Tire Hammer

[KTB]

I spent approx 9 weeks of spare time building a hammer according to Clay Spencers plans. I did make a few revisions such as a removable treadle assy and removable shim retainers. The treadle spring is adjustable and I mounted the 3/4 inch thick base plate on 4 x 4's. Next is cutting out my garage floor and pouring a thicker 36 x 36 inch slab.

Excuse the clutter. I don't have a lot of room in a one bay garage.

Keith

[divermike]

nice job! very clean, if I was you, I'd round over those dies just a bit more aggressively. I'm in the process of coming up with a tray that will mount on the lower frame cross assembly, and also I'm putting a small step on the foot pedal. I like the oil can holder, I use slick 50, so I'll come up with an idea for that as well. I love my hammer, I painted it colonial red, and call it... Big Red!!

[KTB]

I agree with you on the dies. I have a friend who is currently machining a combo set for me and I'll do a bit more rounding on them prior to heat treat.

[KTB]

nice job! very clean, if I was you, I'd round over those dies just a bit more aggressively. I'm in the process of coming up with a tray that will mount on the lower frame cross assembly, and also I'm putting a small step on the foot pedal. I like the oil can holder, I use slick 50, so I'll come up with an idea for that as well. I love my hammer, I painted it colonial red, and call it... Big Red!!

Pictures Mike, we need pictures. B)

[Double Y]

Excellent build Keith.

Have fun with it

[divermike]

here's a couple pics of big red, my shop is cluttered as well. Sorry for the big pics, if you want to shrink them, hit control and the minus key, just remember to reinlarge it after, or youll need reading glasses!! These pics show the rear of the old sheetrock and metal stud forge hood I made about 3 years ago, it's gone now, but it held up very well!!

[Dodge]

Very nice Keith! Enjoy it. They're fun!! I built mine before I ever heard of Clay Spencer so I didn't have a blue print but rather, pics and measurements of the one I first saw on Anvilfire.com. I then adapted them to the materials I had available. This pic was taken in the middle of my shop/garage reorganization. It's also a one car garage. I really do plan to paint the hammer some day :D

[KTB]

Nice hammer Mike, great job. And Dodge, I can't image doing it without plans. Way to go. I tack welded mine together, took it apart, finished welded, put it back together to make sure it worked properly and the welds would hold, took it apart, painted it, and then performed final assembly. I knew if I didn't paint it right away it probably never would get painted. I did learn to disassemble and reassemble without too much trouble. lol

[Zsartell]

Wow, you did a great job on that hammer KTB. I really like the ratchet and oil can holder. I need to start scrounging for my tire hammer.

How does it perform for you?

[ciladog]

I have a set of construction plans that I bought from Clay last year at a class I took with him. I decided not to build his hammer and the plans are of no use to me. If anyone wants them, just PM me with an address to send them to and they are yours.

Sorry ladies and gentlemen, the plans are spoken for.

[KTB]

Wow, you did a great job on that hammer KTB. I really like the ratchet and oil can holder. I need to start scrounging for my tire hammer.

How does it perform for you?

I haven't have a chance to use it extensively yet, but it hammers like crazy so my expectations are high. I just need to complete my slab prior to anchoring it down. Since this if my first power hammer, thats when the learning curve will present itself.

[KTB]

I haven't have a chance to use it extensively yet, but it hammers like crazy so my expectations are high. I just need to complete my slab prior to anchoring it down. Since this if my first power hammer, thats when the learning curve will present itself.

I got the idea for the ratchet holder and oil can from John Wayne Taylor, one of Clay's associates. Shortly after I started my hammer I drove over to Alabama and visited John Wayne so I could look at one of his hammers. Mr. Taylor also built the ram and counterweight for me as I didn't want to get involved in pouring lead in my garage. I purchased the machined aluminum drive wheel from Clay.

[twcoffey]

You probably know this but I thought I would add that concrete needs about 30 days to cure before applying stresses.
Ted

[divermike]

Mine is sitting on a 2 inch steel plate, bolted down to rr ties sunk in the ground, she dances a bit, but they do anyway, so I would not shy at just bolting it straight into the slab with big anchors.

[wathomas]

Keith --congratulations on seeing it thru---looks great.

You say you are about to cut and bust out a section of the slab and reinforce. I certainly have seen this recomended in several posts.

Have you spoken with anyone who went the other way? IOW only jumping in to "repair" the damage to the exisitng slab after the fact?

Have you had sicussion 0with someone ths has "done it". Wondering whether "waiting til it shows it is needed " is going to tyically result in a larger area that will need repair? I vaguely recall one post that went into some detail about the localized underlying soil type being a big factor.

[ironstein]

Nice clean build. Looks like you are gonna have some fun.

[KTB]

I live in a cottage home and it is all poured on the same slab. The whole house other than the garage is hardwood glued directly to the slab. I don't want to take the chance on compromising or cracking any of the slab faster than it would otherwise. And since I have a friend with a concrete saw and a concrete mixer, well why not ? One of my concrete contractors has advised me to go down at least 2 ft. or until I hit relatively solid material. Then I plan to pour an isolated section about 3 ft. x 3 ft. and I won't have to worry about it. Plans are for a 5/8 in. X 5 in. wedge anchor in each corner. That should keep it from dancing.

