What Kind of Power Hammer is This?

[C.Anderson]

Hey guys, any idea what kind of power hammer this is?

 

 

And a side view:

 

I'm curious, it looks like it's built off of a table...and I've got some excavator pins I can pick up that look to be just about the right size to make the striker and anvil setup.

 

Thanks

 

Cris

[Geoff Keyes]

It's one of the Japanese "A" frame mechanical hammers. The Japanese smiths have it set on the ground and forge kneeling. It's a Champion style, with a bent leaf spring. It's very much like the one I built, 'cept mine is built to be used standing.

 

 

Geoff

[dburnard]

That type of japanese power hammer is often referred to as a belt hammer - because of the belting that connects the hammer head to the arch shaped "spring". There's another variation, "the spring hammer", which is closer to Geoffs design where the belts are replaced with a mechanical linkage and the arch shaped spring is replaced with a big leaf spring. Belt hammers are usually associated with knife makers while spring hammers are usually seen in shops making larger items (hammers, chisels, axes, etc.). At least that's been my experience. Here's a link to a few more japanese hammers photos

Edited November 5, 2008 by dburnard

[C.Anderson]

Hmm...from the video it looked simpler than the 'Little Giant' setups I've seen. From the pictures you guys posted it looks more complicated lol...although I suppose it's similar.

 

I have access to quite a bit of heavy scrap, a few motors, and am relatively handy (I've built more than one car from a shell). I guess I'll just have to see if I can find some plans somewhere either for free or to buy. The problem with this versus an automotive application is if you hit a wall with building a car...there's about a million manuals and parts as close as your nearest Autozone lol. You can almost always get by. Then there's the fact that if you screw up one of these, you're a hell of a lot more likely to get damaged =). And...well, damaged isn't good lol.

 

Anyhow, thanks guys...and if you have any directions to go for plans, let me know. I don't really want to go through buying a hundred incomplete or unrealistic sets of plans just to find one that works if you know what I mean, and not really having seen one in action it's tough to make the intuitive guesses necessary to build one from scratch without plans.

 

Cris

 

Edit~

 

I just found the Anvilfire powerhammer page...I think I could make one of these pretty easily with a tire for a clutch and some of the race car suspension parts we have laying around....

 

C

Edited November 5, 2008 by C.Anderson

[Mike Lambiase]

I built a tire hammer.

 

I had to reverse engineer everything, and make quite a few guesses.

 

I combined a bunch of different aspects of a bunch of different hammers, and cobbled them all together and my hammer runs fairly well.

 

But it is still a work in progress, with all of the tinkering and modification to get it running how I really want.

 

I will snap a picture of it after class.

 

Mike Lambiase

[Howard Clark]

I had the opportunity to use a Clay Spencer design tire hammer at the Guild of Metalsmith's conference in Minnesota. It was about a 65# tup, and was an excellent machine. I was very impressed. I did not expect to be. It was a very pleasant surprise.

 

THat's a fine looking shop built hammer, Geoff ! Well done.

Edited November 5, 2008 by Howard Clark

[Geoff Keyes]

Thanks, Howard. A friend and I built it in 2000. The design is based on a Champion spring linkage that we saw in a shop. We found the drive head (it's a 2 7/8ths shaft with an 8 inch disc on one end with a 2 inch eccentric pin welded to that. It even had the front bearing included, all for $10 ) as a built unit. I have no idea what it was from.

 

The rest was design-as-you-go. Much of the bits and pieces were salvage, the big pieces we bought, the backbone and the like. It worked pretty much from the getgo, we did very little tinkering with the setup. That leads me to think that these machines are pretty simple, after all, the guys who built them in the 19th century (the heyday of the mechanical hammer) were just blacksmiths, not rocket engineers, no offense to either group .

 

It's got a lot of hours on it. I use it primarily for breaking down stock, drawing tangs, and welding and drawing damascus. One of my friends, a smith from Arizona, claims it works as well as any of the LG hammers he's worked on, and better than most.

 

Geoff

 

BTW, this book

 

Pounding Out the Profits

By

Douglas Freund

 

Mingus Mountain Machine Works

P.O. Box 532

Jerome Az 86331

 

$37 total, direct from the author.

 

is an invaluable resource to the shop hammer builder. Not only is it a great read, but it's full of pictures of mechanical power hammers. I don't think we'd have been nearly as successful in our build without it. The price may have gone up, but it's worth every penny.

 

g

[C.Anderson]

Thanks Mike, I would definitely appreciate that. Having a few pictures really helps, and now that I've seen more of the logistics on Anvilfire, I can certainly make more sense of it =).

 

Howard, I really wish Mr. Spencer would put those plans out like I've been reading about lol. I don't think I'm going to have the opportunity to attend one of the seminars...time away from town is something difficult for me to get. I'm even having trouble setting up three days in Tucson (I live in Phoenix, 150 miles away lol) to go attend personal classes with Tai Goo! I can certainly respect him holding onto his idea though, if that's the case (probably just a lack of time to finish them). The whole concept seems pretty intuitive now that I've seen the basics at anvilfire. A frame, motor, tire, hub/crank assembly, linkage system (leaf spring or toggle setup), striker, and anvil setup. It seems the frame itself could be any style you wanted, as long as all of the other parts lined up properly.

 

Anyhow, thanks again guys, I appreciate the help. Hopefully the day will come soon enough where I can start giving help back to the site instead of just 'getting' it all the time lol =).

 

Cris

[Mike Lambiase]

Here are a few pictures.

 

 

 

This is the guide I went with. I tried 4 other variations, and I liked this one the best because I could have the ram any weight/shape I wanted.

 

 

 

some things I would have done differently:

 

I cast some lead plates to counter weight it, but it stll needs about 10 lbs to run at full potential.

 

I am also going to adjust the motor assembly so that instead of contacting with the edge of the aluminum contact wheel, it rotates the whole motor up and has full contact with the wheel.

 

I would make the anvil shorter and the linkage longer, with longer tie-rods.

 

The anvil is two part, I would instead make it out of a single peice of solid steel for better rebound.

 

I would work in some way to have a stroke length adjustment that is easy to work. (mine was poorly planned and takes about 15 mins to readjust for different sized stock)

 

A better way to attach new dies would be nice.

 

Ohh yeah, and a paint job...

 

 

but overall it runs smooth (as long as you keep the guide and bearings well greased) and it does quite a bit more work than I can by hand in one heat.

 

I plan to buy an air hammer when I get a bigger shop. probibly an Ironkiss.

 

Mike Lambiase

[Sam Salvati]

Geoff, MORE HAMMER PICTURES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[C.Anderson]

Geoff, MORE HAMMER PICTURES PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

LOL yeah, in my search for info last night I found a few threads where Sam's wanting to build one of those too...well, one or 50 lol.

 

Cris

[Geoff Keyes]

Sam,

 

Sure, what would you like to see? Let me know, and I'll try to shoot some spacific shots in better light.

 

Geoff

[Sam Salvati]

Geoff, just some overall pictures, from the front, back, sides, maybe in in use shot please? Looks very well built, but not over built.

 

Thanks!

Edited November 7, 2008 by Sam Salvati

[boilermaker]

G'day, you can buy plans from clay spencer for the tyre hammer, i bought mine from him a few months ago. Try contacting him on the following:

 

clay@tirehammer.com or call him on 256 498 1498

 

Cheers,

 

Keetha