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Well this has been a project that Ive been wanting to do for quite a while now and I'm glad to say it is finally finished. Its inspired from the pictures of a few compact DePew helve hammers i saw pictures of as well as the Hawkeye helve and a few others, as well as some of my own ideas. I was originally going to build a spare tire hammer but couldn't wrangle up the parts, so i looked around the shop at what i had and what space i had to work with. I still intend to build the tire hammer at some point and there are a few parts that i purposely avoided using in this build in order to save them for that project. but the most important parts here were constructed from mostly barstock. The hammer head was build of 1'' square welded into a heavier block, the helve arm from 1/2''x1 1/2'' and 1''x1/2'' bar welded into an I beam configuration, the large curved supports on the top and bottom are 1'' square and round bent cold in the bottle jack press, the treadle is of 1/2'' square, the lifting linkage is of mostly 1/2'' round, the eccentric crank is 1'' square bar welded to a heavy 1'' shaft sprocket hub from the tractor supply store, and the anvil itself (the top face at least) is of 1'' square and round alternating to leave a ''v'' for welding into a solid plate on which to mount the dies. The other main pieces are the 3/4 horsepower electric motor with a 1 1/2'' v belt pully, the 13'' spoked pulley on the other side of the eccentric shaft (set in ball bearings), the trailor spring on top, and of course the cones that make up the anvil and base of the machine. Now the cones are what inspired this all in the first place, they are two steel shells that originally lined with ceramic and were part of a coal seperation unit called a cyclone, i got them where i used to work. The cones are relatively thin though at around 1/8'' thick which made reinforcements necessary at the anvil end. The flange was torched off of the "point" and a slice of 6" OD pipe tacked into place, then pieces of 1'' bar were cut to fit the round pipe ID a,d tacked into place, finally small pieces of 1/2'' square bare were welded under the ring to spread the impact load more evenly around the cone. A few final things to note: the dies are removable and interchangeable as long as nearly the same weight is maintained (so as not to affect the tuning), the spacing of the dies is adjustable by moving the bolt in the spring shackle into a higher/lower hole, the crank offset is also adjustable by moving the crank bolt into one of three holes(1 1/2'' offset, 2 1/2'' offset, and 3 1/2'' offset) though the machine is tuned at 2 1/2'' offset (5'' throw overall) and the motor isn't quite strong enough to run it at the widest offset, and the smallest offset is really there for planishing and optional sheetmetal work. And for those who are wondering, the "Clutch" is just the motor itself being mounted on the treadle so that when depressed the motor moves down slightly which tightens the belt and engages the hammer.

I am looking at a very old but in good condition Hawkeye helve hammer. It is an early one with the wood column where the hammer arm pivots from. It seems to be all there. Originally run off of an overhead line shaft. Anyone ever use one of these? Anyone out there have one in operation? It is not a big hammer. It is very compact and takes up little floor space. Just looking for comments about how these work. Thank you.

Hello Guys; As this is my first post, let me introduce myself. I am bart; hobby knifemaker/blacksmith. Professionally I am a linux / unix system administrator. Because I cannot train my shoulder ( lack of time), and have the parts lying around anyway; I decided I needed mechanical help. i'm building something resembling a appalachian power hammer; with influences from Norm Tuckers machine and James Helms gunhilda. John Perks in the UK has something similar as wel on youtube. I have a anvil composed of discs that interlock to form one cylinder. I'll attach a foto; they are about 30 cm across; 5 cm high and 25 kilo each; I have 17 of them. they resonate as one solid block, so I figured it should work if I clamp/weld/tighten them down good enough. I can always replace it later with a bunch of stacked solid bars and invest the money in that. Anyway, this makes my anvil up/down gradeable in height.I plan to put it directly straight under the hammer; but for this I need to mount the hammer and the guide first. I have 3 questions: 1. Where - in height - do you position the guide ? my central colum is a heavy I-beam, 25cm x 12 cm standing about 2,5 meters high. Or is this "adjustable" by modifying the other parameters of the moving parts (drive shaft) ? The anvil is about 85 cm high without head, and it sits on 3 I beams 25 cm high. so the anvil with die will arrive somewhere 120 cm high. I'll attach an older foto when it was still under contsruction. The rubber pads go under the frame , I use the chain thing to be able to lift the frame ... one-man shop; lifting this is not possible otherwise. 2. I don't have a plate steel base; BUT i have a LOT of heavy I-beam; so I welded 3 of them together to create a 40 cm wide 2 meter long base with 2 legs about a meter sideways. all extremities have boltholes to attach to the floor. Under the I-beam; I have alternating plates of wood/rubber; 3 times. Is that enough ? 3. I have a choich of 2 leaf springs: one more curved with more leaves but each leaf is about 1 cm thick. Or one about 2cm thick and more straight, but also 5 cm shorter, with tapered ends. which would be best ? greetings, bart. P.S. great forums; great info can be found here.

Well, I've spent enough money on supplies that I decided it was time to start a thread about this. I've been slowly planning out this build, and am finally pulling the trigger on some materials. Last week I brought home this used motor to power the beast, 1.5 HP industrial motor, single phase, 220 v. Then today whilst wandering the scrapyard I found the right hunk of steel for the anvil, 9.25" dia steel, 3' long. Weighs in about #700. That's all for now, I'll keep ya'll updated as I slowly get together the stuff to start the build. Stephen.

I just picked up a helve hammer this weekend and I am looking for a ID on it. I have been looking everywhere I can online and I cant find anything on it as there are no MFG marks anywhere on it. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Any help would be great as I would like to come up with some kind of history on this hammer as I am trying to get it going. Thanks justin

I can't believe this is my first post in 7 years of being a member. I joined this forum when I was in high school and was always into old iron and blacksmith equipment. You see, my father raised me with old iron in my blood. He always loved blacksmithing even when he was my age and before he got married. He passed that down to me now- I too love blacksmith equipment and line shaft stuff. He has always had a complete shop from the time I remember. He just never had time to use it working all the over time, and trying to keep the family under a roof. Now he is getting more into it because of me and my brother. I recently scored a helve hammer and a Champion no. 203 drill press. I just thought I would share some pictures with you guys. I already have a common sense no 2 so I am not sure if I need the helve hammer, but I am still undecided. It is a 40 lb. model. They both need some work of course, but they shouldn't take a whole lot to get running. I am glad that the wood beam is still ok, as I thought I was going to have to replace it. The helve hammer has been stored inside a barn for pretty much its whole life. God Bless and Happy Holidays, Jake.