Bradley hammer project

[Daniel.85]

gorgeous! You did an awesome job on that hammer.

[K A Willey]

Looks good , now you gotta get some scale on it!!

[Dillon Sculpture]

Rusty,
I have set and forgot mine, it is on 5. The 500 is a different beast though, I would find it helpful in fine control if you had the need. I have some real good literature from Bradley PM I'll get you what I have. Setting the point of impact is more important in my mind.

bradley.pdf

bradley,.pdf

[Mainely,Bob]

That is one sweet looking set up. Looking forward to seeing what you make with it.
Easy to see the craftsmanship in the restoration. The work that comes from such a fine tool will be only limited by your imagination.
Well done sir!

[griffinforge]

Thanks all for the compliments, Danger I checked out the info you sent and it was as I figured, after turning the flywheel half a dozen turns the eccentric loosened up and ive been able to move it freely and set it where I want it at this point. Ill send a PM later, as I would like to read up on the fine control adjustment among other things. I'm sure I'll have to make adjustments as I use the machine. I'm cooking up a billet right now and I'm pleased with the performance so far....
thanks again!

[Patrick Nowak]

There are 3 ways to adjust a Bradley- 1.Stroke length through adjustment of the crank throw, 2. Point of impact or spacing between the dies adjusted by the slip sleeve or tie rod depending on the size of your machine, 3. Tension on the rubber cushions.

I tend to do as Michael does and run mine with the longest strock available.
I adjust point of impact regularly since I use dies of varying height and work pieces of varying thickness so that adjustment is needed to get maximum force from the blow.
Tension on the cushions should be sufficinetly tight so that the cushions can't be moved by hand when he machine is at rest nor come loose during operation, but if they are too tight they won't actually cushion the hammer either.

You should know that if you change the stroke, the point of impact also changes and you may need to adjust that before starting your work. In general, the point of impact can be set by making the dies about 2" apart when the hammer ram is at its lowest postion while at rest.

Patrick

[griffinforge]

Patrick,
Thanks for the info, I've set my hammer on the longest stroke possible and its seems to me so far that's where it will stay. I'll try adjusting the point of impact next and make the necessary adjustments from there. The cushions that came on the machine are not new, but still in good shape and the tension is good. (The machine came with a new set of cushions as well) I'll be using the machine to work varying material thicknesses from damascus billets to small round bar, so I'm sure I will need to make adjustments regularly. Thanks again for the help.