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300lb Chambersburg utility hammer

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I talked to a local fellow last night who has a 300 lb Chambersburg steam hammer he would sell if he can find a buyer pretty quick, it needs to be moved off a chunk of dirt that was sold. I have not seen it but he said its a machine that came off a Liberty ship, and he as a gas/diesel steam plant that goes with it...

I ask him what he wanted for it and said "2 to 3 thousand" I would guess 2K would be a safe bet.

If you have any interest you would need to act fast, the equipment that is available to load it will only be there till Monday.... I could go load it on my trailer and bring it to my shop for shipping if that helped out someone...


Shoot me a email and I'll put you in touch....

What happens to it if he doesn't sell it? Is he moving it to another location, or does it get scrapped?

The reason I ask is I have seen quite a few times where something needed to be moved "in a hurry" and the owner was asking a retail price. What happened many times was the item didn't sell , and it got scrapped/trashed instead for a lot less $$$$. Whereas if the guy had said, "there it is, it's yours" the item would have been saved, and the owner would have saved money by not having to pay to have it hauled off. I have given stuff away if someone could use it, as opposed to making a couple of bucks on scrapping it.

I would also point out that I have no clue what this hammer is worth on the open market, but I do realize what it could possibly take in time, material, and $$$ to move it.

Where is this this beast located and do you have any photos ?

  • Author

It's not going to scrap. It will just end up being moved. The fellow was/is a industral smith and made a living running a 4000lb steam hammer in a ship yard I don't think at this point he has it in him to scrap it

Monstermetal... I noticed on the chat room last night you picked up that hammer. Did you get the boiler also?

  • Author

Monstermetal... I noticed on the chat room last night you picked up that hammer. Did you get the boiler also?



I scrapped the boiler.... it was pretty far gone and I was worried about the asbestos

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  • Author

So I couldnt help but to spend a bit of time cleaning and playing... I think the controls are a bit wonky but really dont have a clue since I have never played with a steam machine....

Anyway thought you all might like to see some video of it going cur-chu.... cur-chu.... cur-chu....

Chambersberg video


thx! thats what we wanted :D


Nope! Actually what I wanted was for Larry to drop that off at Ernie's house and have him slip it into a flatrate box to me;-) But I will have to settle for a vid;-)

Christian
Husband
Father
Blacksmith
Farrier
Farmer
Coveteous of power hammers large and small;-) Mainly large, but I wouldn't turn down a small one.

So what exactly is involved in converting a steam hammer to run on air ?

How big a compressor would it take to run that hammer ?

Why are Nakedanvil and Forgemaster so down on that kind of hammer ? Obsolete ? , dangerous? too problematic and not worth putting back in service ?

  • Author

I think the biggest thing is compared to a self contained its just not all that friendly for a single operator... If you had a driver it might be diffrent.. And according to Grant it really takes some work to get them to run well on air.... Just the bit that I ran this today I can tell the blow by in the throttle valve is an issue with air, Grant said its necessary using steam to keep the system hot to minimize condensation..

As far as air needed... I have a 10hp two stage pump with almost 400 gal of tank not including all the 2" main line and 1" secondary lines and I have maybe enough air to run it for a minute tops.... Grant said 25-50 HP screw depending on how the hammer was set up....

I can see the benefit to the control it would afford for certain types of work... Big single blows and dead blows.... and taps to set tools....


On another note, The thing is not really for sale.. I am not sure how it stands but at the moment I am the caretaker of the machine, I dont own it

A friend of mine has the same hammer with foot control and it has excellent response, of corse he spent $15,000 for the plug and play set up (compressor and hammer). Grant has already shown modifications needed to tame these hammers and I hope to put his applications to work on my 750. It looks like the throttle valve is completely worn out to me, mine had about 1/8" play in it when I got it. The machining is minimal to replace the throttle valve but the motion valve is where the real magic happens. Again when I took mine apart the blow by was huge, as well it had a hole clean through it! Not sure how they ran it like that. The machining on this part can be involved but if you don't have to bore and hone the ram cylinder or mess with the piston, its not that bad.

I have a 300 lb chambersberg also. It was converted to air before I got it. It runs great, but from what I hear running on steam is still better.

We have a 25 hp rotory screw compressor to run this.. This hammer works almost daily and I love it.

  • Author

I have a 300 lb chambersberg also. It was converted to air before I got it. It runs great, but from what I hear running on steam is still better.

We have a 25 hp rotory screw compressor to run this.. This hammer works almost daily and I love it.



Hey Grizz...

What kind of work are you doing with it primarily? Care to share some pictures?
  • 3 weeks later...

Hey Grizz...

What kind of work are you doing with it primarily? Care to share some pictures?



We do mostly Architectural Iron, but also do Art too. Go to our facebook page and there pics and we have video on U - tube look up wedjeblade

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  • Author

Man I would really like to see some video of that hammer in operation and how the treadle works... What is your facebook name so I can find you?

Hey Grizz! Whats the baseball bat for? :huh: :lol:

It looks like that anvil hanging from the ceiling is to stop any coyotes from trying to steal your Chambersburg.

  • Author

It looks like that anvil hanging from the ceiling is to stop any coyotes from trying to steal your Chambersburg.



I was kind of thinking the same thing! :blink:

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