Canedy Otto forge blower restoration Part 3

Gooday,

Well I finally had enough parts cleaned up and purchased to assemble the blower today.
After sand blasting the gear set plus the input shaft I found that the teeth on a few of the gears  were in really bad condition. I didn't think there would be enough teeth contact but I had no choice, I used them as they were.

A couple of mishaps occurred during this restoration. While heating up the gears in the forge to loosen them up I left it in too long and burnt off of the three attaching lugs. Also the third gear in the "transmission" now has a crack in one side of it. That was my over zealous attempt to free the gears using the large handle that it comes with.

I learned a lot about restoring rusted cast iron and steel blowers.
#1 Heat is your friend - almost anything will come loose when it is red hot.
#2 Be patient - if one method of loosening up parts isn't working try another method.
Case in point to loosen up the gears I tried WD-40 and a heat gun, electrolysis, drenching it with ATF and lighting it on fire, heating it up in the forge.

When you get the gears turning just a little bit , one at a time, don't put it back in the fire!

Work the gears back and forth while applying a lubricant.

#3 Spare parts for this blower are non - existent so, get creative with repairing what you have.
I used scraps of stainless steel for replacement fan blades and I used small bits of galvanized wire(from old chain link fence) to "rivet" the new blades on.

Here are some pictures from the assembly.

A split bushing was installed for the input shaft

The picture to the left is the gear housing. The largest hole is where the input shaft/gear sits. I installed a stock bronze bushing in there to take out some of the play. I don't think the blower had one to begin with or it just wore out completely.

I cut a slot in the bushing so it could be easily installed with out exerting too much force on the housing. The housing at this end was more evenly worn where as the opposite end where the input shaft connects to the handle adapter was worn un evenly. Installing a bushing at that end would require filing it off center to keep the shaft lined up.

Lubriplate 105 worked great to lube everything.

After doing more research on You Tube about
Canedy Otto blowers I found out that these blowers were not kept full of oil. The writing that is cast on the outside of the gear housing says to keep full with oil to top of plug. But if you do that they will leak oil. I plan on adding some heavy weight oil as need to the gears and the handle. This model blower did not have little oiler caps on it. I have seen other Canedy Otto blowers have them , the Tiger and Royal Chieftain did have them. Maybe this one did but those parts were "robbed" . Who knows?

To tighten these square bolts use an open ended wrench 90* to the head and use a screwdriver or ratchet shaft to torque the wrench through
the box end of the wrench. See picture below.
                                                                  

Torquing the square head bolts.



Installing the freshly painted fan.



Gear housing assembled to fan housing.

The brass dust caps (three of them) were installed after this photo was taken. They seal the housings where the gear shafts sit.

I used a piece of hemp string as a gasket between the two halves of the gear housings.

 

This video is of the blower assembled and working. I still have to attach the handle and do some more paint, however the bulk of the work is complete!

All pictures and video supplied by Capital Forge of Calgary, Alberta

 

Canedy Otto forge blower restoration Part 2

 

Gooday
While the forge has been up and running , I have been working on the blower section. As you have seen in part one of this series the gears from the fan transmission were seized up solid.
I did some research on the internet about loosening seized gears and found an old engine forum.

I read some of the threads and one guy said that soaking the part in oil/kerosene/diesel and lighting it on fire was a good way to get the metal heated up and at the same time allowing a lubricating fluid to reach in and penetrate the seized parts. I used this method on the gears and let it burn for about two hours, after that I dropped it in a bucket of old engine oil.


 

                                                      

The gears from the blower getting heated up and lubricated at the same time


I worked on the fan a couple of days earlier and replaced two fins with stainless steel blades.
Here is the video from that experiment.

 

All pictures and video supplied by Capital Forge of Calgary, Alberta

 



 

Canedy Otto forge blower restoration Part 1

Gooday and welcome !

I have been absent from this dusty corner of cyber space for too long and I do in fact have a rather
interesting hand powered tool all the way from the fertile soil of Manitoba.

Last summer I caught the blacksmithing "bug" as I watched a live demonstration of the art performed at a pre-Stampede breakfast in my neighbourhood. Ever since that day I have been searching Kijiji and You Tube for blacksmithing tools and techniques. I caught a break when I mentioned my new interest to my father-in-law. He told me he used to use a forge on a regular basis when he and his team used heavy equipment(D-7 Caterpillar etc.) to clear the land in his community. This forge was used often to repair parts that broke on the heavy duty machines. He graciously offered it to me and even repaired the "basin/coal tub" which had several gapping rust holes in it.

The forge found its way west to the dusty plains of Alberta where it is undergoing a restoration of sorts in my back yard. The hand cranked blower is seized and is currently receiving hot showers of WD-40 courtesy of my new heat gun.

The legs have been separated from the blower base and are in fair shape considering that they have spent many years in the back forty.

The manufacturer of this blower is Canedy Otto Mfg. Co. from Ohio, U.S.A.

So far I have removed the set screw that holds the sliding crank handle and also straightened the handle with the counter weight attached to the end.

Right now I am in the process gaining access to the gears inside. The bolts that hold the gear housing to the fan housing are very old and just break off inside when I gently turn them counter clockwise.

I will update this post as my labour of love continues to give new life to this old work horse.
My goal is to be starting a fire in it this summer/fall.



