harrismetalsmith

The only problem with blanket statements, is they don't always cover every detail. What Francis posted is the original patent for this hammer. I have seen a dozen of these hammers, I personaly own 2, and I've rebuilt 4. That would be a stretch in some parts of the country but i live 40 miles from the original factory in Lancaster, Pa. Out of the dozen I have seen 1 hammer did have those original patent arms. I believe Champion changed the springs shortly after aquiring the patent and 98% of the hammers you see have the common style springs. Having said that there are 2 differnent style linkages between the springs and ram. The best is the most common one with the 4 adjustable arms.

When I saw the title I was hoping someone got a 4B so cheap they were bragin'! Very sad instead. I'm on the east coast, but you all stay on the scrappers out there.

I will try this soon on my Nazel 2B.

Here is a video of the hammer in action. The chunck is 2" by 3" scrap, 4" long. It is 14" long at the end of the heat. You'll notice the top die is short I plan on making a new die the correct height, this will also alow me to set the anvil lower and increase the stroke from 9 1/2" to the factory 12". The clacking sound you hear is the belt drive. A bit noisier than usual, but necessary, because the gear teath are stripped out on this hammer.

Hammer looks real nice Francis! Good luck with it.

Very cool! Thanks for posting, gets a person to thinkin'......

I've never run a beaudry. But that type of a clutch provides the best control in any kind of trip hammer. If you get it for a good price snatch it up. Then again that hammer is so rare it would be hard to put a "market" value on it. Very nice find.

I use LOTSAOIL. Lol Lots of oil. Seriously on my Champion #0 and #1 I go heavy with the oil. Much cheaper to take care of something than rebuild it. I've used little giants and they were more finicky about the type and location. With the arm clutch type hammers like Champion, I go to town with the oil. I use whatever is cheap and available. I have 3000 + hours on the #0. I do like a thicker oil on the ways and non detergent.

I posted pics of my setup on the Champion hammer thread. Its nice if you can to cast a heavy duty I beam or thick wallled square tube, right down into the concrete hammer base. Then you can weld any brackets for an overhead, line shaft type mount. I go 3 feet down with the concrete base, and before pouring the concrete, weld all kinds of rebar, or reinforcing scrap steel together, and weld it to the upright beam coming out of the base. Using sdomething very heavy duty and stout, but slender takes up less floor space. This also eliminates any attachment to the roof structure. I had a friend who hooked his to the roof, and got some flex out of it.

Francis, the hammer looks sharp. I like the paint job. Nice job. Hope you get it pounding soon. As I stated in my last post. I measured the pulleys. The motor pulley is 5" the middle pulley conected to the line shaft is 8". That is the o.d. of the pulleys. That is what I used for the #0. For the #1 I used the same size middle pulley, but the motor pulley was reduced 4".

Looks good nuge. I'm working on making one of those now. What is your hammer, and what size is the die?

I think I will definitely add a foot pedal ASAP. I have limited tig experience, that seems to be the way to go for the best control. I love the XMT 350 mpa, it is the first machine that I've had that had pulse capability. It is a handful at first on the programing side. That's also the reason I went with it, I wanted to be able to program the starts, wire speed, amperage, etc. But the Miller rep came out and helped alot. I just added the dual mpa feeder, I'm running steel on one side, and a push pull Aluma Pro on the other. That is really nice. I have it mounted on a little boom arm abouv my main fab area. I had to add a secong mig machine, and I didn't have a tig, so the extra money to get a 400 amp inverter tig included seemed worth it. It doesn't do ac on the tig but oh well. The pulse mig is so sweet I don't need it. I don't do thin alum. So, I like it alot.

This picture is of the motor and line shaft setup I use to run my Champion #0. I copied this setup, and pulley configuration from a hardware smith who ran his #0 hammer like this for over 30 years. The only difference is his motor and line shaft setup mounted to his ceiling. If you are going to do this make sure there is no flex in your rafters, otherwise set it up like I did off some I beam. The line shaft is held in place with the 2 pillow block bearings. On the hammer side there is a 4" pulley with flanges. I had to weld this pulley up, and bore it on the lathe, because i could not find a pulley like this. The motor and mid pulley are standard v belt cast iron pulleys, you can custom order them from a place like MCS or Mcmaster Carr. The motor is a 3 h.p. 1750 RPM motor. I used to run it with a 1 1/5 h.p. but I burnt it up. If you do not do production work with your hammer a 1 1/5 h.p. will be fine for a #0. I run my #1 Champion hammer with a surplus 7.5 hp motor, but a 3 or 5 hp would work well for a #1. I prefer to run the hammer with a cotton or canvas type belt, they slip best when the hammer is idling. 2" wide belt, 3 ply. hitnmiss.com sells cotton belting, the 3 ply is a good choice for this application. Make the belts to length. They are spliced with alligator type clips, again MSC or hitnmiss.com. The belt should not be loose or tight when it is around both pulleys when you put the belt pin clip in. You might have to experiment to get the tension right. I make them so they are just snug, but will slip when idiling. The whole idea with this type of setup is that the belt slips when the hammer is not working, and then when the treadle is pressed the clutch slowly engages. This is the simplest and easiest type hammer clutch to work. I had one hammer set with the line shaft pulley closer to the main hammer pulley. It did not work as smoothly, as here where the pulley is slightly higher. Center to center these pulleys are about 30". You could go 20" or so, but I feel the clutch is a bit more natural at 30". Basically this is a line shaft mock up. I forgot to measure the other two cast iron pulleys, I will update this post from the shop soon. I think the one on the line shaft is 7-1/2" diameter, and the motor is about 4-1/2". Hope this info helps anyone setting up a Champion.

