Old Furnace Blower Makes Great "Shop Fan"

Old Furnace Blower Makes Great Shop Fan FARM SHOP Handy Hints When Galen Reichart replaced a 30-year-old forced air heating system in his house he removed the squirrel cage fan from the furnace blower and converted it into a shop fan that runs off any 110-volt outlet “It works as well as any commercial fan and I spent almost nothing to make the conversion ” says Reichart “I live in town and use the fan in my basement shop I also use it every summer when we hold our Lions Club bingo stand at the local fairgrounds The weather is usually real hot and I use the fan to blow air through the area where we’re working It moves a lot of air ” The squirrel cage fan came with a small 2-speed electric motor on one side and was open on the other “intake” side He stripped away any extra metal and added a steel rod axle and a pair of 6-in plastic wheels on the back side of the fan housing He bent some conduit pipe to form a handle and screwed it onto the fan housing just above the wheels For safety he used a lid off a 16-qt porcelain canning pot to block the open side of the fan He also clipped a plastic dish rack on front He attached a 3-ft long power cord to the fan’s wiring box that plugs into a longer extension cord “I wanted to run the fan at low speed only so an electrician showed me how to do that He also told me which wires to hook up to the power cord and which connections to tape up ” says Reichart “The fan was very dirty and the fins were coated with caked-on dust so I used an air hose and scrub brushes to clean everything off ” he notes Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Galen E Reichart 911 Frazier St Valley Falls Kan 66088 ph 785 945-3580

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