Blacksmith Blower Repair: Making a New Gear and Putting it Back Together

[@benjurqunov]

That's the first blower I've seen that's meant to hold oil. I've refurbished countless Champions and Buffalos that are intended to be total loss oiling. If those are run regularly with a squirt of oil every week, they'll turn easy and last. We never find them truly worn out. Just left out in the weather for decades rusted or broken.

[@billandrew8134]

My Grandfather was a blacksmith by trade but changed to farming , used his skill to make repairs on the equipment a couple of times I remember cranking the blower for him back in the 50's so enjoyed watching you repair that one . Bill

[@StevenHarris-i6t]

Keith, you are a master at editing. Every episode is smooth and informative. I’ve watched you cut scores of teeth but you always make it just the right length keep the content interesting. Thanks Steve

[@argee55]

Well hello Ginger. He’s not the least bit camera shy. I really enjoy watching gears being made. Glad to see the blower back to 100%. Thanks for sharing.

[@parsias5381]

Nice to see old and new coming together, that laser cutter is paying off!

[@timheilman2089]

Babbitt bearings can be traced back to 1839 so between the first job and the laser is 185 years of skill.

[@richardsurber8226]

I agree with John. But I would add your patience like you're teaching, and actually like you have an apprentice with you and you're Showing him how he should approach machining. Thanks for the video

[@broggyr]

I remember watching the first videos you did on this blower, and wondered if it was the same one. it's like an old friend that has come back to visit.

[@StevenEverett7]

Thank you, Keith. You always have amazing videos. I truly enjoy them.

[@markwatters6875]

Good to see the Supervisor keeping you honest 👍. Thank you for your time, knowledge and video 👍🇦🇺

[@hectorpascal]

How does Ginger not get little bits of metal swarf stuck in his paw pads?

[@masteruniverse3506]

Gear making is magic!

[@jamesstandridge8757]

Ginger, sure, has you trained. This was my first time seeing gears being cut. Pretty neat. Great video. Thanks.

[@davidschwartz5127]

Great work Keith.

[@markhardman6413]

Great job 👏🏻 your little ginger apprentice turned up for work today

[@rexmyers991]

Your experience and skill make it look like a routine repair and as a mechanic I know it isn’t. Thanks for sharing.

[@PaulStaples-h2f]

Wow that was amazing, i am sure it will be greatfully appreciated for many a year to come, keep up the good work. It was a good treat to see your lateral thinking on what went where and the gasket stuff, good you showed how you made it, great stuff, absolutely brilliant. Have a great day keith, you are awsome and God bless.

[@lerkzor]

Hi Keith. I've enjoyed your content for years, and I'm always delighted when I see you upload something. I have a question about the horizontal mill: Is there any such thing as a bar that isn't slightly bent? On ALL of the machining channels I follow, I have never seen a cutter that actually cuts evenly on all the teeth. Obviously, it still works with a slightly bent bar since everyone uses them and still make good parts, but it always bugs me to see the bar wobbling. Thanks again for all the years of content, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

[@markmossinghoff8185]

I think it's mostly down to the fact that the spacers aren't cut 100%square. Any slight deviation from 90 degrees is multiplied by the number of spacers and it forces the bar out of shape when the stack is pulled tight.

[@stevem268]

early morning coffee and a new video from keith!

[@michaelgivens8513]

Absolutely the best way to start the day.

[@stevem268]

and thanks for the tip on "blackening" modern zinc plated hardware!

[@richardtaylor7199]

Great job.

[@timf6916]

Good job

[@richardsurber8226]

I almost forgot, I really like you using the SAE 4140 for this application. That tough steel will twirl that fan blade wonderfully

[@steve_weinrich]

Nicely done. If anyone cares, 96 holes per revolution (of the dividing head) X 5 revolutions of the dividing head (to yield one revolution of the part) is 480 holes. Divided by 12 teeth is 40 holes per tooth. No book needed!

[@frenchcreekvalley]

12 point sockets work for square headed bolts since 12/3=4. But, of course, you need the correct size. So I often find that metric 12 point sockets can work well to fit imperial square heads.

[@Toms_Steam_Channel]

Gotta ask, who else besides me just had to go back after the last video and watch the series when he rebuilt this blower nine years ago? And if you did watch that series, did you notice it had been taken apart some time since? In the original series, there was no mention of babbit (Keith actually mentions the steel shafts running against the cast case), the sealant originally used was black but it had red on it now, and there were still 2 of the original square head bolts back then and now it seems those have been lost to time.

[@SciPunk215]

Very nice

[@Hoaxer51]

A lot of information in this video, thanks for the lesson.

[@mmm365]

Keith with his little shaft....

[@johncloar1692]

Thanks Keith for the video. Nice the blower working again.

[@melshea2276]

Happy Wednesday Keith and Ginger!😊⚙️🛠🚂👍👍👍👍✌️

[@oldschool1993]

We've seen a lot of turning and gear cutting. A good video would be straightening the shaft by heating and cooling. It's something that a regular guy in a home garage could do without even a lathe.

