Hi Everyone

 

I am soon taking delivery of a new 15kg/C41 AIr Hammer. I have received the following guide (see photo) from the company with regards to installing a foundation but I have an issue with my landlord being fussy about me putting in a foundation.

 

What else can I do? I want to ensure the hammer is secure yet does not crack the existing floor. It is not a very big hammer so does it need a foundation?

 

Would a wooden base/block or maybe rubber matting work?

 

Rich

 

 

 

A foundation is there to provide extra mass.  I don't know how high the dies are  for your hammer, but a lot of the smaller hammers need to be raised a little anyways.   Build an above ground foundation.  The heavier the better. 

Good Morning,

 

I have a 4' x 8' - 8" high concrete block (that I poured, with the form sitting on the shop floor. Plastic sheet membrane on the bottom). On top of the bottom block, I have a 2' x 4' - 12" high block that the Kuhn 110 lbs. hammer sits on. When I put the re-bar in the blocks, I put 4 pieces of "DYWIDAG" Rock Anchor rod, poking up from the bottom block and going through plastic sleeves in the top block to tie the 2 blocks together.  I made it this way in 1998, so that it is portable. I have conveyor belt under the foot of the anvil and between both blocks. There has been no cracking of the concrete yet (I can't remember if they put fibres/strands in the mix or not).

 

I have moved it around the shop to different locations a few times and the surface of the shop floor is not marked or chaffed, still shiney.

 

Neil

Throw one of those recycled rubber horse stall mats under it.  Will provide some cushion and also won't try to walk around during use.

I have a 34KG air hammer.  It's sitting on a 20mm plywood board, which is sitting on a 10mm piece of rubber.

I want to ensure the hammer is secure yet does not crack the existing floor.

 

 

 

Not knowing the condition of an existing floor can present difficulties in preventing cracks. If the sub base settled under the concrete and the floor isn't thick enough to span the void and carry the load, it will crack. There's no really good way to know what the floor is like, but if it sounds hollow it's probably not a good candidate for this.

 

I've seen this condition often in garage floor slabs and occasionally in commercial floors where the floor is poured over fill. Many times they just push the dirt in and don't do much if any compaction before the floor is poured. Then when the dirt settles, you end up with a hollow. Often in garage floors of tract homes, the floor is poured pretty thin to keep costs down, or they add a ton of water to the mix to get it to flow out and make it easy to pour, but much weaker,  and that also presents problems.

 

Spreading out the mass/shock over as big an area as possible is the best way to prevent an issue. A steel plate or large heavy wooden structure can transfer the load over a large area and help limit the chances of cracking due to a poor floor.

I have a Chambersburg 300lb self contained on the oak shipping pallet it came on. (thank you U.S. govt.surplus sale) IT weighs 10,000 lbs and I stuffed 8 inches of oak timbers under the pallet and have it on a 6 in. concrete floor in my shop. Floor wwas poured in 2002 with a little more rebar under the hammer area. Still no cracks or any problems yet. Put some horse trailer mat under it and go for it. Smokey 07

You asked a very loaded question.. Are you located on a sand bar, river alluvium, old lake bed, volcanic plug, desert, rainforest, over a subway, etc. You cant expect a good answer for your personal location by someone who lives somewhere else.  I think i read that most hammer foundations are based upon building on river alluvium, because historically, most industry sprang up by the rivers.  If you decide to just mount the hammer on the shop floor with some belting underfoot, consider cutting in to the slab a couple inches around the perimeter of the hammer.  If it decides to chunk out the concrete and settle in, it will do so in it's own sandbox, and leave the rest of the floor unfettered. You can pour a new foundation in the old cracked out area.

I have known a guy that used railroad timbers n rubber horsemat under his n it was a little giant25lb hammer. I recently made a 18" 4'×4' fiber concrete n rebar n haven't found the perfect hammer yet.
A guy told me that most stress goes downward which makes sense, but I don't have a real experience just yet. Good luck,,, I envy your find,lol later Ty

Just finishing up the base for my 25#LG. 6x6's and 1/2" plate on top. Probably ends up around 275#-300# worth of base. I'll bolt the hammer through the base.

Greetings Frogman,

 

Looks to me like the base plate is out of square on one side by .00000000001..   Please make the correction..

 

 

You know who...

Jim, I will do my best to correct the situation.... :)

About 3' deep for a 140 lb hammer. After using it a few years, it should have been larger. It move a little with heavy blows.

 

What make (manufacturer) is the hammer?

 

I have a bit of experience with the C41 machines. I have found with the small ones, the simplest way to stop them transmitting vibration is to not bolt them down. Ie, put them on a nice heavy fabricated base full of concrete.

 

If its not pinned to the floor, its very unlikely to crack it. 

 

You may need to put a couple of pegs into the floor around the perimeter of the base to stop it 'walking' when its running.