Earlier today I replied to a 3 yr old Lancaster blower topic, but scratch that...

I acquired a Lancaster blower in not the best condition.  Improved several aspects already, but now getting to the keep-or-toss decision.

A key problem is the blower shaft bearings.  Here's a photo of the "balls" and the inner race from the blower-side end of the shaft.  If I were to replace these bearings with actual polished 1/4"bearing balls, what will happen?  No doubt it will initially roll a lot smoother than now, heh.  Longer term, will the lousy race "win" and ruin the balls?  Will smooth balls roll ok and tend to smooth that lousy race?  The outer race looks about like the inner, maybe a little better; difficult to zoom in for a clean photo.

I haven't opened up the blower shaft rear bearings.  Presumably they may be in a little better shape.  In any case, if to replace, they would be those also.

Overall blower, and a bit of disassembly photos FWIW.

 

Have you taken it to a driveline, bearing, etc. supply?

The issue of a badly weathered bearing or such in an antique or special machine is pretty common. There are companies that specialize in cleaning, building up and machining things like your inner race. 

I've done a little powder deposition torch work in a class and your bearing is just what it's made for. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty, thanks the suggestion.  Too complicated for my purpose.  Just wondering about a low-cost, basic fix, how modern, inexpensive, hard bearing balls might likely interact with 100+ year old cup and cone metal.

They'll probably make the races worse or eat them. Certainly not smooth them. Heck the vibration of bearings rolling over the pitted surfaces might even work harden them enough to crack and break.

Most bearing / driveline shops I've been in let me look through their references for aardvark (odd) bearings and fittings to match what was on the drill or tool. Drill rigs and tooling are pretty high stress and break fairly often so I spent time in suppliers and shops all over Alaska. It was kind of fun but I like talking to people. You?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

I build things and fix things.  Sometimes low tech like this ancient forge, other times more high tech.  Often in the electromechanical domain.  Sometimes fluids, sometimes more like embedded processor electronics.  I've certainly re-packed my share of bearings, but usually the balls were more or less spherical and smooth to start with, heh.

Chinese bearing balls from Amazon are available at bargain prices.  Good quality or not, who knows?  Might just see how they roll on these old races.  What more to lose?

I'll take some measurements on this bearing cone, and its threads.  Maybe it matches something odd like a British bicycle bottom bracket bearing.  Some bike and scooter stuff from Taiwan and China uses old British thread standards.

I hadn't thought of that. Does anybody make thrust ball bearings? 

Might have to adapt a thrust roller bearing.

Frosty The Lucky.

We had a Champion blower where the bearing cones showed similar wear. They seemed to be case hardened—at least a file would bite at the bottom of the groove, but not on the unworn parts of the surface. (I wound up turning new tool steel cones.)

Having grown up with a metal spinner machinist Father and taking metal shop all through middle and high school, that would've been my reaction if I couldn't buy one.

Dad was also pretty adamant about the difference between old and rusty vs. antique being largely in the eyes of the owner.

Frosty The Lucky.

That $6 Amazon assortment set of bearing balls was an excellent investment.  Replaced all the wrecked balls on both ends of the shaft.  Actually the far end of the shaft was missing half of its balls, obviously improved.  Adjusted the original cones to just the tiniest hint of slack, and the blower is fully functional.

I could not call it a precision machine.  Noisy, rattles a bit.  Lateral and axial slack/runout feels like 0.010" to my calibrated hand.  But the crank force observably all goes into forcing air, not overcoming mechanical friction.

It was missing a wooden crank handle when I bought it, remained just the handle "spindle", all bent up, which I straightened.  My expedient solution was to cut a short length of fat broomstick, drill through the center, split it lengthwise, and wood-glue it around the spindle with some grease in the middle.  I don't know if that's considered proper, but was quick, and it works great.

Unsure where this unit is going to land.  It is just the blower+tripod, no forge.  It probably isn't worth a great deal.  But amusing to bring back to functional.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Very cool, does it make good air? If you belong to a local blacksmith club offer it for sale there. Not long ago it would've brough quite a bit, a couple hundred in Alaska where smithing gear is hard to come by. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

On 7/6/2025 at 9:39 PM, oldpanforge said:

Earlier today I replied to a 3 yr old Lancaster blower topic, but scratch that..

I apologize about the late response! I messaged you back!

Next time you need me just find Shaina or John or Jerry or a bunch of other folks on here and have them send me a text or call or a facebook message or a letter!

or in Jerry’s case a carrier pigeon or smoke signals since he don’t like texting! 

Don't hesitate gang, I'm always more than happy to give Billy a call with some select choice words.  If you send Billy a pigeon, remember to include the seasoning packet.

Frosty The Lucky.