Little Giant clutch system

[Guerreiro]

Good day to all,

I'd really like to know how a little giant hammer clutch works.
Is it conical?
I really can't find a good explanation on the web. Some diagram would be nice!
The thing is that I'm considering the construction of a power hammer and I'm undecided in using the tire clutch system or another type that may also work well.

Pardon my english (I'm Portuguese)

Thank you

Miguel Guerreiro

[clinton]

A slack belt system would be much easier to build. You just need an idler pulley that is controlled by your foot treadle, when it applies pressure to the belt your hammer will rotate. This is a very simple set up and it gives good control, here is a picture of my hammer

[Guerreiro]

Thank you for the hint.
Man that's one mean looking, nasty "animal" you got there.
Build it yourself?
I believe that it does some serious pouding!
Is it an adaptation or build from zero?

About my question is basically a question of curiosity, since I'm inclined to build either a tire hammer or the system you refer.

Thank you once more.

Miguel Guerreiro

[HWooldridge]

There is a tapered cone inside the flywheel that engages wooden blocks which are mounted to the spider, thereby transferring power to drive the ram.

[Guerreiro]

Thanks.

That's what I was thinking.

Miguel Guerreiro

[Frosty]

Don't worry about your spelling Miguel, it's better than a lot of guys who were born here.

The Little Giant clutch has been covered much better than I could so on to home builds.

There have been a bunch of different clutch systems used, some more effective than others. I don't know of anyone who's tried using an automotive clutch but they may just not have talked about it. Another clutch system was to use an automotive rear end and axles. One wheel hub drives the hammer and the other one acts as the clutch by engaging the emergency brake via cable or other linkage. I've heard this works pretty well but have no experience myself.

The ones I like best are the tire drive and then the slack belt.

My impression is the tire drive is about as easy to fabricate as they get and a LOT safer if you put it all over head.

A slack belt is simple to build but there's that belt right there and it wouldn't take much going wrong for someone to get hurt.

I'm not talking about getting caught in the belt though it can happen unless you have guards on it. What I'm thinking is if something got away from you, say a 6" long piece of 1/2" sq stock being forged. Say it slips out of the tongs and gets flipped by the hammer ram and bounces into the belt where it gets caught and slung at high speed in whatever direction it's going when it gets loose.

I know that sounds like a LOT of things going wrong at once but if something CAN go wrong it will.

I do my best to design for the worst case scenarios as best I can but that's just me. Heck, I would've sworn that stupid tree couldn't've gotten me!

Frosty the Lucky.

[Greebe]

I too was thinking about this last night. I like the tire hammer design, but was trying to think of another way to operate it with some sort of clutch. Don't know how well the power transmission would be with a tire. Seems like there would be a lot of slippage. Also it seems like you would wear out the tire quickly with this system. I would be curious what the guys think that own these types of hammers.

[Frosty]

I too was thinking about this last night. I like the tire hammer design, but was trying to think of another way to operate it with some sort of clutch. Don't know how well the power transmission would be with a tire. Seems like there would be a lot of slippage. Also it seems like you would wear out the tire quickly with this system. I would be curious what the guys think that own these types of hammers.

I'm thinking it's a better system than most clutches, rubber on rubber contact would mean little slippage and if you used a steel wheel on the motor there'd be virtually no wear, just use a more positive system to engage it.

How about a torque converter instead? I'm thinking of using a cone on the motor so I can vary the ratio with no slippage or wear.

Frosty the Lucky.

[clinton]

Thank you for the hint.
Man that's one mean looking, nasty "animal" you got there.
Build it yourself?
I believe that it does some serious pouding!
Is it an adaptation or build from zero?

About my question is basically a question of curiosity, since I'm inclined to build either a tire hammer or the system you refer.

Thank you once more.

Miguel Guerreiro

This is a Commonsense Power hammer, manufactured in Berkeley California. It was originally ran off a line shaft drive system, so there was no motor installed, it would get power form an overhead pulley. I had help in the design process to mount the motor and build the jack shaft assembly from a member on this site. (thank you Chuck) This hammer wants to run at 275 rpm so I had to use the step down pulley system (jack shaft) to get the proper rpm. It is a 75 pound hammer and yes it can do some serious pounding, I need to do some more work on it, the bearings are no good, once I install the new bearings I think it will run a lot smoother and hit a lot harder.