Source for rubber mat

[blksmith247]

What is a good CHEAP source for antivibration rubber mat. MSC has some that I tink would work but it is $100 a linear foot. That would put me at $500 to put a mat under my hammer. I am trying to reduce as much of the hammers vibration as possible. I have a 120lb anyang air hammer. Anyang recommended to cut a whole in foundation and pour a two foot thick footer for the hammer, which I have done. What are some cheaper solutions for expensive rubber mats?

[ptree]

Heavy urathane conveyer belt.

The best hammer mat is "Fabrika" Mat made in Germany for the purpose. Very Very expensive, but works and lasts.

My 70# homebuilt hammer sits on a scrap of urathane conveyor belting and has since 2002.

[yesteryearforge]

Tractor Supply has several thickness of ruber stall mats that they cut to any length you need

pretty reasonable too.

[bigfootnampa]

I agree with the idea of the stall mats.  They are available at many farm and tack suppliers.  Pretty dense and reasonably priced.  We use them for our horse trailers to give a nonslip surface for the horses and they like the sound better than the hollow sound of wood planks. 

[timgunn1962]

Heavy urathane conveyer belt.

The best hammer mat is "Fabrika" Mat made in Germany for the purpose. Very Very expensive, but works and lasts.

My 70# homebuilt hammer sits on a scrap of urathane conveyor belting and has since 2002.

 

I think the correct spelling is "Fabreeka" (not wishing to sound like the pedant I probably am, I only mention it because Googling "fabrika" gave no hits on the stuff and no "did you mean...")

 

Conveyor belting seems to work, though I don't know how it compares to the proper stuff. I've taken out machines that have been installed on the cheap using whatever rubber was available at the time; either conveyor belting or some sort of solid rubber mat. On a fair number, the rubber mat seemed to have "flowed" under pressure and was doing little or nothing of any use. The rubber and canvas conveyor belting at least tended to stay in place. I've not really encountered stall mats to know what they are like.

[nonjic]

hmmm, I would think that a Fabreeka pad is to dense for the light hammer, and will not attenuate much vibration at all (brilliant for under the anvil of a serious hammer though) - I spend an eye watering amount of money with them every year !

 

I would worry about horse stall mat being to bouncy, but im sure it would do the job. (sometimes the frequency of the hammer and the mat get a jiggle on and it will try and rip the anchors out)

 

If it was my hammer I would go for 3 or 4 strips of 'Tico S' pad 4" wide x 1/2" thick. Its not cheap either, but miles less than the fabreeka. You dont need 100% base coverage (read up the loadings the stuff will take!). Make sure you use washers made of the same material under the steel washers of the hold down bolts, otherwise you will just be transmitting the vibration down through the bolts.

 

If your Anyang is on a factory fabricated base the first thing you should do is fill it with concrete, or sand.

[ptree]

Yep Fabreeka, I am both dislexic and was "Pre-Coffee" :)

The Fabreeka I has experience with was under 5000# and up closed die hammers. I have even seen it pulled from service and resold for reuse.

The urathane conveyor belt I used is about 1/4" thick, pretty hard, and has held up well, and the free price for the scrap was quite good:)

Our hammers at VOGT had a unique installation issue as the shop location was on an alluvial plain of sorts, in an ancient oxbow bend of the mighty Ohio river. We had river silt and pebbles to small boulders down about 90'. Then a roughly 2 by 3 mile hunk of flat limestone floating on some more silt. We had to run concrete down to rock using augers to dig and displacing the water with concrete. Once up to say 20' from floor we made a massive concrete pad then 12" square timber cribbing for the sub plate and then anvil. The wood would compress with time and occasionally(20-30 years) had to be replaced.

 

Talk about a job, on the 25,000# Erie, First remove the 6" steam header and condensate lines, unbolt and pull the cylinder, then the side bolsters, then the sow block, then the anvil has to be lifted. Our overhead crane was too small for the anvil, so a railroad crane was used to lift the anvil, then the subplate and finally the cribbing. Messy, what with all the grease and oil and dirty water.

[nonjic]

I know why they put the forges on the sides of rivers in the old days, but it does make for a lot of work now ! Im working on re-foundationing and re-installing a 10,000# one at the moment - the new lump of concrete is getting on for a couple of hundred thousand bucks ! :D

[ptree]

John N, Vogt had been originally formed around 1860 as Sulzer Vogt, and Henry Vogt bought out Sulzer. Then he sold off his elevator Biz to Otis Elevator and used the $$$ to move uphill from the nearby Ohio River. in 1903 when he built the first shops at 10th and Ormsby in what then was the south of Louisville KY, he had been getting flooded by the Ohio at the previous location every few years. The new location was in the farm land then south of Louisville, but now is considered downtown:)

The up hill location was just far enough, as the great 1937 had its high water mark just inside the front gates. The Front office building had the basement flooded an a couple of inches inside the first floor, but the vital factories were high and dry.

In fact the only powerhouse dry in Louisville was the VOGT powerhouse, and electrical lines were rigged to power a bread bakery and a hosipital nearby, making the only electricity in Louisville.

The Ohio river is now dammed at the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, and floodwalls built higher than the 1937 flood, the highest in occupied history at Louisville. The Ohio is about a mile wide at downtown Louisville. The Ohio actually flows somewhat UNDER Louisville moving thru the silt sand and gravel. Many of the high rise buildings use cold water extracted from the underground flow to cool the buildings.

We had to auger down and pour back up for every crane way column and we had many many overhead cranes several of 150 tons.

[WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith]

I used a good adhesive chaulk under my 155 Big Blu.  Makes it hit harder because of no movement and it does not walk.  I used a masonary saw to cut thru the 4" slab to isolate the vibration and filled the cut with more caulk to keep it from filling with scale.