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I Forge Iron

self made hammer


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recently I visited a friend of mine who actually works in the shop of a passed away teacher of mine (RIP!). I brought also the camera to take pictures of his power hammer. I can't remember the history of the hammer, but for sure is a "fabricated" hammer, not a factory build, even that's not a "JYH", there's nothing "scrappy" about it. I suppose it was built for him sometimes at the end of the 70's when he was working as public furniture designer for the municipality of our town, so he had access to many local factories and workshops.
this hammer was the first power hammer I saw in action, some 20 years ago.
unfortunately, after the death of my teacher, a little more than 10 years ago, the workshop was rented to different people who didn't really care about it and the tools in it, so it's not was it used to be anymore.
I don't know the exact ram and anvil weight, maybe the ram is something around 30kgs, but the hammer could hit very hard.
even that the hammer is not really bolted down, it doesn't move or "dance", it's a quiet massive build.
here are some pictures of the hammer, hope you enjoy:


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the toggle old and used original toggle arms were replaced by my friend by ones forged form rebar :) not a technical genius the guy, fortunately he made them the same lenght, as they were not adjustable

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above you can see some of the dies, which my teacher said that there were the most expensive parts, made out of special heat rezistant steel. even today after a lot of abuse and lately the misuse of different persons, the dies are in very good condition (apart of some rust, because of the rain infiltrations)

below is the clutch system which consist of a drive belt which is moved from an "idle pulley" to the "working pulley" by a "fork"
in his good old days, the drive belt was larger, allowing for better control of the hammer.

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the "lever system" which transmits the movement from the foot-rest to the "fork"

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the flywheel doesn't have a counterweight, but instead has weight removed form it

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here it is a short video, I hope it works. I asked my brother which has never used a PH to "move" it a bit
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That is genius pushing the belt uphill on a conical drum! (I have no idea if this is done before)

edit: I rewatched the video a couple times, there are two drums, one freewheels the other drives the hammer. No conical shape to the drum

Removing metal from a large turning of that nature is easier than adding metal back on. It is a good arrangement. I see he also has a brake on it.

Very nice.

Phil

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I really like it.
I have seen the same arrangement for slack belt and two flat wheels before . I always imagined there was a clutch between them , the belt slipping over one wheel to the other is a very simple way of doing it.
thanks for posting this.

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Thanks for sharing
Some one went to a lot of trouble making that hammer
Counter balanced the fly wheel
O have seen similar pulley systems to take machines off line when line shafts were used

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You might want to talk your friend into re making the toggle arms. Rebar is pretty random stuff. One piece of rebar may be made of a totally different alloy than the next. I have had the stuff shatter like hardened tool steel when bending it and other stuff that will bend back and forth over and over like its 1010. I would use a steel that you have a good knowledge of its property's.

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the belt is tight and when the machine is at idle it is on a pulley that is not keyed to the shaft but free wheeling.
When the belt is slid to the other pulley that is keyed to the shaft it begins to drive

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I"m glad you guys like it. unfortunately, the shop and the hammer are just rented to my friend. the workshop and the house along are for sale, so he don't know how long will stay. also the hammer I think is for sale, but i think my teacher's widow asks too much (you know, for sentimental reasons). so my friend it's not very keen to rebuild and improve the hammer. It's a pity, because the hammer is very well build and, with proper maintenance should last several life spans. I'd change the clutch system by a simpler one, maybe a tire sistem or I'll improve the actual one. also I'd change the toggles by adjustable ones, even that the originals non adjustable were working very good. you can see them staying almost horizontally.
but I'm not buying it, unless the woman will sell for a really reasonable price. I'm in train to build one for myself, I have most of the parts, i just need some pillow blocks and some shafts to be machined. It will be a tire hammer.

I also saw that clutch system in old "industrial" photos, with machines driven by belts from main shafts.

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yes, it has a lot of "whip" and it hits very hard at full power, in the video the hammer runs at slow speed.

I think the "lot of whip" is due to the large bow spring (~ 60cm large, almost 2feet), which allows extra travel for the ram without being too "lax".

for the same amount of money the widow asks for the hammer, I could buy a self contained. in fact I already bought a perfect running one for 330$ at that time, a 100kg ram weight one, unfortunately there was a sad history after I bought it, too long to tell, so I don't have it anymore. anyway I didn't have a place to properly install it. so a tire hammer would be the solution now, just to have some time to make it.

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nice!

and as I already said, that clutch needs a wider belt to work properly, as in the photos in your link, not as "my" hammer has now. originally the belt was similar - wider leather one, now it has a canvas/rubber or some resin, composite, the type used for other machinery, not too appropriate.

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