How big of a hammer

[Millennial Blacksmith]

Hey, I've been away from this forum for several years, I'm not sure if this question has been asked before. I'm in the market for a power hammer I'm not sure where to start. 

What size hammer would be appropriate, I mostly forge up to 2" 1045 very rarely anything larger. I do some repair work for farm equipment, shoe horses from time to time; and tooling, hammers, axes, knives etc... 

I'm looking at Anyang #33 or #55, Big Blu 65, and of course a good deal on a used one. I could be thinking to small, but maybe a power hammer is better than no power hammer. I was already going to get one but I decided on a #12 Peddinghaus instead. If the tax man is kind it will be around spring. 

Steer me in the right direction I'm mostly ignorant in this area, I want to give my arm a little break =).

[Michael Cochran]

I don't personally have a power hammer but have used one several times at the local group meeting. It's a 25# little giant and it does everything I've needed so far. If I was to be able to buy one and had the proper accommodations for it I'd be looking for a 50# just to be sure I had enough room to grow. I mostly do small stuff including knives and small decorative items and the occasional PW billet. I can't help with brands with my lack of experience with them, sorry. 

[Gergely]

Hi,

If you don't mind me saying: buy the biggest you can afford. 

Before I had my PH, a Hungarian springhammer with a nominal ram weight of 66 pounds, I had total different approach to starting stocks. It helps so much to use it that I've forgotten my earlier limits completely. Also with control you can work on small stuff, too. So buying the biggest will draw your limits further and yet you can manage smaller things.

Although if you work a lot with 5" dia 1045 kind of stocks you might want to consider something around 100# ram weight.

My 2cents, and i'm far from being an expert

Bests:

Gergely

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

To a limit...I know a smith with a 2000 pound hammer, still sitting in his yard last time I was there as it's a bit costly to install and run.  However I'd go up to a 100# hammer without blinking for a hobby shop and 250# for a production shop doing decent sized work.

[Sanderson Iron]

Don't get a self contained air hammer (Kuhn, Sahindler, Chamberserg, Nazel, bla bla bla).  They're terrible machines.  If all you want to do is smash metal between the dies, without using any tooling, and if you always want to hit it at the same speed, then by all means get an air hammer.  But if you want power and control, with variable, controlled blows, get a vertical mechanical hammer.  The worst designed mechanical is more controllable than the best self contained hammer.   

Gee, I don't have opinions, do I?  

[the iron dwarf]

the dies in most cases are the tools and are changable, had 10 pairs with the sahindler, also it is easy to control the force of the blow on it with the foot control, how far down the pedal is will vary the blow from just touching the work anywhere up to the full force ( try that on a mechanical hammer ) also with flat dies you can use spring fullers or other tools quite easily.

yes you have opinions and you are entitled to them but that does not make them right

[matei campan]

well. I heard exactly the opposite mechanical vs self contained, the self contained being more versatile than mechanical. I have seen self contained hammers able to forge either a needle or 4/4inch steel bar. but there are hammers and hammers in each category, from worst to brilliant. there are smiths who own both types of hammers, they complement each other

 

[Sanderson Iron]

Oh, I know I have opinions, and I know other people have different ones.  But then, everyone works differently.   

Mechanical hammers are very, very different animals than air hammers, and like any machine, differences allow different things to be done in different ways.  I would never own an air hammer.  I have never run one which I thought was worth a nickel for what I do.  The range of power you can get from a single speed air hammer is so much less than the range available with an equivalent mechanical hammer.  

Varying the speed is the key.  Kinetic energy is figured by the weight of the object times the square of the speed.  (That's square!)  It follows that if you change the speed, you have a far greater effect on the kinetic energy than if you change the weight alone.  I know the ram's weight stays the same, but that weight is counterbalanced by a cushion of air (in an air hammer) to have the effect of making the ram lighter.  That's all they do--the speed stays constant.  With a mechanical, the ram can be stopped altogether.  That's zero energy!  That cannot be done with a sniffy, always running, pulsing self-contained air hammer which always whaps at one speed.  You cannot reach zero with one of those things and touch the work.  As a consequence, their variation is limited, and so is their range of usefulness, particularly with tooling.  

