April 12, 201214 yr Some pics of my helve hammer. It is a "Durabo", made by Perrin & Fils somewhere in France, I forget where exactly. Weight of the actual head is about 20kg. I presume the name Durabo is a (dreadful) pun on "dur et beau" meaning "hard and handsome". Ahem, moving swiftly on;
April 12, 201214 yr Author The upper and lower dies. I have failed to make sense of the lower "die", save to suppose that it was designed by someone without very much common sense.The hammer head (ram) is made from a cast material, I hope ductile rather than straight cast iron. The lower die I believe is ductile, the upper die is steel. The anvil is cast iron.
April 12, 201214 yr Author I took this picture for scale, though it makes the hammer look smaller than it looks in the flesh. The dashing blade in the photo is me. Please do not ask me about my haircut;
April 12, 201214 yr I have seen these hammers before and i think the lower die would be very usefull for drawing out hoops or welding up rings and the other side for upsetting or some such ..... I would love to see some footage of this going
April 12, 201214 yr don't mock the haircut, it is very much like my handsome younger son's, besides what else are you going to do with a head full of naturally wavy hair, put it up in pig tails? Nice looking helve hammer. Looks like it will do some hard work for you. Are you just now installing it in your shop?
April 12, 201214 yr It looks to me like the lower die may be out of position but that's a guess. Looks like a nice little helve hammer. Frosty The Lucky.
April 12, 201214 yr Great looking small Helve with an interesting spring arrangement. Looks to be in Super condition too...Great find. I won't say anything about hair on one condition.... Take some pictures of the mechanisim that operates the hammer and post them. The entire assembly sure looks more heavy duty than necessary,but I assume that's why it's still around. There may have been several different dies originally and perhaps you got a mismatched set... there seems to be a lot of options going on with that setup between the top & bottom dies. You need the operators manual.... Enjoy the new tool it sure is a dandy...
April 13, 201214 yr I have been looking at a lot of french hammers and quite a few have that same bottom block assembly so it is not a mismatch.
April 13, 201214 yr Author don't mock the haircut, it is very much like my handsome younger son's, besides what else are you going to do with a head full of naturally wavy hair, put it up in pig tails? Nice looking helve hammer. Looks like it will do some hard work for you. Are you just now installing it in your shop? God Bless you Bentiron, but my hair isn't even particularly wavy, I just happened to have married a woman whose hair-cutting technique has yet to realize its full potential (and I consider men paying for haircuts a true sign of a degenerate society, but I digress). Owen, I thought the same thing about the rings and upsetting on the lower die, but you are looking at some pretty small rings and pretty short bars. It think it is a nod to those functions, in a "selling point" sort of way, while not actually being convincing in either. The dies do indeed go together. This hammer, which was, I believe, manufactured in the 80s, came with a selection of dies, none of which really "match". I will take photos and post them later, along with photos of the mechanism. There is another lower die which, to my eyes, would appear to be the worst possible design in the world, it's a sort of table top. Anyway, you will see it in the photos. -Dan
April 13, 201214 yr Author This morning I have a question. I have attached some photos of the coil springs. They were originally tightened so that the horizontal bars held the helve tight. In the pictures the helve is loose. The springs, one above and one below, are each about 67mm in length. The gap that needs to be closed is abut 28 mm. That means that the springs need to be compressed by about 14 mm each, which is about 20%. That seems like a lot, given that that is their non-working percentage of compression. I understand that a balance needs to be struck between the give of the coil springs (generous) and the give of the leaf springs (very stiff). But the main motivation for my question is that, while I don't know very much about springs, I know that they break, and that these ones are aimed directly at my guts and attached dangly bits. Is 20% overtight for a spring? Will an undertight spring be more or less likely to break? I plan to wrap them in leather, but their vertical orientation might prove problematic as the leather wears, sags, etc. Can anyone think of a more suitable sheathing? Rubber?
April 13, 201214 yr Close fitting rubber hose would work. There is a bolt running thru the center of the spring I think the risk of flying spring fragments is somewhat minimized by this fact. No clue about what would be the proper spring tension. My first instinct would be to try to track down a manual.
April 13, 201214 yr either use rubber hose, drill and tap the top spring cups and bolt the leather to that ...
April 13, 201214 yr Author either use rubber hose, drill and tap the top spring cups and bolt the leather to that ... Excellent idea!
April 13, 201214 yr Author The mechanism works basically like this; the belt goes from the motor to an idler wheel, the same dimensions as the drive wheel. When you push the pedal (or whatever you call it) down with your foot, it is attached to a long bar, which pivots upward at the other end. This in turn... actually, I will post some pictures of the goings-on instead, as I don't know the names of half the little doo-dahs involved; Ready and waiting for sparky to wire her up;
April 13, 201214 yr Author The bar, the spring that keeps it in idle position, the little pivot doo-dah can be seen just below the motor pulley.The belt is on the idle wheel, the funny little metal fork pulls the belt over onto the drive wheel.
April 13, 201214 yr Author The twiddler for adjusting the space between dies which is part of the pole which makes the hammer go up and down. You can also see the the bar that makes the fork go back and forth, with square bronze (brass?) bushings (?).
April 13, 201214 yr Author The thin round bar on the right of the photo above is what connects the action of the fork to the pedal/bar, the ligature of which is seen in the wildly interesting photo below;
April 13, 201214 yr Author a photo from beneath of the three cradles for the two springs and helve. The helve moves independently from the springs, the springs do not move independently of each other.
April 13, 201214 yr Author As you can see, the body is constructed from channel iron, with some sheet bolted on using enormously over sized bolts, to make it look nice. Lastly a picture of the other lower die, a really goofy shape, in my opinion;
April 13, 201214 yr Excellent pics Dan... What a design.. You mentioned this was built in the 80's you don't mean the 1980's ? If that's the case a manual ought to be available for it still. I've searched the internet and found no info on this particular hammer design so far. This is a very interesting helve design and Thanks for sharing. I see the eccentric operates similar to most other designs much like the Hathorn & the Hawkeye helves... I hope it works out for you & I see no reason it shouldn't. I'm really liking the simplicity of the various small helve hammers and will be looking forward to you getting this operational. How's the upright hammer functioning you were working on ?
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