This winter, Id like to build a fan for my mine, along the lines of the fan at Murray
The slope entrance I can make easy enough, but what about the building? There’s a big paddle fan, and the basic shape itself. Ideas?
Looks like you need a cheap guitar from a pawn shop 
Gary Buchanan said:
Looks like you need a cheap guitar from a pawn shop
or maybe a case for a ukelele…maybe Arthur Godfrey’s is laying around somewhere…
Tape two pieces of styrene together and cut the fan housing shape out… Space it apart to your desired width, with stringers along the outside edge, then cut a thinner strip of styrene out and clue it along the sides, attaching it to the stringers… The fan, could be an actual fan, , out of metal, or plastic… Find one the size that looks good to you… Radio shack usually has fans in various sizes. Take it out of the housing, and work on the outside edges, to create the paddles, built the fan axel supports, and install…
The outside of the housing can have angle pieces, or “T” pieces glued along the outside, to look like the metal supports/framing…
Seems like one way to do it… Just my 2 Cents worth…
For paddles you might look at propellers for electric model airplanes. They tend to be more paddle shaped than regular model propellers.
I’d consider cutting the housing out of lite ply also available at your aircraft model shop. Build it up much as Andy described.
Just imagine when it hits the fan!
What an interesting prototype! Do you happen to know approximately when that was in use?
I just had a thought about your project. How about using wood (cedar or redwood) for the main structure. You could sandwich together 2x or 1x stock to get the appropriate thickness and then cut the shape out on a band saw. You could give it a styrene skin with appropriate styrene shapes added on extra for the braces and such or just add on the extras on the wood and give it an epoxy finish. The hole for the fan could be cut out with a forstner bit.
-Brian
Here’s a shot of the ventilation fan for one of the EBT’s mines in Rockhill. The building’s fallen down, and doesn’t have near the charm as the one shown in the illustration, but it should give you some idea on the shape of the paddles.
Not that you’re likely to make the fan operational, but mine ventilation fans drew air out of the mines. Essentially it was a big vacuum. Air entered through the regular portals and vent shafts that were drilled into the various chambers. There were typically doors in the mines so they could control how the air moved through the shafts. The reason air was drawn out rather than pushed in was that you didn’t want to compress the air going into the mine. Compressed oxygen in an enclosed space with open flames? Bad things, man. Bad things… Later, K
Thanks, Kevin. I was gonna guess the paddle looked something like that. Looks like they’re about 10 feet or so, based on the cinderblocks? Gives me a good idea of the scale of a whole building.
Ray: Im not sure when mining was from and to, I’ve seen references back to 1880 about labor organizing, so it was before then, there are photos of the area up to 1942 that Ive seen.
I’ll bet that fan could move some methane. 
Steve Featherkile said:So long as it had a non-sparking motor ...
I'll bet that fan could move some methane. :D
Chris Vernell said:In that case, the methane would move the fan. ;)Steve Featherkile said:So long as it had a non-sparking motor ...
I'll bet that fan could move some methane. :D
Later,
K