If all you want to do is strike the metal between the hammer's dies (no tooling), like for drawing damascus or mokume or something like that, then a constant hammering speed could be nice--you can hit hard at 300 BPM or you can hit medium at 300 BPM, but it's always going to be 300 BPM, and you can't go any lighter.  A hundred pound mechanical can strike at 300 BPM, or it can slowly make a single PUSH, like for drifting a hole.  For straightening a bar, I regularly set the ram down gently on a flatter.  Those are just two examples.  No self contained air hammer can make either of those movements.  They cannot go to zero. 

Keep in mind too that a mechanical hammer requires less horse power than an equivalent hammer of any other type.  So if your shop's a bit low on juice, you might want to keep that in mind. 

[beaudry]

I also like mechanicals for the reasons above but to be honest have very limited experience with pneumatic hammers.

That said,  pneumatic hammers seem to be the machine of choice for most industrial shops and professional smiths.

 It seems one of the big advantages of a air hammer is that  a wider range of stock thicknesses or combinations of tooling can be worked efficiently without having to adjust the stroke length.

I've been a professional smith for 20+ years and have always used mechanical hammers, partly from the electrical power limitations of my shop.

My main hammer is a Beaudry Champion #7 [200# ]  with a 7.5 hp, 220v , single phase motor that runs [ sometimes in conjunction with other machines and lights ] with no problems on my 90 amp shop service

 If you are really going to forge up to 2'' steel all the way into the center you are going to need  a hammer with a minimum ram weight of 200#.

Just as important ,you really need to have a forge that will get the material HOT,  and to work it HOT and keep it HOT.

 

 

[the iron dwarf]

quote

Varying the speed is the key.  Kinetic energy is figured by the weight of the object times the square of the speed.  (That's square!)  It follows that if you change the speed, you have a far greater effect on the kinetic energy than if you change the weight alone.  I know the ram's weight stays the same, but that weight is counterbalanced by a cushion of air (in an air hammer) to have the effect of making the ram lighter.  That's all they do--the speed stays constant.  With a mechanical, the ram can be stopped altogether.  That's zero energy!  That cannot be done with a sniffy, always running, pulsing self-contained air hammer which always whaps at one speed.  You cannot reach zero with one of those things and touch the work.  As a consequence, their variation is limited, and so is their range of usefulness, particularly with tooling.  

end quote

 

the piston on an air hammer can move at different speeds, the sahindler I have used did about 220 strokes per minute but with your foot off the pedal the piston hardly moves, as you put your foot down the piston moves further and faster until it hits, it is quite easy to just kiss the surface of the work, then on the next stroke to hit it harder, and the next one harder or back off on the pedal and hit lighter and this is at close to 3 strokes per second.

when running your mechanical hammer continuously at about 3 strokes per second can you vary the force on each stroke?

the piston weight was 50kg ( about 112 pounds ) and that is not just dropped but thrown downwards by the air pressure traveling about 200mm ( about 8 inches ) in about one tenth of a second.

one thing I have in the past practiced was getting a strip of paper on the bottom die and seeing how many strokes I could do with the top die touching each time without making a hole in the paper, you can tell if it is touching as the paper wont move and you end up with a pattern of marks on the paper as you move it around

 

[bigfootnampa]

I have an Anyang 20 pound hammer.  I rarely forge material as large as 2"but I could do it if I needed to.  The 33 is a LOT more powerful!  You could easily forge occasional pieces of 2" steel with it.  Probably a 66 would be better if you forge 2" much of the time!  I am a fan of the Anyang hammers and also of James johnson who distributes them in the U. S.  Durable, reasonably priced, hard working hammers!  I know smiths who have HUGE old hammers set up and working and they are wonderful for appropriate sized material... BUT restoring them to good working order and setting them up to work and then housing and feeding these beasts can be quite a challenge for many of us!  One nearby smith has a giant old Nazel that he bought for practically nothing (actually about 6K I think) but it sits in a shop that cost probably 30K and he spent about 25K to get it set up... doing it on the cheap!  

