Well, I finally took a break from the books and studying and worked on the tire hammer for a couple of days. I got the hammer assembly all together and mounted and welded the anvil pedestal in place, today. Ran into a couple of "engineeering problems", (read Brain Fart), but finally made progress. All that I have left to do is add the spring guard and mount the motor assembly and foot pedal. Then I can give it a test run to see how much counter weight I need on the tire. Then I need to clean off the rust and old paint and paint it so it's real perdy! LOL. At the bottom of the stroke I have about 1 1/2" of clearance between the dies, at rest. At the top of the stroke I have 5 1/4". Does that sound about right? Here's a couple of pix of it. I also made the dies so that they can be removed and new dies made. Let me know what you think, everyone.

lookin good curlygeorge i think its perdy jest the way it is save the paint for somethin else

Curly george
Looking good, You will be real pleased with your hammy I have a feeling. I love mine, pictures on my website at www.blindhogg.com
Let me know if you ever need any photos, or dimension checks. Would be happy to help if i can.
Chris

George that looks GREAT! Hope you can get a video of it running! interesting die keeper on the anvil there, look forward to hearing how that works.

Thanks for the comments, guys. Sam, that was the easiest way that I could come up with, quick, to mount the bottom die. Worked on my treadle hammer. Chris, thanks for the offer. I have to engineer and fab the motor mounting assembly. If I run into any problems I may contact you. I think that I have it figured out. But that's not a guarantee. :D

I finally "got 'er done"!!!!! I had a bad vibration problem, even after adding 5 1/2 pounds of lead counterweight. Then I got to thinking,(Yes, that hurt!! LOL). It was walking all over the place. It was also bogging down and blowing a breaker. So I Checked the motor. I had used the only motor that I had available. It was a 1 hp, but turned 3460 rpm. I found another motor from a friend that was only 1/3 hp, but only turned 1750 rpm. So I switched out the motor. Now all the energy goes to the hammer instead of rocking the whole thing back and forth. It also pounds harder. Can't really explain that, with a smaller hp motor. But it does hit harder. Doesn't bog down or trip the breaker, either. Later this week, I'm gonna fire up the forge again and try to take a video. It really runs smooth, now. Still got to paint it. But at least it's up and running. Here's a couple of pix. Any Comments or suggestions welcome.

http://s758.photobucket.com/albums/xx224/Curly_George/?action=view&current=MyTireHammer001-1.jpg

http://s758.photobucket.com/albums/xx224/Curly_George/?action=view&current=MyTireHammer002-1.jpg

The slower speed was better tuned to the frequency that the components want to cycle at.

George - Glad to hear you got it all working and ready for paint. Happy hammering - JK

Well, I finally got the camera figured out and got a video made, today. When I started pounding on the hot metal, I started getting some rocking and walking. So I guess that now I have to tweek the counter weight just a little bit. But here's a video of my first hot iron worked on my newly finished tire hammer. Thank you Tom Lumkin for walking me thru the steps to set up the video.