Self Contained Hammer Question

[Mainely,Bob]

yep, the old man told me about that, the old machinery type seals and oil drippers etc, so i jammed twisted old string doped with grease and and sandwitched it around the piston shaft. it worked for me.

There`s a long history of success with this technique that is still being put to use in industry today.Many of the ships and boats being built in yards around the world have their shafts sealed by something called a "stuffing box" the packing for those devices is little more than grease or wax soaked rope.
You`re in good company and standing on solid ground there Keith.

[Zsartell]

double_edge2,

What kind of power hammer is the one you posted. I can see that it has a home made cylinder, but can't really make out the plumbing.

[double_edge2]

double_edge2,

What kind of power hammer is the one you posted. I can see that it has a home made cylinder, but can't really make out the plumbing.

plumbing was reinforced garden hose ( and wasnt on it yet), washing machine water solenoids for the air solenoids and a micro for the foot switch. it worked about 1000 strokes or so before i had to replace the the rubber seal inside the ram, as i didnt hone the inside of the fence post. almost no bolts, everything was tacked and welded. total cost was welding rods, and 3 or four air nipples, the rest wast scrap, to its first running. after that an air foot switch cost me about $100, and couldnt really be used without the full on level of plumbing required for a normal hammer, and i didnt have the funding at the time to complete its transformation.

[AndrewOC]

Zsartell,
I've been trawling the internet (with no luck) to find the cross section drawing of the Massey 'clear space' hammers. These, as you may know, were a further development of the 'with-slides' model described in the patent link from Frosty/ Cavala.
Basically the clear space also has a compressor cylinder and 'driven' cylinder but the valving is another 'tube' in between, with top and bottom ports to the driven cyl.
The valve is a type of spindle with spring loaded discs with what looks for all the world like cast iron trolley wheels. These are bolted onto a long rod which moves them up and down to change the air ways / function. I've always admired this system and thought about the potential on copying it.

Best answer would be; buy info booklet of JohnN of Massey forging...
AndrweOC

[lupiphile]

Zsartell,
I've been trawling the internet (with no luck) to find the cross section drawing of the Massey 'clear space' hammers. These, as you may know, were a further development of the 'with-slides' model described in the patent link from Frosty/ Cavala.
Basically the clear space also has a compressor cylinder and 'driven' cylinder but the valving is another 'tube' in between, with top and bottom ports to the driven cyl.
The valve is a type of spindle with spring loaded discs with what looks for all the world like cast iron trolley wheels. These are bolted onto a long rod which moves them up and down to change the air ways / function. I've always admired this system and thought about the potential on copying it.

Best answer would be; buy info booklet of JohnN of Massey forging...
AndrweOC

Whilst I believe everything everyone has said about these hammers, in terms beautiful forging capability, It's my understanding that the valving, mainly responsible for the aforementioned forging, is slightly more complicated than god. I suppose its in true english engineering tradition. I too, would like to recommend Mark Krause. I've bought his book( or rather pamphlet). It runs about 20 dollars and is very nicely illustrated. We hung out at the conference and I got to pick his brains on the subject of fabricated self contained hammers for several hours. One of the main things he stressed was about a 2:1 ratio for the Supply:Tup. Basically to get your snap, from your tup movement. With a proper valve arrangement you won't run into any problems with surplus air being produced, where as we all know what happens with too little air. As for the supply piston being physically wider than the tup/tup cylinder? I'd say that was principally applied to keep stroke length down and reduce required force from the motor/crank/wristpin assembly. But I would like to take a moment to say I'm no expert, but Mark is. He fixes self contained(s) for a living, so go ahead and give him a call if your really interested. By the by, I'd say the modified ball valve thing on a nazel style hammer is a little to sloppy to give good results, but then again I've never run that man's hammer, but I might be inclined to pay a machinist to make some roller valves(or one of us enterprising blacksmith's with machining capabilities...). Actually, Mark did mention that he is principally a machinist, why not just pay him to make you one? at that point you'd be halfway there. In any case best of luck, Matt