[Sanderson Iron]

"the piston on an air hammer can move at different speeds, the sahindler I have used did about 220 strokes per minute but with your foot off the pedal the piston hardly moves, as you put your foot down the piston moves further and faster until it hits, it is quite easy to just kiss the surface of the work, then on the next stroke to hit it harder, and the next one harder or back off on the pedal and hit lighter and this is at close to 3 strokes per second."

A good friend of mine has a Sahindler.  It does not offer the slow action that a mechanical has: no push, no slow set, no hold.  Like you described, Mr. Iron Dwarf, multiple blows are the menu.  To get the ram to not move, as you said, your foot has to be off the pedal.  With my 250 pound Murray I can set the ram down on a drift, force it through, lift the ram and be on my way.  They're different animals.   And yes, a mechanical can be adjusted for height differences; an air hammer cannot.  That means that you can set it to run the same for 5" stock as it does for 1/4" stock.  Any air hammer I have run does not strike the same on tall tooling as it does against its dies, but mechanicals are able to. 

I would like to see someone set up a self contained hammer with a variable speed motor and the rheostat connected to the pedal.  I don't know why that hasn't been done.  It would open up so many possibilities and broaden the range of an air hammer significantly.   I'd think a good DC motor would do it. 

That's a very good point, Bigfootnampa--that air hammers are expensive to rebuild.  Another in their long list of negatives: expensive to rebuild, not adjustable, one speed, cannot push, more power required…oh yeah, and the older ones are noisy as all get out; just try talking in a shop with a 200 pound Chambersberg running.  Just out of college I worked for a man with one of those things.  It was a lip reading venture. There were some longer bars for which I ran the hammer with a lever, and he worked the iron.  All communication had to be with signals, because it was so noisy we couldn't hear a thing over that machine.  As you can imagine, it wasn't that successful.  My wife runs my mechanicals for longer bars, and hearing is not a problem. 

Is this helping, Millennial Blacksmith?  Or are we (am I) being annoying?  You haven't said anything since you started this thread.  Guide us, dude. 

[the iron dwarf]

only if your air hammer has only 2 settings on the foot control ( off or full ) all the ones I have seen the control is continuously variable, how far down you have the pedal depends on how hard it hits

[Sanderson Iron]

Yes yes, of course.  But it still cycles at the same rate.  It can cycle and not hit, of course, but your blows are always coming at the built in speed of the hammer, and you cannot make one blow last longer than another--like a five second push, for instance.  Pushing is done with a series of taps, and that's very different.  

Another way to think about it is that they are controlled by holding back the energy rather than by reducing the energy.  It'd be like having a car whose engine always runs wide open, and you control the speed only with the clutch.  It'd be pretty touchy, wouldn't it?  Same sort of thing's true of air hammers that always run wide open. 

[the iron dwarf]

air hammers I have seen do not have a simple on / off foot control though you could have had one specially made for you like that

the cycle time is the same but the speed at which the piston travels varies greatly and air being compressible wants to decompress, more air has more energy so decompresses with more force ( in the case of a compressor air receiver failing it can be explosively ).

yes it is 3 per second aprox, but the acceleration of the piston depends on how far open the valve is, if the piston accelerates faster due to the increased airflow it hits harder hence you can kiss the work or hit it really hard or anything in between on a stroke by stroke basis.

also on the non interchangeability of dies as you stated earlier, the supplier we got it from listed about 20 types and we also had our own machined but we did not have a power hammer for each set, we changed them when needed and frequently have used spring swages and other tools with it with plain top and bottom dies mostly for making the ball shaped tops on stone masons chisels but that cant be done on a self contained hammer because you cant use any tooling with it

[Alan Evans]

Where do I start...All hammers have good and bad points...some a better than others for specific types of work.

On 29/10/2016 at 4:15 AM, Sanderson Iron said:

Don't get a self contained air hammer (Kuhn, Sahindler, Chamberserg, Nazel, bla bla bla).  They're terrible machines.  If all you want to do is smash metal between the dies, without using any tooling, and if you always want to hit it at the same speed, then by all means get an air hammer.  But if you want power and control, with variable, controlled blows, get a vertical mechanical hammer.  The worst designed mechanical is more controllable than the best self contained hammer.   

