Airyk21 Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 Hi everyone, Cleaning out an old blacksmith shop and we found this unique hand crank blower. Or at least I've never seen this style before. It took us a while and a lot of oil/wd40 to even figure out what it was for. When you turn the hand crank it powers two fans inside the box(?) And air comes out the exhaust pipe on the side. I can't find any makers marks and have never seen one like this.If anyone has any ideas or would like more pictures let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 I've never seen a blower like that one. There appears to be a cover and races for another sprocket, gear, ? on the side away from the outlet / exhaust port. Oh wait, I just realized it's a cover for the chain driven gear so it can enjoy oil bath lubrication without spraying oil like a bicycle tire on a rainy day. Where is the air intake, I can't see a hint in the pics. Did you get any pics of it's innards or were you able to get it working without taking it apart? The two cases and drive shafts looks like it might be an opaque compressor. Opaque meaning air won't flow through it freely unless it's turning. A typical centrifugal blower on forges are known in general as a "transparent" compressor, meaning air or whatever will flow freely through, turning or not. Anyway, the type compressor I THINK it might be has two interlocking blades, envision wide sort of deep gears that have a small space between the ends of the blades and bottom of the spaces. As they turn air or whatever is drawn in to the open spaces between the vanes, then the meshing vanes close the space, compress the air (or whatever) until they unmesh on the output side. The belt and gear driven superchargers on dragsters, F A S T boats, etc. use this type compressor and if the engine seizes the blowers tend to explode because as long as they're turning they WILL build pressure. Till something breaks or gives that is. I don't know if that's what you have there but it looks suspiciously like it to me from here. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airyk21 Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 I was able to get it to work without taking it apart but I may take it apart this weekend, the air intake appears to be from the top front just a small slit. It seems that the hand crank transfers power through the case to the right side and then over to the other gear and back into the case. Not sure what's in the case but it blows air out the exhaust pipe on the bottom. There are wells for oil on all four sides and under the gears on the outsides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 I advise AGAINST taking it apart if you don't have to! Back in the day they connected fans etc. to shafts in ways we don't anymore and it can do damage trying to take them apart. We see lots of guys trying to figure out how to repair "common" forge blowers after taking them apart. Some guys are good at it, most aren't. The air intake is through the spaces between the top plate and blower cases the crank arm is connected to? The second pic shows the sprocket to 1st gear pretty well. I assume there is an oil port or grease zerk on the shaft? Yes, one lobe is driven by the hand crank and the second lobe is turned by the meshed gears on the far side of the case. The gears MUST be properly timed to mesh with the other lobe / shaft or it jams instead of pumping. This gear set appears to be missing the top cover for the oil bath. If you know where it came from you might want to take a look around for it or make one or it's going to sling oil in use. I just had another thought, the voices are speaking to me the more I think about this. If you cover the outlet port with your hand while it's turning and it either forces your hand off or the crank won't turn, it's an opaque or positive flow compressor. If it continues to turn reasonably easily while you're blocking the outlet then it's a transparent compressor. I don't know if it really matters but it does mean something for how much trouble it could be taking it apart and putting it back together. Okay, the voices asked why I didn't do a search for a diagram of a Roots blower. The diagram below shows what I THINK happens when you turn the crank on your blower. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airyk21 Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 Noted, looks like we will not take it apart. Thanks for all your help Frosty. The oil well on the crank side has a crack in the bottom so we may try to braze it so it will hold oil. And may make a cover for the opposite side that is completely missing. Any way to approximately date this? Has anyone seen anything like this in a patent or old catalogue? We would like to gently restore and use it at our living history museum. Pioneer Farms in Austin Texas we try and stay 1900 and earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 When I first saw this my thought was for a screw compressor, but I couldn’t why anyone would want to have a hand cranked screw compressor. Frosty’s thought of a roots blower makes more sense with the top intake, but again I have a hard time understanding why it would be hand cranked. Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike BR Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 Not sure how to post a link from my phone, but if you google 1885 roots blower, you’ll find an iforgeiron thread. It even has pictures of the blower before it got left out in the rain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 Would you mind posting the Iforge link please? All I found with Iforge in the terms you suggest is a thread on a knife forum bashing Iforge. Once I remembered the name of the blower type I found more links than a boy can use. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airyk21 Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 Google was better at finding it than using the iforge search bar. that looks like it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike BR Posted June 28 Share Posted June 28 I'm home from work, so here it is (I hope). Thinking about it, a roots blower should have made pressure at lower RPM than a centrifugal, so that that might have seemed like a better idea for a hand-cranked blower. And maybe it even was a better idea until the Champion came out with its compound gearing. (Not that I know what else might have been on the market before the 1905 Champion patent.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airyk21 Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 Yeah we were discussing this yesterday It seems almost more complex than the champion, or at least more points of failure. interesting that champion is 1905 and this is 1885 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike BR Posted June 29 Share Posted June 29 According to Wikipedia, the first uses of roots blowers were blast furnaces and mine ventilation. Centrifugal blowers that big sound kind of scary. Anyway, it might just have been a matter of having a neat idea and trying it out on different products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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