Electric Breaker hammer for Forging?

[trinculo]

Has any one use an electric breaker hammer like this to forge with?

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/11-amp-120-volt-breaker-hammer-68150-8069.html

 

I've seen some impressive forging with similar sized pneumatic hammers and was wondering how the electric one would work.

 

 

[macbruce]

Those electric tools are either ON or OFF. Pneumatic hammers have  FINE control which makes all the difference in the world in controlling what you are forging.......... A waste of time and money imo.

[jmccustomknives]

I once tried a small pnumatic chisle, it was uncontrolable.  Just jumped around on the hot metal.  I'd suspect trying to use that would result in similar results.  Now a air hammer modified insome kind of frame where one would work it like a traditional power hammer might just work.

[ThomasPowers]

Except that the throw on those things is very small and so you would need to be adjusting the throat distance constantly while using it in a frame as a traditional power hammer.  We've discussed this at length before.

 

Wher I have seen this sort of thing used is hand held for repousse and dishing and generally with the smaller pneumatic ones.

[trinculo]

Thanks Bruce, kinda what I suspected with the control.

 

Do you have any recommendations for a good midsize pneumatic hammer?  

What sort of BPM, stroke and CFM ranges make for good forging hammers?

 

I also was thinking about putting a treadle supply to control the air.  

[trinculo]

Was thinking of using this freehand and not frame mounted like the zipmax.  More for rivet heading, bob punches and things like that.

 

Something along the lines of this size.

 

[macbruce]

Thanks Bruce, kinda what I suspected with the control.

 

Do you have any recommendations for a good midsize pneumatic hammer?  

What sort of BPM, stroke and CFM ranges make for good forging hammers?

 

I also was thinking about putting a treadle supply to control the air.  

They come in many sizes and shapes, from the little pistol grip .410's to the hefty D handle jobs that take .680 round or 3/4'' hex. Above that you may as well get a PH. It's all about bore and stroke and what you want/need to do........Here's my arsenal of hand held jobs and that C frame thingy in the background........

[macbruce]

Yeah, Sipola has it down............Just thought I'd add an experiment i tried awhile back...........It lives in the weeds now, a C frame i built for my big hand held job........It did work after a fashion but it was a pain to control and operate even with a foot pedal. I figured my little air PH did everything and more with less noise and wear tear on me than this flop.......Nothing ventured, nothing gained...... B)

[ThomasPowers]

Sell it to an armourer as the start of a power planisher!

[macbruce]

Sell it to an armourer as the start of a power planisher!

The Zip already does that...... B)

[Stephen Olivo]

I keep thinking about setting up to use air hammers as I have seen punch/drifting and slit/drifting done with them as well as a bunch of face work or animal heads.   One of the smiths who used to live near me used them quite a bit and through some of the stuff he has done showed me how useful they can be.  Here he is using some air hammers.