Thanks for the comments all. I have a weldcraft crafter series torch. I have been welding with no control, but it has been tough. To do it right seems like I am constantly resetting the amperage. I am planning on getting a foot pedal, but I was hesitating, because you can get a finger controled torch for about the samecost as a pedal. I will plan on getting a finger control to run off my Trailblazer 302. My tig machine is a Miller XMT 350 mpa. Mutiprocess unit. Has anyone tried the metal built tig pedals off ebay instead of the cluncky Miller ones?

Monstermetal, yes the 2 in 2B does not exactly stand for 200. I am aware that the ram does not weigh 200, as well. I have a copy of the Nazel book and all they say is the "steam rated" size. I figure with the steam rating being 250 and the ram weighing 160 to 180, it is safe to rate it around a 200 lb. hammer. I need to replace the leather seal soon so when I pull the ram I will weigh it. I put a "new" leather seal cut from some old leather material I had on hand, and now that I have run the hammer in a bit it is leaking.

For TIG welding, do you prefer a footpedal or fingertip control? I realize that a fingertip setup may be good for odd reach places, but for your day to day tig welding what do you like? I do artistic architectural work, I would especialy like to hear from smith's doing similar work. Thanks, Matt

Gotta keep it separated. Nice job. Just from experience, you will have more weight on that thing in 3 years than you ever thought. I would add 2 diagonals to the back side, to keep it from racking like dominoes. Looks like you built it very heavy duty.. nice job.

Thank you everyone for the nice compliments. Fosterob, there is no doubt in my mind this machine could handle a 3" bar. I will do something big in the video. After all the first thing I did with it was forge a vase out of a piece 3" by 4", 6" tall. I don't know who said that, but I forged 1" by 3" , ON EDGE, with the little 35 lb. Champion #0 seen in the bottom picture. Many times. 2B denotes a 200 lb. size hammer. I have been a full time blacksmith since I was 16. I am now 30. In all that time 95% of the power hammer work that I did was on trip hammers. My only air hammer experience was a 100 lb. Khun. What blows my mind about the Nazel is not only the power of the blow, but the squeeze it gives with each blow. The original Nazel hammer book describes it as a clinging blow. Other litature I found described it as a kneading type blow. It forges 3" material, and it will move it at an orange heat, but like any hammer it will move it at faster at a yellow heat.

Yes it was an option for the 2B's to be a 1 or 2 piece hammer.

Here are some photos of my restored Nazel 2B. Serial #1284. It was originally sold in 1929. I bought it from an industrial forge shop I worked at, in Philadelphia, that shut down. I replaced the ram ring, cushion plug, cushion plug bushing, and rebuilt the studs for the ram collar. At some point in it's history someone had shocked the collar, and cracked out several studs. The ram guides were restored, as well as the leather seal. I also rebuilt the two control valves, that I showed on the Nazel Hammer Valve post. All of the linkage and rods were, tightened up and rebuilt, and the valve timing was corrected. When I first powered up the hammer, it would not draw up into the housing, like it is supposed to. All that is corrected now, and the machine works extremely well. Good control and power. On the piston side I rebuilt the connecting rod bushing, the piston rings, and the wrist pin. Work was also done tightening the two main bushings up. The main fly wheel gear teeth were striped out, and the main crank shaft has the slightest bend in it so I ellected to set it up as a clutch belt drive. The clutch arm takes the play of the crank shaft, instead of the stress going to the bearings. This also enables an easy start for the 3 phase motor. Almost every part had to be rebuilt to some extent. This was a huge investment of time and money over a period of about 5 years. I will post a video of it in action at a later date.

Stewart, Very nice. Jim Kiefer is the man! I to am a recipient of his kindness, he aprenticed me every Saturday on and off for about 2 years. He also hooked me up with my first power hammer, a Champion #0. He is demonstrating at my hammer in on October 23rd. Perryville, MD. Harrismetalsmith.com Stewart I gotta meet you some time, we have more in common than I realized.

Very cool John, thank you for posting. That is some great control. Would love to hear more from you on the technical side of things. How you rebuild different parts, maintenance, and the like. Thanks again, nice video.

Joe, Make sure you join BGCM, blacksmiths guild of central maryland. Bgcmonlinne.org They are a great group, and offer some good classes at the school in Howard county. I am hosting a hammer in at my shop on October 23rd, with the guild. There is no cost to come, just bring a small tool or forged item to donate to the iron in the hat raffle. Visit my web site at harrismetalsmith.com. Shop address is 1760 Principio Furnace Rd. Perryville, Md 21903. Cecil co. Good luck with your new hobby.

The first photo is of the original bronze pitman arm on my #0. When I got the #1 the bronze arm had been cracked, with a bad repair that also cracked. I fabricated this one out of steel. The picture is pretty much self explanatory. Both steel pieces were bored out on the lathe. The bottom piece, that the spring shackle arm goes up into, was then tapped for two set screws. I turned and bored a bronze bushing for the crank pin coming off the flywheel. The broze bushing was pressed into the steel piece. An oil hole was drilled on the top. The two steel pieces were welded together. 2-1/2" round steel.