I can't do a search for air tools on here (must be 4 letters) so wanted to know if any smiths are incorporating air tools, such hammers into your smithing. I was thinking an air hammer with different shaped chisels might come in handy or that small air grinders might be easier to use than larger electric angle grinders.

Use the tools you have, if that be air tools then use them.  I've tried small air chisles before, they were too hard to control.  It would do a quick texturing job though. 

Air (steam) actually predates electricity in shops by several decades. Everything from palm air nailers, to air chisels, to huge rivet hammers have been used as repousse' and hot work tools.

 

Rotary air tools come in the same range of sizes. Tiny high speed engravers with 1/16" diamond burrs, 1/8"  to 1/2" shaft die grinders, 3" to 9"  disk right angle grinders. 

 

What kind of work are you planning to do? Miniature knife embellishment, multi-ton sculpture, something in between?

If you want to use something like a muffler gun or chipping hammer weld a T handle onto the shaft of the chisel in order to steer it.  

try doing a search for zipmax  ;)

I have the opportunity to select a gift as a recognition from work, but you have to choose from their catalog (not that I'm complaining, glad to have a good job much less get some recognition for doing it well). At any rate, I of course went straight to the tools :) .  There's a 2hp 6 gal compressor that I thought might come in handy as I don't have one now other than a little 12 volt. I also thought I could add some air tools, it'll supply 4 cfm at 90 psi.

 

AS far as what I had in mind, that depends on when you ask me LOL.  I was thinking with the hammer/chisel texturing might be one option, didn't know if there would be enough control to maybe punch, or upset small stock, etc. I also wanted a couple set ups for wire brushes, flap disk, grinding wheels so I'm not switching around all the time. I'm not working with large stock as of yet, typically 1" sq or smaller. And yes I am making some knives as well.

 I also thought I could add some air tools, it'll supply 4 cfm at 90 psi.

Even hand held air tools can use ALOT of air. 4cfm will not keep up with most of them. Imo you'll need at least double 4cfm to efficently operate many air tools.....grinders especially.

It is one of those things I have been meaning to get around to doing in my shop.  Think of an air hammer as the chisel and hammer combined into one.  There have been many smiths who have used air hammers with great effect.  One of which being an old guildy of mine. 

A guy near me makes these.  Someday maybe I will have one. :D

         KZ100 Power Hammer inTreadle Hammer mode     

I use my air tools all the time.  I really need to make some more bits for the hammer though.  

The first guild meeting I ever went to had cris rand and another guy heating up a 1 inch? square bar of aluminum and punch drifting a hole through it in one heat with an air hammer and a combo punch drift.  They can be very useful especially for decorative stuff but also if you have a lot of holes to punch or leaves to vein any repetitive task can be done nicely with air tools.

There was a video somewhere but I can't find it right now.  This guy uses all air tools to do some decorative forging of animal heads if I remember right  It was a really cool video I just can't seem to find it.  

GREAT vids!

Dave

If you haven't descoverd it yeat, most chisels and hammers these days are to soft, often to thick and of the wrong profile. This includes air chisels. Be prepared to reforge and heat treat them as well as make them. Air hammer tooling is great practice for drawing down, shouldering etc to dimension

You can bypass the word restrictions if you do a search on Google or some other search engine and type in "Iforgeiron" as part of the  search term.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=google&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=iforgeiron+air+tool&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial

 

I use this frequently to locate threads I've done in the past when site searches are either to vague or won't pull up a thread I know I did in the past.

macbruce - I thought the little air compressor would be a bit anemic for any serious use, but it got me tho thinking about air tools, and I figured it was better than the other options I had to choose from.

 

Stephen - Thanks for posting the videos, I wasn't thinking air tools when you posted the first one on my torch thread, didn't even notice him using one.

 

Charles - I assumed I would need to make the tooling to meet my needs.

 

DSW - thanks for that tip

or use "'s in the search box as in ...."air tool"

Greetings Ed,

 

The use of air tools is only limited by your imagination..  This equipment is something I designed a few years ago ..  It incorporates an air chisel ( highly modified ) and a hydraulically controlled base that moves up and down..  I used it mostly for chase and repousse cold work.  The big advantage is being able to control the work depth and air hammer intensity at the same time..  This is way over the top to what you have in mind but it may open some doors ..  Also just a few tools I use...   What ever you come up with use caution ..  Ear and eye protection a must...  I call my machine the Bumblebee hence the color...

 

Forge on and make beautiful things.

Jim