Primitive Technology

Primitive Technology: Water powered forge blower
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About This Video:
I made a water powered forge blower to blow air into a furnace. Getting running water to power a blower had been on my list for a while now and the weather had been wet enough to cause enough flow in the creek to try one. A significant part of the labour in doing an iron smelt comes from the operation of the air supply (unless natural draft is used). The current air supply method I use was a hand powered, centrifugal fan encased in a housing as seen in previous videos.

I had a 2 ideas as to how to automate this with water power. The first method was to build a large, slow water wheel and run a rope belt around it linking it to the smaller, faster fan rotor to spin it. I tried this and it kept having issues due to the rope not spinning the blower effectively and also the fact that the water level changed and the wheel stopped moving.

The second idea was to use a small diameter water wheel directly connected to the fan rotor with a water spout dropping the flow onto the wheel at a height. This turned out to be the simplest and most effective of the methods with rotor speeds between 6 and 8 revolutions a second being attained. The then encased the fan inside the existing blower housing and tested the blower on a furnace build in front of it. The blower did indeed work though not as powerfully as a hand powered one.

With some adjustments, the blower may be improved so it becomes competitive with the hand powered method. The water powered method will go endlessly without human effort and does not wear out any rope as does the hand powered method. It's simple and reliable and I'll be doing more experiments with it in future.

00:00-00:23 Wet season and Furnace
00:23-01:26 Toy water wheel
1:26-08:59 Design 1, Large wheel, belt drive and fan
08:59-16:14 Design 2, Small wheel, direct drive fan
16:14-18:44 Fire by friction
18:44-19:48 Igniting furnace, last minute adjustments
19:48-22:33 Testing water powered forge blower

About Primitive Technology:
Primitive technology is a hobby where you build things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. These are the strict rules: If you want a fire, use a fire stick - An axe, pick up a stone and shape it - A hut, build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. The challenge is seeing how far you can go without utilizing modern technology. I do not live in the wild, but enjoy building shelter, tools, and more, only utilizing natural materials. To find specific videos, visit my playlist tab for building videos focused on pyrotechnology, shelter, weapons, food & agriculture, tools & machines, and weaving & fiber.

#PrimitiveTechnology #water #forge #fire

Primitive Technology: Flywheel blower smelt/Monsoon begins
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About This Video:
I tested a fly wheel on the blower. Taking an old clay fly wheel from the pump drill I made many years ago, I attached it to the axle of the one way spinning blower to see how it would effect performance. The fly wheel tends to smooth out the speed of the fan and maintaining high speed despite taking longer to get up to speed initially. A smelt was conducted using the new set up and the result was less iron than usual due to the rotor coming out of the bearings at times. To fix this, the thrust bearings were replaced with journal bearings by carving holes all the way through the wooden stakes as opposed to only part way through. The new set up is more stable and has no chance of coming out during use.
Then, before the new set up could be tested, the monsoon season began and it rained nonstop for a week such that the hut had rain blowing in from its open sides making it impossible to make fire. A third wall was added to the hut made from fired bricks and clay mortar. A damaged section of roof was repaired with tiles salvaged from the old hut. Then I build a small water wheel that rolled up stream on wooden tracks to make use of the water. Looking forward I will probably do some water powered projects until the wet season eases.

00:00-00:28 Flywheel blower
00:28-08:47 Charcoal
08:47-11:55 Flywheel blower fire test
11:55-12:29 Furnace
12:29-13:17 Ore
13:17-13:39 Firewood
13:39-15:05 String
15:05- 15:35 Fill furnace with wood
15:35- 16:59 Fire by friction
16:59- 17:33 Preheat furnace
17:33- 18:48 Fill furnace with charcoal and ore
18:48- 19:18 Smelt
19:18- 21:08 Product
21:08- 21:44 Crush product
21:44- 23:34 Pan slag
23:34- 22:53 Iron yield
22:53-24:16 Change thrust bearing to Journal bearings
24:16-26:10 Set up new blower
26:10-27:48 Monsoon begins
27:48- 29:55 Add 3rd wall to hut
29:55-31:14 replace broken roof tiles
31:14-31:26 Miserable Monsoon
31:26-32:45 "Water wheel on rails that rolls upstream" toy
32:45-33:09 Hut and blower, end screen

About Primitive Technology:
Primitive technology is a hobby where you build things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. These are the strict rules: If you want a fire, use a fire stick - An axe, pick up a stone and shape it - A hut, build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. The challenge is seeing how far you can go without utilizing modern technology. I do not live in the wild, but enjoy building shelter, tools, and more, only utilizing natural materials. To find specific videos, visit my playlist tab for building videos focused on pyrotechnology, shelter, weapons, food & agriculture, tools & machines, and weaving & fiber.

#PrimitiveTechnology #flywheel #fireplace #building