

Frosty. Yes!
Finnr

Lol, the mouse nest. When he said it the first time, I thought he said he fired a mouse across the yard. However some of those industrial blowers that used in factories for venting could prolly easily blow me across the yard. Lol.

Well I've got something cobbled together now. Used a fan out of a pc server, an ajustable power supply, some piping and loads of gaffer tape (the king amongst tapes)!
Works a treat!

Thanks for all your replies and suggestions.

After I broke the handle off of my buffalo blower, I dissassembled an old vacuum cleaner, made a slide gate and it worked great. Recently John Rausch gave me a blower that was made for this purpose, even better!! but the old vacuum motor is still standing by!!