I need to replace the rollers at the end of the spring arms inside the ram of my #7 Beaudry hammer. The hammer runs fine as it is, but the rollers have flat spots from lack of lubrication in the past.
My question is to anyone who has made new rollers for one of these machines: What material did you use? and why? and did you heat treat them? Also did you redress the ellipical track insde the ram at the same time? Any idea what the original factory installed rollers were made of? According to the Beaudry literature the ram itself is cast steel and the rollers were a'' hardened alloy steel''
Any help answering this question would be much appreciated. I'm trying to do it right the first time and get maximum performance out of this fine machine, with minimal down time

My rollers also had flat spots. I used H13 to make new ones and had a machinist friend simply trace the contour of the old parts. He hardened them to 48 Rc and they have held up for many years. Anything hard will work including some of the softer grades of steel if a deep carburization is performed.

If the elliptical opening is not uniform, the hammer will bobble during the stroke due to the change in spring tension. Doesn't have to be perfect but you should try to minimize the problem.