25LB Mayer Bros Safety/Maintenance Questions

[Augus7us]

Hey Folks,

My first post, not for lack of trying though, seemed my account was messed up and couldn't get it resolved until the site upgrade. Which is great because I just bought my first power hammer, a 25LB Mayer Bros of unknown age and need your expert assistance!

My primary concern is what should I know in terms of safety? I haven't wired it up and played with it myself yet but I did get to fire it up before I bought it and it seemed to run great. So far I haven't found any welds, cracks or obvious signs of wear or potential failure. Are there any parts or pieces I should check? Is there a site out there detailing this? I did a search on here and couldn't find much.

Something else I was curious about was the cages I see built around the spring. What do you guys think of these? Are they a necessity or is it an extra precaution? I have more but less pressing questions but I'll save those for later in an effort to keep this on the shorter side, and no doubt some will be answered as I continue to read up on them. Thanks

-Clint

 

[ThomasPowers]

 

do you have a copy of "The Little Giant Powerhammer: Rebuilding, History, Use" by Richard R Kern?

[Judson Yaggy]

Add a brake, build a cage around the arms and slip a piece of big truck radiator hose around the spring, when they go sometimes they go in FAST LITTLE shards.  Do you have the bottom die and key?

[Augus7us]

 

do you have a copy of "The Little Giant Powerhammer: Rebuilding, History, Use" by Richard R Kern?

​I've heard about it but long before I actually bought one and it never crossed my mind. Just ordered a copy!

Thanks Judson, the previous owner actually added a break so I have that covered. Would stores like autozone or napa carry that type of radiator hose? After doing some more reading I'm definitely building a cage. I do have the bottom die, forgot to grab it out of the truck when I unloaded it.

[Black Frog]

With hefty motors mounted above the hammer (which yours looks like) be sure you have it well secured to either the floor or a base with a wider footprint.  Some rubber stall mat or conveyor belting layer makes a good cushion layer.  25's can get tippy in action once they start getting a motion resonance going, especially if they have the extra top heaviness of the hefty motor up high!

[Frosty]

This is the scatter shield I put on my 50lb. LG. The spring has a good coat of paint on it for two reasons. First I painted all the potentially dangerous pieces red, Second is as an indicator. If a piece of steel, iron, etc. develops a crack the paint not being flexible will start to flake or peel at the failure. I like to be able to see the spring so I can give it a quick eyeball before using it. Happily this spring is only a few years old so it SHOULD be good for a few decades of heavy use.

Being painted is a little hedge against surprise failures but NOTHING always works so there's the scatter shield. It's 3/4" grizzly screen and tough as nails strong. Still, little splinters can pass through so it's not 100%. Wearing safety glasses in my shop is a must for everybody closer than about 20' to the action. My preference being, put them on when you walk in the door, unfortunately I sometimes get a parent who just wants to sit and watch from across the shop so I'll give them a pass.

Putting hose on the spring itself is an excellent scatter shield, about as close to 100% as I'm willing to believe. Radiator hose that size might be hard to find so talk to the guys at the firehouse, they have really high standards for fire hose and rarely use it more than a couple times before replacing it. Fire hose makes an excellent scatter shield and you can slit it and wrap it rather than have to take the spring out to slip it over.

You can also go to a fabric shop and buy some canvas weight Kevlar fabric. Wrap a couple three layers around the spring and wire or stitch it closed. Just leave some slack so it can move, the spring will eat anything attached too tightly in use.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Augus7us]

Thanks Guys,

Frosty I saw pictures of yours while I was searching here. You did a really good job, it looks sharp! Is there anything holding the the bottom of your cage on or is it just bolted on the top?

I like the paint idea also and think I'm going to borrow that one as well! Thanks again!

[Frosty]

It's mounted on the top pivot bolts for the arms and just floats with the action. I replaced the stock bolts with lag bolts and used a die to run the threads down so the scatter shield acts like a washer on the arms but doesn't cause excess friction.

It's not a containment shield, were the spring to shatter shards would be free to travel backwards and do some ricocheting but a person without safety glasses on isn't going to even be IN my shop with power tools running. Well, MAYBE the cut off band saw or rock tumbler but I I like to live on the edge.

Frosty The Lucky.