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.

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

 

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........

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)

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

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

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

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.