[Fionnbharr (finn:-)]

Check out the link in the other air hammer post to John Linn's video "Controling your air hammer" he does an excellent job of laying out the options. I think he would recommend a 1.5" cyclinder, and I would too. With such a relatively small amount of CFM you will end up waiting on your compressor with a 2" cyclinder. I have a 75# Bull air hammer, and it has a 2" cyclinder and I can bury a 7.5hp Quincy Air Master light industrial compressor with ~22.3CFM @ 175 PSI, I run the hammer between 135PSI and 90-PSI most of the time. Do the math, do the research, try and understand the way it is suppose to work, before you go buying a lot of parts. If you are a famous scrounger, have at it, but if you are shelling out real money for things... KNOW what you are doing, it will save you time and money in the long run.

Other interesting tidbits, I am told that hydraulic cyclinders are relatively cheap and easy to find new or salvaged, and are strudier than air cyclinders generally. Also the shackle ends on the cyclinder can be used to protect the cyclinder in the case of misalignment of the guides, there is a name for that type of coupling but of course I can't remember it. ;-)

A well designed small hammer, that fits your compressor, and your budget will be a better investment than an overly ambitious hammer that has too small an anvil, and is constantly starved for air when you try and use it. The two best limiting factors to consider when designing your hammer are the size of the anvil, and the size of the compressor. Small anvil = smaller ram. Somewhere between a 10-1 ratio and a 40-1 ratio is best. I have a 6" axil forging that weighs 456# and that would be fine for a hammer between 25# and 45#. If you have too heavy a ram you WILL loose efficiency bouncing your anvil and your hammer around the shop, even if you bolt it down, it will vibrate more and will wear out faster if the anvil isn't heavy enough. Chambersburg did the studies on ideal ratios and found that anything above a 40-1 ratio the cost benifit analysis showed a seriously deminished return. There are lots of hammers out there that have been built with way too light, and springy an anvil, or nearly as bad a dead anvil, and people are happy with them... But the truth of the mater is a hammer with a proper balance between the anvil and ram ratio, will not shake the shop as badly, and is less likely to beat itself to death. Doing it right they just run more quietly and with less vibration. A power hammer should be overengineered, you really don't want one to fail catastrophicly while you are playing on it...