Backwoods Blacksmith Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Sold my welding maching and started my air hammer project. I am now waiting on the shuttle valve and the clevis for the cyclinder. Sent the dies out for heat treat Tuesday. Will post more when finished Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backwoods Blacksmith Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Got the hammer running today, finally. Had some air problems and evidently what I felt was plenty of clearence between the hammer shaft and the UMHW was not enough. The shuttle valve is pretty sensitive and does not like ANY back pressure. If you have to assist the shaft to move down with anything but gravity it is too tight. I am talking .002 to .003. I also cut the stroke down from 10 inchs to 8 inchs. I am using a 12 in stroke 3 inch cylinder and the shuttle valve is so quick you can't use all of the stroke. Maybe after it works for a while things will change. It hits pretty hard and tomorrow I will fire up and beat something hot. If I can figure out how to video I will post some resultes. I want to thank Paul Branch for his great book that my project is based on and Beaver Heat Treat for their advise and quick turn around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike-hr Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 That's good news! I can't see any set screws in your pictures, how did you back the uhmw out .003"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backwoods Blacksmith Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 I removed the material from the hammer shaft. What I found was, the milling machine I used before was out of tram. I trued it up and just cleaned up all four sides. It was enough out of square to make a difference. I removed about .005 from each side. I ended up flat and square. I used 1/4 UMHW and had no room for shims. when it was mounted on the machine it was bearing hard on the four corners in a narrow band. Unmounted it realined, which is why I could move it. I now have .003 to .004 clearence checked with shim stock. Hot metal today. Time to make some tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHPerdue Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Hi Backwoods Looking good. I will be glad to see it run. Your hammer is looking great. How thick is your dies and what are they made from? I'm using 2X2.5 H13. Been thinking about having mine done by the local heat treat shop also. HH CH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backwoods Blacksmith Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 I was able to get some 2 1/2 square 4140 to make the dies. I machined the minimum off to clean them up. I left most of the corner radius and left them flat as I will be making top tools instead of combo dies. I sent them out for heat treat. 50RC. Cost about $ 100.00 with shipping both ways. Just got done making a hack and a butcher from leaf spring. One piece with the handle drawn out. Am able to feather the air and knock the corners and round them up. I would not want to do this by hand The 3 in cylinder uses lots of air. Got the pressure turned down to 90 psi. Works great. I recommend the Clifton Ralph videos. Lots of good ideas. Back to work. Later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.cripe Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Hello, I'm new to forging, I have been doing simple weapons we use in karate. Want to build air hammer. I saw the simple air hammer built by Ron Kinyon and his inproved mark 11. What are the advantages of the mark 11 over the simple hammer? Comments, Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Gaddis Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 please provide some vdeo too. What you have now looks appealing to some of us. Carry on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backwoods Blacksmith Posted December 11, 2012 Author Share Posted December 11, 2012 Give me a few days. Out of town Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now