Ye rusty forge - legs have been removed.



The fan is intact - now it just needs to turn.



The large rectangular patch which is currently holding the blower to the pan.(Courtesy of my father-in-law(Thanks Dad))

This is the second part of the blower restoration project.

I separated the transmission housing from the impeller housing. The bolts that threaded into the impeller housing broke off because the bolts were very weak and the threads were completed rusted.




The rusty gears of the transmission that takes the power from the crank and increases the revolutions to the impeller.

Tonight I drilled out one of the three broken bolts and tapped the threads with a 1/4 -20NC taper tap.
It is necessary to start with a much smaller drill size to make sure that the hole is going down straight.
After I finished going the full depth with that first bit I used a larger bit to drill the hole before I used the final size drill bit.




The tricky business of tapping new threads. It takes some patience.


All pictures and video(s) supplied by Capital Forge of Calgary Alberta.

Lee Valley workbench review

Workbenches for woodworking have always been praised and criticized the world over by woodworkers for millennia , and this particular bench is no exception.

 I purchased my first workbench about 5 years ago and in that time I have discovered what I like and don't like about this bench. Perhaps these opinions will be useful to you if you buy a workbench or build one.


Some assembly required : Moving the bench is made easier with the legs and the top easy to remove. I had the bench in the garden shed for a while before I moved it downstairs in the house. By dis assembling the bench it was relatively easy to transport.

Get a fat bench : I do use the bench for hand work and  the bench started to skate on the floor while using my hand planes. My bench is not massive in terms of weight so I had to make some shelves across the trestles to hold ballast(garden blocks).  The blocks weigh the bench down enough now that it won't move with regular forces pushing on it. If necessary I can slide the bench around by hip checking it - that way I don't break my back.

Skip the dust collector :  Centered in the bench top is a tool tray, it has various names depending if you like that sort of addition to your bench. I don't like it. It eats up valuable surface area for working and acts more like a dust collector than any thing else. I will be removing the tool tray in the future and joining  the heavy maple slabs together.

A holey good idea : The top has several 3/4"  holes pre-drilled to accommodate round bench dogs or my personal favourite - holdfasts. This feature is really nice to have.

Add vises as needed : The full width tail vise at the end of the bench has seen very little use with the exception of assembling my toboggans. I could have done without this vise and I will be removing it very soon. My advice(pun intended) is start with a face vise(quite practical) and as you work with the bench you will find out which vises you need for the projects that you want to do.

This workbench can be ordered in various stages(ie: just the tops, or cast iron legs etc.) because it is easier on your wallet.





 

The shooting board plane that never was... until now !

So Gooday!

Yes I am blogging on New Year's Eve! It has been 366 days since my last post on this blog so I decided to finally post one to quell the rumours that I had got lost in the Lee Valley store and couldn't find my out.

The earth shattering news from my workshop is this. I at last happened upon the perfect shooting board plane. For as long as I have had in my possession a shooting board(home made), I  pined for a beautiful Bedrock 608 jointer plane to lay on its side and cleave whisper thin shavings from a piece of wood.

Alas I was unsuccessful in procuring a 608 on ebay , and therefore was resigned to let the dust gather on my shooting board. Little did I know that the humble red oak 'smoothing' plane that I had built(and blogged about on this blog) was just waiting for the chance to shine as a tool which has yet another function to add on its resume.

This plane is solid oak and is 10.25" long and 2.5" high and wide. What makes this plane so superb at gliding down the shooting board is its height. A full 2.5" the entire length of the plane. The weight and the stability of this plane makes it a great performer for shaving long and edge grain.

Long live the wooden plane.

A red oak smoothing plane, doubling as a shooting board plane.

Buying tools on Ebay

I have to confess... buying old woodworking tools on ebay is an addiction of mine. I have bought more than a few tools online and I would like to offer some advice to you if you are planning to buy on the internet.

1. Buy complete tools only. There are many vintage tools online with missing pieces , don't buy them with the intention that you will find the spare parts to fix them. It just will not happen. I am speaking from experience here.

2. Review the return policies of the individual sellers , they can set their own return policies. I have returned two items on ebay, both with the full support of the sellers.

3. Seek out a friend who owns the tool you are looking for and ask to borrow it. If you use it and find out you really don't like it, you just saved yourself a bunch of money.

4. The condition of the tool really matters if you are a collector or a user. If the tool has some rust on it you can easily clean it up and use it.

5. Know the approximate value the tool you are bidding on. I recommend buying the book: The Stanley Little Big Book 2006. This pocket sized book is a thorough reference on every plane Stanley made. It also lists prices based on condition.

6. Don't get caught up in the excitement of the bidding! Remember if you happen to be bidding against a collector, and you are a user, the collector may be willing to pay a lot more money than you would. There are a lot more fish in the sea......

Securing long boards on edge

My trusty Wolden holdfast securing one end of a 5' board.

So, I finally figured out a fool proof way to secure long boards to the edge of my work bench. My bench does not have the legs flush with the edge of the top or have a sliding deadman. I asked my wife for her opinion on this predicament and this is what she came up with.

This is what a fresh set of eyes can do if you ask for help. The other end of the board is held fast with the face vise.  Happy planing !