Gee, I don't have opinions, do I?

I think Sanderson Iron, your Murray hammer either does not conform to the usual laws of physics or you may have overlooked a couple things in your enthusiasm for it.

I recognise many of your arguments from those made by Clifton Ralph when I chatted to him about air vs his Murray hammers. My recollection is that his Murray, after he had modified it by adding a brake, was the closest he could get to the range of actions of a steam hammer.

Much of the versatility you describe I have no problem with, but your one sided view does not necessarily do your cause much good.

It may suit you and your work to have a jack of all trades hammer. Usually multi use tools do not do any one thing well.

Air hammers can only smash metal between the dies? Where do you get that idea? With an 18" stroke length on the 3cwt and a 12" stroke on the 1cwt I can use any normal hammer spring tools, and I have forged, punched, drifted, swaged, stepped, upset bent, rolled under my air hammers with no problem...whether there are better tools to do it with is the question.

Hammers are for hitting. Being able to take any size of workpiece within the capacity of the hammer, and work it effectively is a raison d'etre...a useful attribute of a hammer, not one to be dismissed as you do. Pushing, clamping for drifting etc. is more efficiently done by a dedicated tool such as a Hydraulic press.

Are you really including those double acting air hammers with a plenum chamber which are quite capable of acting as a press over their entire stroke light at exactly the same pressure for drifting or clamping...Have you ever seen anything like a Massey Clear Space at work? You can set the valve so the tup will follow the lever up and down...push it down fast for blow or slow for a squeeze, same pressure behind either, the faster the stroke obviously the harder the strike. Automatic blows, single blows hand or foot control...

You claim your Murray will hit as hard at any height? What range of adjustment and clearance compared to say an equivalent 250lb air hammer which will take a workpiece down from its maximum clearance to paper thin with no down tool time for stroke adjustment.

Your Murray you adjust the top link...but many Air hammers have intermediate "sow" blocks which enable tooling of different heights to be used.

Your Murray will strike full strength blows at any cycling speed? The motor is running at a constant speed so presumably your strike rate is only enabled by slipping the drive clutch and thus reducing the power.  Accelleration of the tup over its stroke has no part in the equation for the Murray?

Is it possible to have fast light blows (which are ideal for lighter section or the thin end of a taper) with the Murray or does the speed reduce along with strike force?

I have an old Blacker mechanical which was capable of the most precise feathered blow for the finishing pass on a piece...far better than any of my air hammers for total repeatability and consistancy of blow....but to get it to that you risked wrecking the workpiece because the first blow would always be almost flat out due to winding up the mechanics to overcome the inertia!

Friend Brian Russell has a Goliath (50lb similar configuration to your Murray) which he drives direct from a donkey engine which does have speed control and he finds that quite useful...but the faster the speed of stroke the heavier the blow, applies to all hammers irrespective of their design.

Alan

 

[Sanderson Iron]

Yeah, I have the same hammer Clifton had.  Shortly after I got it I shared a hotel room with him, and he dazzled my brains.  Then I went home and made my hammer run.  

The Murray and other Little Giant style hammers are able to have their rams raised or lowered.  This raises and lowers the entire cycle, so if you want to hit, say, 3/8" round wide open at 200 BPM and just tap it, you can.  This makes it similar to how an air hammer runs--wide open (speed) and lighter delivery.  You can also lower the ram and hit the same 3/8" bar slowly and lightly.   If you lower it enough (or add a block beneath the work), you can just set the ram down on that 3/8".  See the difference?  The airs can only do the first setting--fast and lighter.  

The Beaudrys and Bradleys and some others can also shorten their strokes.  This is still another adjustment to the control that air hammers don't have. 

It is necessary to stop and make these adjustments, but I would rather be able to adjust my hammer to run the way I want it to than never be able to adjust it at all.  But you're talking about a long adjustment with that sow block change you mention.  Wowsers.  Mechanicals have that feature too, but how many people ever need it?  I'd need a crane to take mine out.  

