FlyingXS Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I'm in the process of reorganising my shed and laying out space for all the equipment and future equipment. This got me to thinking about a place to put and possible build of a power hammer.Any thought on which is better the Alpachian design or the tyre hammer design or is there something else better again?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbo7 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 What about a press mate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Tire hammer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Appalachian Hammer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Tire hammer has the best most detailed proven design plans available. App. hammer can be scaled up in size much more easily and is easier to build (and tweak if you are so inclined). Tire hammer fits a smaller footprint but is more top heavy so needs to be bolted down or placed on some sort of base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I participated in building an App hammer at a workshop and so much prefer the engineering of the tire hammer: fewer places for catastrophic failure to occur in use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will52100 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 (edited) Tire hammer. Safer, faster and hits harder than the App hammer I build and eventually scrapped. Not to mention the tire clutch gives a lot better control than the slack belt of the App. hammer. Edited May 1, 2015 by will52100 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I am surprised you didn't find the slack belt clutch to give excellent control. That's the system used on Bradleys and a few other commercial hammers and they have excellent control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I must say that I like the simplisity of tire clutch, and the guided helve hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormcrow Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 If you have the mind to understand circuits and a big enough air compressor to run it, I'd vote air hammer over mechanical. You'll get better control and the ability to change how it hits, depending on the control scheme you use. If you go with mechanical, the guided helve/Appalachian/Rusty/Dusty/Musty/Trusty/Gunnhilda/etc. is the simplest design. It's real simple to put a tire clutch in place of a slack belt clutch. It's also easy to scale up and down to different sizes depending on materials availability and shop space, from about a 15 lb ram up to about 100 lb ram. The Clay Spencer/tire hammer is going to have a smaller footprint if space is a consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arftist Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Slack belt clutches can work great. Vee belts are not the best though. Flat belts make good clutches. What I did was run a jackshaft. The motor turns a jackshaft. The jackshaft has a 16" flywheel on each end. One of these is also a vee groove pulley. The motor runs to the vee belt pulley. In the center is a four inch diameter cast iron flat belt pulley I happened to have in stock. I then crowned the crank pulley and made an idler pulley to tighten the belt. To me this makes more sense than trying to get a tire and the connected weight spinning from the motor shaft itself. The flywheels store energy and release it when the hammer needs to start from a dead stop. Control is excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptree Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Guided helve with a tire clutch. Mine in service since 2002, upgraded several times and now at 70# ram. Working slowly on a 200# version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormcrow Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Ptree's hammer was the biggest inspiration for mine. 200 pounds? Dang, I definitely want to see that! Gonna use a tire clutch on it too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingXS Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 I'm staying away from air, it complicates it too much for me.Feel free to post pics of your hammers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodge Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 I built this one a number of years ago. 10 I think was the number Its about a 35# tup and about 380# to 400# anvil. 1/2 hp 1725 rpm motor with a 21" tire and 3" drive hub equaling aprox. 246 bpm (not counting for friction loss) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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