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

The inertia block helps with the low amplitude vibration and some rubber belting or such under the hammer will help with the higher amplitude vibration. People sometimes think in terms of one or the other, but they actually serve two different purposes. Concrete is cheap, more is better.

[twcoffey]

I live in a cottage home and it is all poured on the same slab. The whole house other than the garage is hardwood glued directly to the slab. I don't want to take the chance on compromising or cracking any of the slab faster than it would otherwise. And since I have a friend with a concrete saw and a concrete mixer, well why not ? One of my concrete contractors has advised me to go down at least 2 ft. or until I hit relatively solid material. Then I plan to pour an isolated section about 3 ft. x 3 ft. and I won't have to worry about it. Plans are for a 5/8 in. X 5 in. wedge anchor in each corner. That should keep it from dancing.

If your hammer is static balanced(dynamic balance is impossible) then it should be able to run on a rebar re-enforced 5" concrete slab without slab isolation. My hammer is proof of this. The slab is part of the shop floor(nothing special except for rebar). Most slab concrete jobs with mesh wire re-enforcing will not suffice and require isolation.
Ted

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

I don't think balance has anything to do with it. A self contained hammer has all the rotating parts turning all the time and it doesn't need isolation until it starts hammering. And a utility hammer has nothing rotating to balance and still needs isolation.

[twcoffey]

I don't think balance has anything to do with it. A self contained hammer has all the rotating parts turning all the time and it doesn't need isolation until it starts hammering. And a utility hammer has nothing rotating to balance and still needs isolation.

It will dance if its not balanced. If balance does not matter, why is there a counter balance?
Try removing the counter balance weight an see what happens.
The hammer as designed has an arbitrary counter balance which may not work for all "as built" configurations.
If you want a smooth running hammer you need to static balance.
Definition of static balance for the tire hammer: With the hammer head disconnected from the toggle arms the tire and the assembly should stay in the same position
no matter were you turn it(with the brake off, of course).
Ted

[Mainely,Bob]

It will dance if its not balanced. If balance does not matter, why is there a counter balance?
Try removing the counter balance weight an see what happens.
The hammer as designed has an arbitrary counter balance which may not work for all "as built" configurations.
If you want a smooth running hammer you need to static balance.
Definition of static balance for the tire hammer: With the hammer head disconnected from the toggle arms the tire and the assembly should stay in the same position
no matter were you turn it(with the brake off, of course).
Ted

It`s my understanding thru dealing with various machinery involving reciprocating parts that in order to do any real good you have to dynamically balance the entire assembly at the speed you will use the machine at the most.This involves a trade off as something like a hammer will operate at variable speeds and so as soon as you move either above or below your target speed the balance is thrown off to some degree.
Static balancing is better than no balance at all but no where near as effective as dynamically balancing something.Besides,your static balance will be thrown off as soon as you connect the reciprocating mass of the tup.

It also seems to me there are more than one type of induced vibration here.There`s the vibration that any running piece of machinery makes and then there`s the more destructive vibration of the impact that gets transferred thru the base and into the floor.I would think that impact and it`s vibration would the one you would be most concerned with when planning and isolating a base from a surrounding slab.
Grant mentioned the 2 types of vibration to plan for,perhaps you are each talking about different types?

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

My comments regarding balance were on the subject of FOUNDATION, nothing else. At the time we were not talking about "smooth running hammer". We were talking about foundations. When I said "I don't think balance has anything to do with it", the "it" was referring to the foundation.

If your hammer is static balanced(dynamic balance is impossible) then it should be able to run on a rebar re-enforced 5" concrete slab without slab isolation.

[twcoffey]

It`s my understanding thru dealing with various machinery involving reciprocating parts that in order to do any real good you have to dynamically balance the entire assembly at the speed you will use the machine at the most.This involves a trade off as something like a hammer will operate at variable speeds and so as soon as you move either above or below your target speed the balance is thrown off to some degree.
Static balancing is better than no balance at all but no where near as effective as dynamically balancing something.Besides,your static balance will be thrown off as soon as you connect the reciprocating mass of the tup.

It also seems to me there are more than one type of induced vibration here.There`s the vibration that any running piece of machinery makes and then there`s the more destructive vibration of the impact that gets transferred thru the base and into the floor.I would think that impact and it`s vibration would the one you would be most concerned with when planning and isolating a base from a surrounding slab.
Grant mentioned the 2 types of vibration to plan for,perhaps you are each talking about different types?

The sideways movement of the hammer indicates that the rotating components are are out of balance. The hammer head has nothing to do with the hammer dancing problem. If you don't believe this then I can only suggest that you experiment with different counter weights. I have done this and in my case the counter weights ended up as 11.5 lbs as opposed to thw
7.85 lbs of the design. In you case another value may work.
The proof is in the pudding. My Tire Hammer does not have any sideways movement were with 7.85 bs it jumped all over the place.
Case closed.
Ted

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

THAT is the first mention of "sideways movement" in this discussion. And has marginal affect on the foundation and isolation requirements. If the weight of the ram has "nothing to do with the hammer dancing problem" why do so many home made (and some manufactured) air hammers dance around? If sideways movement is the only consideration, why do we spend so much money on isolation and foundations for self-contained and air hammers?

OBTW: "Case closed" is just as irritating as "period, end of discussion" and means about the same. Only the group as a whole decides when the case is closed. One experience with one hammer is hardly definitive and is just anecdotal evidence. Although your analysis on rocking moment is correct.