Power Hammers, Treadle Hammers, Olivers

I have a 50# Fairbanks and I am dealing with a recurring problem that has plagued me over the years. First, the space for the key is 1/4"-5/16". This small a key is prone to bending and mushrooming so removal later can be quite a challenge. I have other hammers where the dovetails are narrower and allow for keys that are 3/8" - 1/2" which is then much easier to deal with. I have never been brave enough to have the dovetails machined smaller to allow for a larger key. Has anyone done this? And would it be a mistake? The second challenge is the sow block allows for the key to be removed because the dovetail plane is perpendicular to the plane of the machine. The …

Just curious if anyone has built a beam hammer like this one seen on youtube? Seems inexpensive, and like it might be an ok option. Obviously it would not do the work of a little giant or other power hammer, but it might be better then nothing without spending a bunch of money.

I am building a shop at the moment and will eventually get a power hammer most likely the 88 from Anyang. I’m in the wiring stage. I have eight gauge wire running to a receptacle. But wondering if I should switch it out for six gauge? The run from my panel to the receptacle is about 50 feet. The 5 hp motor is single phase 230 V 22 amp it uses a L6-30p plug /outlet. Just wanted to know if anybody had any experience with using eight gauge or six gauge wire with that hammer. Thank you for any insight!

All..... I have a pre-number Champion, serial #8037, looks equivelant to a model 8. The rollers are round and turn free but the tracks are grooved about 3/16 deep.... most of the wear is from PO's. It's been run well lubed since I acquired it in 1992 using the oil/rag technique in the tup. Has anyone successfully used weld metal to resurface the tracks? .....Oneacre

A hammer just popped up for sale and my wife says I need it. I will probably have to sell some stuff, but how many hammers is apropriate??? I have two running hammers at the moment, and I have two huge foundations available....

This may have shown up on the forum before, but I just came across this video of a very well-designed Swedish guided helve hammer. It has a quick-change height adjustment system, with coarse and fine adjustments. At 25 kg, that works out to about a 55 lb ram weight.

Dave Sloan owns and runs Little Giant everyday. Nice Guy! They rebuild and service Little Giant Hammers daily. They do not build new Hammers anymore. Still in Business providing Service to them.

Hello, Just wondering if anyone can confirm that Little Giant Power Hammer is still in business and selling parts? I would hate to think that we've lost another business to the pandemic. Thanks, Chad

Hello guys, This is my first post on IFI and also quite green in the Blacksmithing world. I have mostly tinkered with smaller things like S-hooks, Trammels, Campfire irons, etc. I am now ready to move up and get more serious. I am in the process of setting up my first real shop with a 14'x24' floor space. Anyhow, to be short about this: I need your best opinions on a high quality Treadle Hammer for my shop. I have it's empty place ready and waiting to place the new machine. I almost bought a Clay Spencer hammer, but maybe there is better out there? I want an in-line. I want quality. I want efficiency of course. I would also like to cap the price to abo…

I’m not a welder, so my welds are ugly as can be, but they stuck. If I had a wire feed or a torch set my welds would look prettier, but I’m just not that practiced with a stick welder. The hammer has a 17.8 lb head and the springs are a set of 90 lb garage door springs. I didn’t expect there to be two in the box, and that took some experimentation to get the hammer up where I wanted it. I’ve cut in a slot for punch outs to fall through under the anvil which is made from an extra heavy 7” casing bull plug. It weighs over 40 lbs, and I picked it up on a well site doing my day job. The tool hits hard, the chain pull from the treadle allows the hammer to keep…

I have a large chunk of 1" thick phenolic that I would like to use as a wear surface in my hammer. Is there any reason this would be a bad idea using it for the slide box of the hammer? The box will be around 32" tall and the hammer is around 4" x 8" x 34" and i have enough to line the whole box. Good idea or bad idea? We are making the fit adjustable for future wear. Thanks in advance

Saw this on YT. Interesting, but I don't think that air cylinder is going to last long.

Ive had this power hammer for over a year now, its been a very good tool. Made by Dave Preston in England. He makes a good hammer! Just messing around with it really, but it demonstrates how useful it is being able to adjust the height. In the first part im using some fairly high old fashioned top tools then I draw out some 1 inch round mild steel. Thought some members might be interested to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzhwzhaKpog

I have tried researching this, but it's surprisingly bare on the internet. I inherited this hammer from my dad when I bought his house. I had to adjust the clutch blocks. The wheel is a rear mount, and I've got it to where I push down on the treadle, it runs like it should, but when I let off, the hammer won't disengage. It'll slow down, but not disengage. When I kill power and cycle it by hand, the treadle works as it should (push down, engage...let off, disengage). I'm on the verge of just putting new clutch blocks in (current ones are plywood...not my idea), unless there's something easier or more obvious I'm missing.

