Subject: Re: Champion blowers

From: [email-masked] (Clay Spencer)
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 21:23:43 -0400

At 11:25 AM 6/9/96, Russell McCrackin wrote:
>Must dissagree with you Mike.  There are LOTS of squirrel cage blowers
>out there just waiting for you.  Every junked clothes drier has one,
>and they are cheap.  I have picked up large blowers with good
>bearings and constant speed motor for as little as 75 cents.  And why
>the variable speed motor.  They are not cheap, and there are other ways
>of controlling the blast.
>
>Better and cheaper is to put a sliding or pivoting shutter over the intake
>of the blower.  Put the head of a small bolt on the inside of the cage,
>shaft sticking out, put on a nut to hold it there.  A scrap of sheet metal
>big enough to cover the air inlet of the blower cage with a hole for the
>bolt, then 2 more nuts (one nut locks the other in position).  When you want
>lots of air for the fire, open the shutter.  When you take a hot piece to
>the anvil, slid the shutter closed.  There will be enough air leakage to
>keep the fire going, but not enough to burn any steel still in the forge.
>
>Rusty
Rusty has the right idea on the gate for controlling air flow.
Some squirrel cage blowers do not put out enough pressure.
I have used a1725rpm, 1/4  or 1/3 hp motor clothes dryer fan or other
straight blade blower with good results.
The air leakage is especially useful if you use coke instead of coal.
Clay

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From: Michael Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 96 00:47:39 EDT

Gotta put my mildly different $0.02 worth in here. I picked up a
centrifugal blower from a naval radar set (at least it was some kind
of heavy-duty microwave electronics) about 14" diameter with a quite
close fit between the vanes and the cast aluminum housing. Replaced
the fast AC motor with an ancient AC/DC and a household light dimmer.

I built in a T for a hand blower and an air gate, too. But the
electric one is so easily adjustable that I eventually moved the hand
blower out of the way and never use the airgate. Only problem was that
the vanes fit in the housing so precisely that it took a dozen or more
tries to get the motor mount right so that the vanes didn't hit the
housing.

- Mike
-- 
Michael Spencer               (902) 543-8375
[email-masked]
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
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