My 250 has about six inches adjustment on the crank.  That means it can be made to run the same anywhere in that height.  It can, of course, strike much higher, but it has to be done at a slower speed to go light.   The 200 lb Chambersberg could strike higher, but the action was different at the top than the bottom.  I was young then and didn't spend a lot of time on it though. 

Self contained air hammers do have the following advantages: never need to change the ram height (but at the same time, you never can, so that's a negative in my book); they always hit the same speed, which is nice for simple drawing (but as I've said, that limits their low end); they are available new and therefore are in unlimited supply.  So two out of three pluses are also negatives under certain circumstances.  

I didn't mean to say that air hammers can only smash metal between the dies; I meant to say that is what they do best.  They don't have the range of variation or control to be really good at handling tooling, as I've explained. 

Joel

[matei campan]

My airhammer (double action self contained, 63kg ram) wich I hope to install sometime in the near future, could do repeated blows, single blows and could press/clamp the workpiece. before installing that hammer I hope to finish my mechanical tyrehammer and install it. So, hopefuly, I'll have the complementary advantages of both worlds.

 

[the iron dwarf]

58 minutes ago, Sanderson Iron said:

The Beaudrys and Bradleys and some others can also shorten their strokes.  This is still another adjustment to the control that air hammers don't have. 

so a stroke of for example 1/2" up to 8" is not an adjustment and that is whilst it is running

tooling on the air hammers I have seen has mostly either been on the dovetails on the piston and sow block or separate tools like spring swages using plain blocks  in the dovetails and I have had no problem with either.

I did also make a mechanical hammer of about 25lbs and operating as an 'unstable system' this was very effective and as well as a VFD on the 3 phase motor the top spring on the con rod could be adjusted whilst it was on full power, sold it about 3 years ago to a bladesmith and he is delighted with it ( you only had to stop it to adjust the lower spring )

I used it to make copies of 10th century anvils for reenactors

motor 1hp

sow block 125 lbs

rest of machine 112 lbs

hits hard, is very controllable and does not dance around even though it was never fixed down in the years I used it

[Alan Evans]

@  Joel...

You talk of better variation or control, but having to stop forging and adjust between processes or as the size of material alters is an interesting interpretation of what you consider an advantage. It doesn't sound like better control...it sounds like needless adjustment which an air hammer can take in its stride.

Push the start button, press your foot on the treadle appropriately for the tooling and the process that is under the hammer...push the stop button. That is great control.

Even the smaller air hammers which are dedicated forging hammers...as opposed to the Massey marvel...are perfectly able to work a piece of flat bar of extreme dimensions for instance, hitting on either the edge or flat without any adjustment other than the foot pedal. It sounds like you cannot achieve optimum blows for any given dimension or process without adjustment to the throw.

Striking whilst the iron is hot seems a pretty sound maxim...adjusting the hammer throw while the iron is hot does not.

Why would you think it an advantage to reduce the speed of the blows in order to work lighter section? It is precisely then that you need the speed and light blows to keep the metal hot.

Alan

[beaudry]

 It seems as if this is a case of ''different strokes for different folks''

I went the mechanical hammer route when I set up my shop years ago partly because at the time they were the most available and affordable option.

I found that I could also run a larger mechanical hammer on my limited power service than a comparably sized pneumatic.

I also find that I personally  am able to understand the mechanics of the machine better and that adjustments and repairs are more within my capabilities.

I've learned to live with the advantages and limitations of the equipment I have, to keep it well maintained and adjusted properly and  make appropriate tooling to fit.  

I'm really more interested in the shapes and forms I can make with the machines that I have than the technical fine points between  the two schools of thought.

I routinely forge really long tapers that are hollow from end to end under the 4'' x 8'' flat dies on my 200# Beaudry, something that is only possible with a really well mannered  machine.

The hammer was built with mechanical adjustments for both height and speed of the stroke. These however need to be changed while the hammer is at rest.

With the factory clutch and brake it is possible to hit hard or soft  single blows from a dead stop as well as full power blows  feathering out to fine finishing taps to planish the surface.

