Attached is a picture of a gentleman in Wuhan China forging out bronze plates.

 

I believe the anvil has a shallow depression, and the die is cylindrical. 

 

Which power hammers could be outfitted as such, besides the self-containeds?  I know some hammers are sensitive to changes in tup weight, stroke, etc.

 

Thanks!

I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you looking for a power hammer you can change dies on? That'd be a yes for most power hammers, especially commercial hammers.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Most types have some adjustability to allow for die differences.  The important thing is to not use dies out of that range.

 

Spring based hammers often have an adjustment on the pitman as well as the spring tension adjustment, Steam hammers are generally engineered to work with the top die all the way down to the bottom die so as long as it's tall enough to keep the top seals in place they will work.

 

As dies are usually made for hammers you just make them the correct height to start with and get on with the job!

I guess I thought that, for example, the Little Giants had rectangular guides which would only allow a comparably small cylindrical die to be installed, since it retracts up into the guide.  But I looked at more pictures and see that the guide is square.

 

Thanks, guys.

You could make a die to do this that would fit most any hammer. You'd need to have a dovetail that matched the hammer, then weld a cyclinder to that. The size of the cyclinder would be a function the the hammer design. With mechanical hammers you will have a much shorter cylinder than what you could get away with on an air hammer.

A lot of hammer ram tooling connections, retract up beyond the bottom of the guide assembly, which I think is a disadvantage for custom dies and operations like you're suggesting. One hammer in production today, that I know of that doesn't is Sahinler, which I think is advantageous. I wish I owned one right now.

I can speak for Iron Kiss Hammers, LLC since I designed and manufacture them.  The bottom die of the Chinese hammer is custom made to have the depression for the bowl shape.  The piece can be fitted to an Iron Kiss bottom die.  The top piece is also custom made and can be fitted to the top die.  Here is how:  The dies from Iron Kiss can be ordered with holes in them for attaching accessories.  A bolt and two straps can be fitted to the forming piece and the straps welded.  Very simple and effective. This approach is superior to use of spring fullers because the top and bottom pieces can be several inches apart when the hammer head is up.

I emailed Little Giant about this, but while I'm waiting for a response, can anyone tell me what the maximum diameter cylindrical die could be installed and still clear the guide?  On a 100 lb.

The guides are not the issue if you're talking about mounting in a location centered on the ram "tup". The frame which the guides mount to is the limitation. On my 100 its ~ 3.25" so you could have a 6 diameter top tool mounted on the center line. I don't know why you'd want to do this however. if you are looking to form bowl shapes then a hydraulic press is a much cheaper, faster, safer and more repeatable option. You can press round sections of sheet or plate into a bowl shape with simple tooling and do it COLD. Form the shape and apply any texture you like after the fact if you like. Otherwise a smaller concave bottom and and convex top tool is what you want I guess. Lots of folks on this site forgot more than I'll ever know about this whole thing so keep asking.

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