The Armour Archive

Okay So i'm at the point where i'm mounting the hair dryer i'm going to use into the pipe area of my coal forge. I remember people saying that they take out the heating element of the hair dryer, this I can easily do but the question I have is why?

Wouldn't hot forced hair be better then cold forced hair. Would it just give my forge that extra little boost of heat? Or am I missing something in such that hot air will inhibit the strength of the coal burning?

Avadon wrote:Okay So i'm at the point where i'm mounting the hair dryer i'm going to use into the pipe area of my coal forge. I remember people saying that they take out the heating element of the hair dryer, this I can easily do but the question I have is why?

Wouldn't hot forced hair be better then cold forced hair. Would it just give my forge that extra little boost of heat? Or am I missing something in such that hot air will inhibit the strength of the coal burning?

They remove it to enable the hair dryer to work longer without over heating itself. The extra heat it would add would be negatged anyway. Trust me, you are going to be runing plenty hot without it. I burn out a ton more metal on the blow drier forge than i did on my actual forge blower forge.

ahh okay then i'll go ahead and kill the heating element. No sense in blowing out a decent hair dryer.

Also: cool air is denser than hot air. You'll get more air per unit time without the element, resulting in a quicker burning, hotter forge.

-Donasian.

Donasian wrote:Also: cool air is denser than hot air. You'll get more air per unit time without the element, resulting in a quicker burning, hotter forge.

-Donasian.

ahh interesting.. I had totally forgot about that. Should have realized that as a former pilot. hehe

my biggest problem was the heat would melt the duct tape adhesive and the damn thing would fall off after like 5 min....

~Casey

So don't try sticking it on with ductape. That'd have to be well away from the forge on a long duct anyway.

You'll want a waste gate because hair dryers just don't blow slow enough. What you want coming up through the tuyere is more of a breeze than a blast.

so my idea of using a hot air gun is/was really stupid then?

I just tape down the cold button on my dryer

Some blowdryers you cannot disable the hot air as they use the resistance of the heater as part of their voltage control for the motor.

However if your's does have a cold air option is should be able to work that way all the time.

A nifty trick for electrically blown forges is to get a pressure activated foot switch so the blower is only on when you are stepping on the switch---burn a lot less coal and projects up that way!

Thomas

I rigged mine with a foot switch from my wifes tattoo shop,Basicly a guitar foot switch.

Oh, and a neat theick, to save the fuel, is to make a simple slide-valve, one the pipe, to let any excess air out, whenever you want a bit less heat, withot turning the fan off.