[@paulkinzer7661]

Great work, as always!

[@pdxRetired]

I wonder how many tries it would take to hand cut that gasket and get it to fit. The laser cutter makes is look easy! Blower looks good now!

[@tomswindler64]

Nice,impressive lathe work,just keep on doing what you do best 👍👍👍😎😎😎

[@natwooding9394]

I hope that you had plenty of ventilation while you were burning off the zinc. My brother once was welding some zinc coated steel and the fumes gave him a lot of trouble.

[@charleskyler1928]

Hey Keith, just a question which I’m sure you can help me understand. Why wouldn’t you simply drill out the center of the gear and turn it into a shaft and gear combo? It seems to me the expensive and time-consuming part of this job is making the new gear. Trying to learn, thank you.

[@charleswelch249]

That's a cool project. I'm glad you shared, Keith.

[@aner_bda]

Always so satisfying to watch a raw piece of steel be turned into something that's needed. Awesome video as always Keith!

[@kevinkohler5140]

Im a fan Keith!

[@RRINTHESHOP]

Great repair Keith.

[@NotJRB]

I think it's amazing that the shaft was spent like that. Someone had to be cranking hard, with a lot of momentum, to provide that much displaced energy.

[@workshop719]

Enjoyed following this repair. Thanks Keith. Wonder if a rag or other FOD got sucked into that blower to bend the shaft? Lots of inertia there when it's up to speed.

[@oh8wingman]

Years ago I was in a Princess Auto store (Canada's equal to Harbor Freight) there was what I thought was a blacksmiths blower on a stand in the store and I decided to test it. I got it wound up pretty good but it didn't seem to be working very well when I spotted the problem. There was a gate blocking the fan intake. So while I was cranking away merrily I opened up that gate. That's when I figured out that it wasn't a blacksmiths blower......it was actually an air raid siren.......note to self: In future leave stuff alone until you are sure what it is moron......LOL

[@stuartschaffner9744]

That was so fun to watch! As a machinist, you have a practiced eye for keeping things simple, but not too simple. I wouldn't make a good machinist because I would way over-engineer everything. I do have two questions. I am sure that you are doing the right thing in each case, but just wonder theoretically. First, when you are turning the "gluey" steel and getting a birds's nest. When you use drills or taps, backing off slightly on the feed then resuming the cut seems to break the chip. Could you do that here as well? Second, on your tooth-cutting step, I notice that the horizontal drive shaft is bent a bit. I guess that this happens on this type of mill, and is usually ignored. Is there a way to correct for this without an expensive and time-consuming mill rebuild?

[@johnvanantwerp2791]

Everyone needs a shop cat :)

[@kendavis8046]

It is always interesting to see how folks got things done with much simpler technology. Even though you are using modern tech like a computer and laser cutter to repair the old tech. Thanks again, Keith!

[@jimfiles3307]

Good morning Keith, On the order of operations, would it be better to turn part of the shaft down to the OD of the gear, then use that surface to chuck up on to then make the small shaft? This way you don’t bend the shaft cutting down to the gear dimension.

[@SarahKchannel]

There is a trick that i am using for transferring real world measurements of odd shaped parts to CAD. iPhones have a neat little feature, when you take a picture flat down, there are two cross hairs that line up when perfectly vertical. That photo can be taken into CAD and with some reference measurements you have a good reference shape that takes care of the little oddities form irregular shapes.

[@passenger6735]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

[@JASPACB750RR]

Why with subscription and notifications turned on am I not getting notified when your videos upload? Dumb KZbin. I’m 8hrs behind the ball.

[@alanchamberlin2384]

I enjoyed watching the gear cutting ⚙️ Also I like how you now mash up old school machining with new tach laser cutting. Thank you

[@tomjewett5839]

Keep that old gear and straighten it for a backup. Just chuck it up in the lathe and hit it with the torch while it's spinning and then throw a Blunt tool or a set of rollers (kinda like a nurling tool) to straighten it as it's spinning. Then you'll have a working backup for it

[@garybrenner6236]

You sound like almost as big a butcher as he is!

[@Assassinlexx]

I surprised you don't date the repair inside the case. That fresh gasket will stop any oil leaking on the floor.

[@walterplummer3808]

Good morning Keith! Thanks for the videos.

[@talltimberswoodshop7552]

Gooder than ever!