Good morning/afternoon/evening depending on where you are in this amazing world. I'm a young engineering college student performing vibration analysis on a power hammer. I could use some help/advise regarding isolation of the foundation on which a power hammer sits, I'm required to cite primary sources such as journals/books/websites of institutions regarding standard practice for these isolations and I'm really struggling so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I basically have to recommend what the best material would be and site a source of some kind. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to lend me some of their time! Josh

Hello all, I've started building a copy of a Dienalt & Eisenhardt "bracket" hammer. The image below shows the upper arm. it will have leaf springs that are about 24" across and a ram that is around 25 pounds. I had always planned to have a cone clutch machined, but maybe there is a tire type clutch option that could work. I've attached a current rendering below and some questions for those with experience or who care to speculate. Must a tire clutch be pneumatic or might a hard rubber wheel work? Has any one tried smaller diameter tires for smaller hammers? Does anyone have a proposal for a better clutch configuration for a hammer li…

I have an Anyang 55 and live in a residential area, I'm looking to reduce the noise somewhat to avoid neighbor complaints. We have a lot of foliage around our house and haven't had any issues so far, but I'd prefer to prevent complaints rather than respond. I also worry about it just from not being disruptive and would rather work without being concerned about bothering people. I evaluated having our shop insulated in various ways and everything I found indicated it wouldn't be very effective without stripping out the drywall. I measure ~85-87db outside our door with everything closed (I have a fairly extensive ventilation setup that lets me work with the garage door shut…

Guys- I recall reading quite a long time ago that for efficient industrial forging a hammer should have 50 # of ram weight for every 1 square inch of cross section. Does anyone else recall this recommendation and where it came from? If I had to guess I'd say old Chambersburg literature but it could have been in an old book.

I've noticed that I'm getting some scoring on the inside of the ram on my Beaudry #7 [200#] hammer , which is an indication that the rollers are not turning at the ends of the spring arm as they should. I'm religious about squirting oil down into that part of the ram twice a day when I'm running the hammer , but it is difficult to be sure the oil is getting where it needs to go to keep the rollers turning freely. I'm using Vactra #2 way oil for this as well as the ram guides, top bearing , idler bearing and all linkages as it seems to be designed for the purpose of heavy loads and low speed. I'm wondering if other Beaudry hammer users have had this issue …

I bought this old thing for 150 USD and intend on bringing it back to life. It's a 1913 patent Jens Christoffersen helve/spring hammer, made in Copenhagen. The guy I bought it from gave it's twin to a museum. I would love any advice I can have before I begin working on it. I'm trying to make sure I go about this the right way. I usually have no problem getting things done, but having very little experience in this craft, it's always a daunting task. Everything is there, but the drive belt is broken and worn, so it will need replacing (I'm considering making my own out of leather for the fun of it, but it would work better if I just bought a modern belt - I …

I just had one of those aha moments or maybe a complete lack of logic. Would it be possible to some how mount a jackhammer and stabilize it and use it as a power hammer? Tell me what you think has anyone tried it?

I started this years ago and found that back in 2010 I was asking questions on here. I asked on a facebook group and didnt hear what my itching ears wanted to hear. I am posting pictures of my progress and really want to use a 7.75 in diameter cylinder. I was watching a video of a guy taking a self contained hammer apart to reseal it. I see there was very large ports and I got the idea of mounting a receiver tank on the back of the hammer and having large, maybe 1.5" lines running into the cylinder and making a very large port valve to control it. This would then be a low pressure high volume cylinder movement. I have read on here the pros and cons of this hammer and tha…

If u have seen my last post u'll know i was having trouble adding photos 2 the forum. Thanks to Chris C, I can now do this. The birth of this project came when a work colleague threw an old 10lb sledge hammer head in the skip at work. Naturally, I dove straight in and salvaged it. I wasn't sure what for at this point but knew it was worth keeping. I had a 1500rpm, 2h/p motor which the mechanical fitter at work gave me when I was building my beltsander. I didn't use it as i'd just got a 3000rpm, 2h/p motor from a kind chap I met on the forum. Thats when the idea to build a tyre hammer came to me but I still needed somewhere to build and house it. A friend h…

Folks, I am trying to help a friend get a new-style LG25 hammer up and running. The existing toggle links are wrong (home-made by persons unknown). We've been in touch with the folks at Little Giant, and they have been very helpful as far as they can be, but it's not in the budget to drop $200+ on toggle links. Can anyone provide the between-centers and horizontal offset dimensions for this hammer? I've got the facilities to make new links, just need the dimensions.

Hola a todos .permitan que me presenté, soy José, de España estoy un poco desesperado por aclarar dudas que tengo de mi martillo pilon bechė 50kg ... De ante mano gracias a todos por estar en foros y dar todo tipo de conocimientos y sabiduría vuestra .. Mi gran duda es que en el cilindro delantero en la parte superior no se que lleva ahí tiene un agujero con tres tornillos como si llevase algún tipo de válvula, o bien un escape de aire .a ver si me podéis echar una mano ..muchas gracias un saludo jose Hello everyone. Allow me to introduce myself, I am José, from Spain I am a bit desperate to clarify doubts that I have about my 50kg pilon hammer b…