by WillyPete » 16 May 2010 17:15
I got to thinking about it a little bit and figured out a means to build your own blower for a forge that is hand powered and can be made to be variable air volume as well. Provided you can find the materials of course. Plus, there could be a minimal financial investment depending on what you can scrounge rather than purchase.
What I came up with is to use a belt driven blower assembly from an old furnace, gas or oil doesn't matter. You just need the belt driven blower assembly of the blower wheel in a housing with a small pulley on the shaft. If you don't have one laying around, you may be able to fin done at a local trash dump where someone replaced their old furnace and tossed that old one or, maybe you can become a friend to someone who works in the HVAC trade and they could find one for you, you never know. I work in the trade so I'm almost constantly scrounging items like this, I got lots of HVAC parts and pieces waiting for my ingenuity.
You'll need a larger pulley big enough to provide the amount of airflow you will need and a means to attach a handle to it, a belt to connect the drive pulley to the driven pulley and a frame of some sort to mount everything for stability, I'd probably fabricate something out of lumber to keep the weight down. Just mount the drive pulley on a shaft on one end of the frame, if you can make a tension adjustable mount for the drive that would help for when the belt needs tightening, the blower housing at the other end and the belt between them. Turn the drive pulley with the handle in the proper direction and you will have airflow. I know that large diameter pulleys to belt drive regular hand powered meat grinders are available and they have handles on them that would make them ideal to hand power a blower. Or hook a treadle board to it to make it foot powered.
To vary the volume of air, simply cover over part of the blower inlet opposite the pulley with a bit of sheet metal and to increase the force, form a reducing cone on the outlet of the blower to concentrate the airstream to increase the fire temp to work your metal.
This can be a large project but, if you're going top get into metal smithing it could be well worth the time and effort. Plus, there is a certain satisfaction in utilizing tools and materials you fabricated yourself to help others with their situations.
I just realized that I ought to provide pictures of some sort. I'll see what I can do. I didn't do so well with the swamp cooler I wrote about earlier. Mea Culpa.
I got to thinking about it a little bit and figured out a means to build your own blower for a forge that is hand powered and can be made to be variable air volume as well. Provided you can find the materials of course. Plus, there could be a minimal financial investment depending on what you can scrounge rather than purchase.
What I came up with is to use a belt driven blower assembly from an old furnace, gas or oil doesn't matter. You just need the belt driven blower assembly of the blower wheel in a housing with a small pulley on the shaft. If you don't have one laying around, you may be able to fin done at a local trash dump where someone replaced their old furnace and tossed that old one or, maybe you can become a friend to someone who works in the HVAC trade and they could find one for you, you never know. I work in the trade so I'm almost constantly scrounging items like this, I got lots of HVAC parts and pieces waiting for my ingenuity. :lol:
You'll need a larger pulley big enough to provide the amount of airflow you will need and a means to attach a handle to it, a belt to connect the drive pulley to the driven pulley and a frame of some sort to mount everything for stability, I'd probably fabricate something out of lumber to keep the weight down. Just mount the drive pulley on a shaft on one end of the frame, if you can make a tension adjustable mount for the drive that would help for when the belt needs tightening, the blower housing at the other end and the belt between them. Turn the drive pulley with the handle in the proper direction and you will have airflow. I know that large diameter pulleys to belt drive regular hand powered meat grinders are available and they have handles on them that would make them ideal to hand power a blower. Or hook a treadle board to it to make it foot powered.
To vary the volume of air, simply cover over part of the blower inlet opposite the pulley with a bit of sheet metal and to increase the force, form a reducing cone on the outlet of the blower to concentrate the airstream to increase the fire temp to work your metal.
This can be a large project but, if you're going top get into metal smithing it could be well worth the time and effort. Plus, there is a certain satisfaction in utilizing tools and materials you fabricated yourself to help others with their situations. 8)
I just realized that I ought to provide pictures of some sort. I'll see what I can do. I didn't do so well with the swamp cooler I wrote about earlier. Mea Culpa.