[@ccrider5398]

I think you mentioned that the museum has a number of non-functioning blowers that you'll refurbish so they always have a spare ready to go. Are these other blowers the same, or do they at least share common parts so you can make multiples from the same set-up, or is everyone of them unique? It might be nice to see the others being refurbished with side by side comparison from the videos you shot making this one whole again. 😃

[@paulhunt598]

I was taught that Z axis is parallel to spindle centerline. On a horizontal mill X is the primary 90° axis (cross slide on this machine), Y is the secondary 90° axis (knee on this machine), and Z is the axis travel parallel to the spindle centerline (saddle on this machine). A knee mill has 4 axis; X (cross slide), Y (saddle), Z (quill), W (knee). Z and W axis have parallel centerline. A typical lathe only has two axis, X and Z. X axis (cross slide), Z axis (saddle). Keith misspoke, calling the knee Z axis. I understand why knee mill operators can interchange Z and W names since the knee is the graduated axis usually with more with more precision control. I do the same using my quill for rough positioning and knee for controlled positioning, calling the knee "Z depth". Some knee mills have actual quill travel control. My machine is a Bridgeport with essentially a glorified drill press quill. I would not contest anyone interchanging my Z and W description. I wish that Keith could have gotten his camera angle to show us his gear cutter centerline technique. I assume that he had little cutter mark width, and he tried to split the mark with equal margin on each side of the cutter. I imagine that this technique is fine for low tolerance gears. I only have gear making experience with an old Fellows gear shaper and gear hobs (never as an operator). I am only a hack machinist, I was a maintenance technician. I am trying to master manual machining skills in my retirement hobby shop. Gear making is on my list, but I will have to do this on my Bridgeport. I have too many simpler skills to master before trying this. Keith's project is pretty low tolerance permitting sonevof his crude lathe techniques in this video. I am beginning to value sloppy technique for low tolerance work. My career shop experience was all high tolerance work. My worn vintage machinery, and my hack skills demand acceptance of low tolerance technique.

[@george-b3i-d2d]

why is it that almost every time you see cutting a gear with the arbor set up the arbor bounces up and down like it is bent??

[@TMxl-w5t]

Because it is bent, but it's not a problem at such a slow feed rate.

[@ramdynebix]

The cutter doesn’t seem to be moving though…

[@michaelgivens8513]

Keith, is the shaft for the cutter have a slight bend in it? Just wondering if it is my imagination.

[@jimfiles3307]

I think what we see is the spacers on the cutter shaft not concentric. I did notice that the cutter sounded like it was not concentric, and a few teeth were cutting deeper than the rest. Speeding up the cutter and slowing the feed rate would ensure a good even cut.

[@ccswede]

If you did this on a cnc machine would it take as long to do the setup on the computer as it does when you do it this way?

[@joeykuiperij4806]

Ginger is making metal biscuits

[@ddblairco]

thank you

[@tomjewett5839]

Keith, before you send that back you might wanna check the balance on that fan blade. That shaft being bent doesn't make a lot of sense unless the balance is way off on that blower .

[@danmooney7192]

Wouldn't it make more sense to make the gear and the shaft separately so if this ever happened again you could just press the gear on a new shaft? Lot less work in the long run.

[@jasonlacey5979]

First class, thank you Keith

[@jaybailey3518]

You're a rock star !!!

[@petegraham1458]

Nice repair

[@jonareli]

Nice work

[@markchodroff250]

Very nice job ! 👍🏻👍🏻

[@rleeAZ]

This is a good reminder, if you have the skill, gear and time there is a museum near you that can always use your help. You need another project :) Thanks Keith!

[@elsdp-4560]

Thank you for sharing.👍

[@davidhudson5452]

Good Morning it has to work it kitty approved

[@passenger6735]

Its a CAT scan.

[@RobertFay]

*- A thought about the bent shaft:* *- If it gets bent again; Why not just enlarge the hole in its mounting fixture {**28:15**} and mill a larger shaft.*

[@cpcoark]

I would like to know what insert you use that will take 0.004-0.005" off. Mine wont do that. Maybe one of your next videos you elaborate more on cutting abilities of insert types.

[@BedsitBob]

Wouldn't a 12 point socket also work for square headed screws?

[@amandaklapp1171]

Yes, but not as well. The angle of the 12 pt socket matches the angle of the hex, not a square head.

[@marty2872]

A 12 pt socket has a 'dip' every 30 degrees, a 4pt every 90 degrees- since they are multiples, it would work. There won't be deep contact so your torque loading would be limited.

[@johnmagnan759]

I think you found yourself the perfect retirement job. You are making money and playing with tools all day. Man heaven.

[@InverJaze]

Lazer cutter! Mmm shiny.

[@butter262]

Good morning

[@alanglen5902]

What oil will you use???

[@Ervan-l9v]

Definitely a task that separates the men from the boys. Of all the machining I have done, never cut a gear even though I have a dividing head but no horizontal mill.

[@willybeeish]

Hi Keith. Tell me, why is the arbour on the horizontal milling machine seem to be bouncing - sound and vision? Does it not run true?

[@jimhunt5259]

lightburn will frame in a circle also

[@danielelse3914]

Can you explain how you measured the gear pitch in order to set up the machining?

[@marty2872]

Aside from the set screw Keith added to keep the gear/woodruff from sliding off the shaft, I can't see what would have held the shaft in to begin with other than the woodruff against the babbit. Any insight anyone?

[@filepz629]

❤️‍🔥🫂❤️‍🔥