? adding weight to new style Kinyon tup?

[territorialmillworks]

Building another hammer, this time a Kinyon Mark II. Most builds use 4X4 sq tubing for a 40# ram but others add weight for as much as an 80# ram. Seems that at some point there is a trade off between kinetic energy and speed. But my main concern is 'control'. I've upgraded this hammer with a 3/4" control valve and plumbing along with an additional 80 gal air tank. So I'm not concerned with starving this hammer.
I'd appreciate any thoughts/suggestions.....Keith

[macbruce]

Too much weight will make it sluggish, and could perhaps give it a heavier blow but when you're doing finishing work the slower speed is a pain when you want to wrap things up quickly. Too light of a ram and it will be too snappy but it will respond better to air pressure changes. A correct balance will give nice hard blows and snappiness with a noticeable difference in performance/bps between say 80 psi and 120psi.

[SJS]

Another concern is anvil to tup ratio, if you don't have enough anvil to support a bigger ram, some of your increased energy from the bigger ram will be wasted bouncing the anvil and the hammer around. Good designs are balanced, look over at
http://www.anvilfire.com/power/power-hammer-building.php
the chambersburg anvil ratio chart is particularly useful. It is tempting to try to squeeze just a little more bang out of your budget and materials, but it is often disappointing, if not disastrous.