"Mickey Mouse" Power Hammer Idea

[Farmer Phil]

Hi Friends,

Has anyone ever thought about, or done, a kind of Mickey mouse power hammer with a jackhammer or pneumatic impact hammer like used by stove carvers?

I saw a couple of used jack hammers being sold while I was in NH. At the time I was just interested in the chisel tips for the steel, but the shop keep pointed out the tips went with hammers that were on the other side of the room. Well, that was that until just now. The idea just popped into my head that maybe I could mount a jack hammer and use it to beat steel. Having never used a jack hammer I am not sure if this an idea that would be worth further thought.

As always, your thoughts would be appreciated. -Phil

[jimmy seale]

the phnumatic jack hammers i;ve used discharged the air out the bottom so i don't think that would work, but maybe a electric one might, but there will be a problem with bit retention i would think becauce of not having the hammer weight on it, but that is just my thoughts, becarful, jimmy

[larrynjr]

It seems like you would need a massively strong stand to hold it while it beats down on the metal. I've alway seen the guys with the large beer bellys holding them down with those bellys! I've never used one either but it also seems like the distance the hammer actually moves is small, the work is done by vibration more than seperation and impact.

[welder19]

They really don't have that long of a stroke, at least the ones I have used and like jimmy said they exhaust out the bottem so as to blow the dust away, which in your case would cool your metal.
However, you may be able to use one for the parts to build one just not the hammer itself, plus they need an unbelievable amount of air to opperate, I don't think that any shop air compressor that would be able to put out the cfm that would be needed to opperate the hammer.
I have used them to hammer well pipes into the ground, so if any body needs to drive a new well there is one way to do it, as long as your not looking for a deep well.

welder19

[ThomasPowers]

There were at least two different goes at this very thing up on the web about 5+ years ago and most of the issues have been mentioned. As I recall at least one person had a set of springs to deal with the lack of beer belly pressure and the jackhammer needed to be mounted loosely to the frame to keep the system from self destructing. You also needed to be able to adjust the height easily to deal with the lack of throw.

Do a good web search and see if you can find the sites!

[Dave M]

Both electric and air jackhammers are very coarse in thier adjustment. The piston that drives the point often starts and finishes out of sync, also the point has to start with it being pressed down on the work otherwise the hammer misfires. On a much smaller scale an automotive air hammer is the same principle and I did build a air planishing hammer out of one but it is for working sheet metal cold. Ok before I finished this post I ran down to the shop to see if it would work with hot steel. An automotive airhammer discharges blowby air out of the base of the pistol grip so it did not cool down the work but the slack in the hammer gave very poor control. just my 2cents

[John B]

But if you make up a monkey tool to hold in the automotive percussion hammer, it certainly cuts time down to make a squared shoulder on round or square tenons,

The rust removing needle attachment can also be used to create a textured finish on bars or plate

[welder19]

The air hammers lack weight to make them too usefull as a forging hammer but yes they do work good for planishing hammers.

welder19

[patrick]

Quite a few years back there was an article published in Knives Illustrated, written by Virgil England. He had built a planishing type hammer from a jack hammer and was using it to forge and texture bronze "scales" for a helmet he was making. I don't think his setup had the versatility of a more conventional power hammer.

Patrick

[John N]

if your going to the effort of building a frame (and anvil) to hold a jack hammer youve done 95% of the work to make a kinion type hammer (which is almost infinatly more useable), and an air cylinder and some valves are cheaper than a jackhammer. its a no brainer really

hydraulic press from a log splitter on the other hand...........