I want to make a hammer rack for my shop. I've only got three or four hammers I use on a regular basis, but when I need that one I'm tired of digging through my hammer pile. What have others come up with for hanging hammers? Any tips or pics?

Cheers,
Nick

I use a wooden saw frame with horse shoes nailed to the top, This way you can hold tongs, hammers, or any other tool that can hang, You can hang the hammers in the front for quick access, and tongs along the back for convenience.
These are easy and cheap to make.



-Andrei

Hammers, top tools -( fullers, hot cuts, punches, set hammers, flatter), hot cut hardies, tongs all within easy reach of my anvil.



smaller version for demoing, often used hardy tools go in top ring, least used in bottom ring.

BP0166 Hammer Stand

There was one of those in iron in the hat a few months ago. Didn't win deadgummit. It was basically like a wheel with rings on the outside to hold hammers, and you could hang tongs on the spokes.

Irn:

That is really spiffy.....I am working on a die/hardy/hammer/swage/tong stand/storage thingy that I am just finishing up..will try to post pics once it's finally done...

as it is my hammers and tongs are up on one wall with my twisting tooling and some hardies on another wall. This stand will be mostly for hardy/die storage for Julius and Augustus, my treadle hammer as well as for my swage blocks and hammers I am using for a project and tongs.. Got it on 360 degree casters so I can move it about... Nothing fancy but it should be handy...

Like that ring arrangement....

JPH

JPH
The hammer stand BP0166 has a car rim for a base. Just tilt and roll on the rim. I found that is an easy way to move the stand. No bumping into it and having it roll across the room on wheels.

Here is my hammer rack. Very low tech. Just a two-by across two studs with a one-by nailed to the wall behind for support. First picture is the rack, second is a detail of the support board on the back wall. Also visible in the first picture is one of my tong racks. Just a piece of 1/4" x 1 1/2" mild steel ran between the two studs of my shed.

Howdy!!

Oh here is my combination hammer/tong/die/hardy/swageblock/tool holder and wrench rack. It's on casters, has a place on the sides to hold the hammers and tongs I am using for a particular project, a rack to hold my hardies, still need to drill the 1" dia. hols for my flypress dies...one end has an arrangemnt to hold my beox end wrnches I use on Julius, Augustus and my LG for adjustments...

The shelves hold die holders and swages...

Hope this pic works out ok..

JPH

Another hammer rack. It could be easily adapted to handle tongs.

I use a shovel display stand that they were throwing away at home depot. basically a 2'x2' low table with 1 1/2 inch holes drilled in the top and the plywood on the bottom for shovels to go through. I put hammers and top tools in the holes on top, and hardy tools in the holes on the bottom part. it works well, but takes up more space than I like.

i actually used Glenn's multi-level rack as inspiration and then went all mad scientist on the ideas. I (as I usually seem to do for some reason) over built the thing by about 300 percent, adding tong racks along the outside, hardie tool holders , pritchel tool holders , spring swage holder, a bottom shelf, etc. etc. etc. once it was done i went to pick it up to move it and realized that it was too heavy and unweildy (24 inches by 36 inches) to be easily picked up and moved even when it was empty...so off to harbor freight for some casters. We dubbed it Franken-rack and loaded it up.
the good news is i should have enough room to smithin tools for the next 20 years of so
-Aaron @ the SCF
Merry Christmas and a happy and safe (even if it is crazy) New Year to all

This looks like a simple but effective design for a HAMMER RACK. I have just started over again in the blacksmithing business. I have the oppertunity to rebuild most of the supportive elements for my new shop. It's nice to be able to have access to other peoples ideas. It helps me maximize my efforts.
I am going to build me a hammer rack based on your example. I plan on adding another tier for tongs and add wheels. I may even add mud flaps just for the heck of it! Thank You!
Be safe, be safe!
Ted

Bets on how short that 20 years turns out to be?

I will place my bet at 5 years. (talk about loading the dice )
I should have said "until the college loans are paid off and I can start collecting every worthwile and usable tool in sight"
I stand corrected
-Aaron @ the SCF
Merry Christmas and a happy and safe (even if it is crazy) New Year!

