matto Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 here is my thought.... i have had this thought for a couple of years now. the part of my business that is paying the bills is concrete flat work. and as most concrete people we replace old drives side walks and ect.. well we have to remove the old concrete to put in the new concrete. so i'm sitting in the skid steer breaking out drive after drive thinking because breaking out concrete is kind of boring after awhile, so you think a lot. so my thoughts tend to drift to tools and blacksmithing sence that is what i am always thinking about. then a light bulb went on, i wonder if i can use my concrete breaker to cold form some big bowls or sculptures? i wonder how thick of metal i could form? flat out i wonder if it will do it? when the breaker hits on concrete there is so much force. my thought is will it work, to put a sheet on the ground (dirt) and see what happenes or put it on a rubber stall mat on the ground and go to town. will it hurt the breaker? so i have a call in to the company that makes the breaker to see what there engineers think, my thought is it will work, you would think there will be less force hotting steel on the ground than tring to get the first breaks in concrete. (depending on how thick steel is) so we will see, just a thought while bored. if i try it i will picture it all happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Steel is harder than concrete... still I think it could work. You could use an old stumpy bit for tooling. A fairly dry bed of clean clay would (maybe) make a decent stand in for a giant pitch pot. Working iron cold is pretty limiting though. Copper! PRICEY!!!! Cold working copper is much easier though. Aluminum might be useable also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jawno Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I'm pretty sure this has been done. I can't cite any references but I do remember reading about it a couple years ago. They were forming sheet metal though so maybe not as thick as you were thinking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin W Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Hey Matto, NICE. I know it can be done with copper and a hand held breaker. Can't remembr the artists name , but he blogged about making a monumental piece for the wall of a mall ( in Canada I think ) over at artmetal. The thing was huge, maby 30' tall and he spoke a lot about all the stuff he put on and in his boots as he was standing on the sheet . Is the breaker your talking about on the skid steer ? I could see driving up to a giant sand box with a half a sheet of mild steel on top of the sand and just going to town. Good fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knots Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Do you use one of these 90 lb compressed air jack hammers or a new fangled electric units ? Seems like it would be kind of hard to control unless it is compressed air and the air pressure varied to modify the strike force. Since steel work hardens, it seems like you would come out with something more like train wreck damaged metal than a bowl. However maybe you can start a new school of sculptural art. There was a NOVA program on ship wrecks last night on TV. At one point they showed underwater shots of the twisted/ gathered shapes ripped out of the Costa Concordia hull. There were long strips of the hull ripped out and gathered into shapes that were quite sculptural. You never know what will come out of an effort until you try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Jackhammers are either on or off....No fine control. Without control power is useless in my book. Large chipping hammers have the control and work well at forming/forging for that reason.....my2cw.... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matto Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 here are a couple of pictures. i just tried it this morning. it is alittle biger than a 90# air hammer. this is 3/8" plate 26"x18 1/2" here is the dish as macbruce stated it is alittle hard to control but i think with a rubber mat i won't drag the piece as much.this is 3/16" much easier to work would not go any smaller, here is the dishplate size is 22"x18" i will post pictures of the finished dishes when i get them done. there will be alittle hand work on them to get the finished dish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Jackhammers are either on or off....No fine control. Without control power is useless in my book. Large chipping hammers have the control and work well at forming/forging for that reason.....my2cw.... :) Yes, but you don't have to push so hard... Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pault17 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I really like the first shot with the front wheels off the ground. nice... skidloaders can be so much fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Without being able to feather the throttle I'll pass, and jackhammers ain't cheap. I can easily do bowls/shapes that big of 3/16 cold in my PH's I wouldn't care to try 1/4 cold but I could......... Anyhow after operating on of those beasts last summer I hope I never see another, Good luck with the sculpture Matto..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knots Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Now I get the picture. The jack hammer is mounted on the skid steer. That is a creative use of available resources. What you have is a giant Zip Max. Keep us posted on your progress with the sculpture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matto Posted April 20, 2012 Author Share Posted April 20, 2012 here are two pictures of the 3/8" cold formed plate sculpture so far here is what i have done with the 3/16" cold formed plate macbruce you would be shocked on the control you have with a skid steer. i can hit super light or super hard. plus you have the weight of the loader to help you float or sink your blows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 macbruce you would be shocked on the control you have with a skid steer. i can hit super light or super hard. plus you have the weight of the loader to help you float or sink your blows. Sounds like you've come up with something, I hope you're wearing ear plugs and headgear.... I'm glad I not within a quarter mike of that, I'd sooner put up with explosive forming nearby....But I LIKE explosions.... B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Guys have been using jack hammers to form steel for quite some time, probably since they were invented. You actually have quite a bit of control at the throttle, you can make them just buzz or vibrate on the bit, hit softish, or fast and hard. We had one at work you could do single blows with and it was a big beast of a hammer. The concrete breakers for mounting on equipment are even better controlled, we rented on for a back hoe and it'd do all kinds of good stuff, even slow hard push. I was thinking it'd be a pure treat as a log splitter. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 The concrete breakers for mounting on equipment are even better controlled, we rented on for a back hoe and it'd do all kinds of good stuff, even slow hard push. I was thinking it'd be a pure treat as a log splitter. Frosty The Lucky. Well I stand corrected.....:-)......The one I used last summer was electric and I tried running it for an hour or three busting conctete stairpans before my age got the better of me. I wised up and told my son it was his job and I did the welding. I recently tried using a .680 round chipping hammer in a C frame and sucked. I realized I could do whatever it did way better in the PH's with way better control, fun experiment though......... I like that log splitter idea..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I'm with you there, I HATE electric jack hammers, they're really heavy and don't hit worth spit. I don't really have that much jack hammer time but you can't work for DOT Highways Maintenance without getting to know the things. The pneumatic jacks were WAY better, lighter, easier on me and busted things smartly. I wouldn't own one though, not even to form steel. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grant Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Matt-O I'm glad you are making good use of your time. I think you are on to something - you should develop this into a new "fold-forming" technique or as an adjunct to Corky's Repousse. Either way it will make one grand DEMO. -grant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Fold forming! That's a good possibility for sure. Look around Bill Roberts does fold forming with his power hammers and has developed some darned cool stuff. He's on IFI somewhere or has a web site. Sorry I don't have it bookmarked or I'l shoot a link, it's not a secret though. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matto Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 I really need to build some dishing blocks out of some logs. So I can get deeper dishes and stops to go against to start a crease. O finished another one today out of a quarter inch piece of plate. Went alittle wild on it. My mother in law thinks it is alittle to sci-fi. I will get a pic of it and post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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