A good fleamarket will run you out of space *fast*, of course some of the items are really "stock preforms" rather than hammers---I have a bucket of ballpeins just for making hawks from---anytime I see a good one cheap I buy it and toss it in the bucket.

I was given a steel frame looks like it had been used to hold stock for painting.

I bolted 4 pieces of pipe too it each pair seperated by space for a good sized handle getting about 12 linear feet of hammer storage---which is full, hammers in the front one and set tools in the back one.

No welding required! (no power to the shop)...

A good fleamarket will run you out of space *fast*, of course some of the items are really "stock preforms" rather than hammers---I have a bucket of ballpeins just for making hawks from---anytime I see a good one cheap I buy it and toss it in the bucket.

I was given a steel frame looks like it had been used to hold stock for painting.

I bolted 4 pieces of pipe too it each pair seperated by space for a good sized handle getting about 12 linear feet of hammer storage---which is full, hammers in the front one and set tools in the back one.

No welding required! (no power to the shop)...

WOW, sounds awesome! You run your shop completely powerless? How cool, I used to have to do that.

Holy cow, you people have a lot of hammers. Are all those necessary for an amateur, or all of you professsionals?

I cant speak for anybody but myself but I am a proffesional amature

For tool racks, I build frames out of 3/4x3/16 flat iron set on edge (in various LxW sizes) and then weld the same size material inside the frame so I have several rows (similar to JPH). This configuration works for both tongs and hammers. I do not use many hafted set tools so about the only thing I have with wooden handles are hand hammers but counting sledges, I have about a dozen total; maybe 40 pr of tongs and a myriad of chisels and punches. Instead of handled tools, I have several pair of "ring" tongs that I can hold short bits in for struck tooling.

Rusty,
Not all of us are professionals (I'm far from it but trying), but most of us are members of DACUoCEHIE- the Dignified Admirers, Collectors, and Users of Classic Examples of Human Ingenuity and Engineering. This differs from tool collectors in one major way. Tool collectors buy tools to hang on the wall and look pretty. We buy tools (amongst other things) to hang on the wall in the hopes that someday down the road we might find some use for them, and when that time comes we will be equipped for the situation

In all seriousness I spent my first three years "blacksmithing" with 3 hammers (one of them a sledge), an anvil, two pairs of tongs and an old rivet forge. My work wasn't anything near aesthetic beauty, but hey, i was just learning.

Then I got a job, and started buying tools whenever i saw any that i could afford. While my collection is nowhere near as large as the collection is in Glenn's photo, it is what I am eventually shooting for, and now I have twelve lineal feet of space on my rack so everything I buy can have a home.

What I am finally getting to is: Worry about the smithin' first. The collecting can wait 'til later if it needs to.
-Aaron @ the SCF
Merry Christmas and a happy and safe (even if it is crazy) New Year !

"DACUoCEHIE- the Dignified Admirers, Collectors, and Users of Classic Examples of Human Ingenuity and Engineering"

i want a tshirt!

Rusty, I, like many other tool junkies have more tools than it realy takes to do the job. Our sick minds tells us that success among other measures is: "he who has the most most tools wins". Just kidding! "I think".
I believe people like myself likes the luxery of having the option of using the tool that seem just right for the job.
To have several hammers is not "just" for ego. I do REPOUSSE work also. The head shape, head weight, speed, and force applied to the swing, density of mass, mass size, tempture of mass, and several other factors contributes to the out come effect of the blow. I use several hammers with different head shapes and mass.
You would not hunt elephants with a rabbit gun, nor would hunt rabbits with an elephant gun and everything in between. Same principel applys to hammers. Just my thoughts.
Be safe, be safe!
Ted

My contribution to the thread

I could do most of my work with just 1 hammer; but sometimes I'd be having to hold it back doing delicate work (hard on the arm) and really over amping it doing heavy work (hard on the hammer)---so I usually bring at least 3 to demo's---And what if I teach? the 1.5 kg sweedish crosspein is not suited to the beginner---though I have a couple of 700gm? ones to show students that it's the skill not the tool.

So while most of my work with just a couple of hammers having the *right* hammer for a specific task really speeds things up---try dishing a pot with a standard hammer and look at all the pretty dings you have to remove...