I think mechanical hammers historically were more of an American invention, while across the pond there were more manufacturers of smaller pneumatic hammers available to smaller shops.

Going back to the original post about the capacity to forge 2'' material, I think it's apparent that it's possible to move the surface of large stock with a light fast hammer, but to really work it all the way to the center is going to require both sufficient mass and power from the hammer.

You can tell if you are driving all the way into the center if the end of the bar is pushed out convex rather than concave.

This capacity isn't so important to non structural ornamental work , but for forged parts that really need to take a load it's essential.

This is an interesting discussion, in my opinion much more so that the usual run of ''what's this beat up old anvil worth ? or how do I make a sword?'' 

 

 

 

 

[bigfootnampa]

I agree Beaudry, about the hammer size and proper penetration of the force.  My 20 pound Anyang is a bit light for 2" stock.  By keeping a high forging heat and striking with maximum force I can handle it though.  One thing that many forget to take into account is that the smaller hammers concentrate their force into a much smaller striking area.  Far from ideal if you want to work big stock in long lengths and do it fast!  NOT a big problem though, if you have only a small amount of such stock to forge on occaision and will be finishing most of it to smaller dimensions as well! My dies are fairly petite compared to those on most hammers and I generally use dies that are shaped like a large cross peen with a slight center flat... which reduces the contact area of my dies even more (versus flat dies) and gives me better penetration of my striking force.

BTW as an interesting side note, the most challenging metal that I have forged to date, on my Anyang, was a piece of 1 1/2" round rod of Monel!!!  That stuff made the little Anyang groan and beg for mercy!!!  I did get a nice ice cream scoop made from it... but I've not been anxious to make more of them!

[Alan Evans]

3 hours ago, beaudry said:

It seems as if this is a case of ''different strokes for different folks''

Different length strokes for different folks?

3 hours ago, beaudry said:

I'm really more interested in the shapes and forms I can make with the machines that I have than the technical fine points between  the two schools of thought.

I agree that is the crucial point, can the hammer do what you need of it? 

I do not think of it in terms of two schools of thought. Any type of power hammer is infinitely better than none....I was just trying to counter Joel's dismissing of air hammers as "terrible machines". The OP is better served with information regarding the differences between them rather than whether one is better or worse. They are all an advantage!

For instance the air hammer stroke operating height range can not be adjusted it is true...but it is neither a negative nor a limitation if the hammer stroke has either the same or more capacity in the first place...if it covers the various ranges of the mechanical hammer without requiring any adjustment.

3 hours ago, beaudry said:

I routinely forge really long tapers that are hollow from end to end under the 4'' x 8'' flat dies on my 200# Beaudry, something that is only possible with a really well mannered  machine.

That is the lovely thing about power hammers, trouble is you then need a long heat source and then a crane or support system to really make full use of it....it doesn't stop with the investment in the hammer!  

This is last week's taper, forged ("smashed between the dies")  from 316L stainless steel single handed under an air hammer. 2330mm (7' 8") long from 50mm (2") square with a Ø50mm hole punched under the hydraulic press.

No stroke adjustment required from 71mm (2³/₄") down to 18mm (¹¹/₁₆")...

3 hours ago, beaudry said:

You can tell if you are driving all the way into the center if the end of the bar is pushed out convex rather than concave.

I just love that generous tell-tale...on this project, as I usually do, I calculated the volume and forged the taper so that I could leave that convex tip showing.

Alan

[JNewman]

Count me in to the air hammer camp.  Tomorrow or Tuesday I have a connecting link to forge.  The 1045 stock I have is a little under size in section so I will have to upset it slightly probably into a swage to round the corners so I don't have to cut them off later.  I then have to fuller the bar and draw the one end down to  octagon and then swage it round.  With a mechanical hammer I would have to adjust the ram to the extreme top of the stroke for the upsetting.  Then adjust it to do the fullering and forging to octagon and then either put up with the hammer not being adjusted properly for the swage or have to adjust it again.  With the Massey I have no adjustments to make. 

Saying that an air hammer is not suitable for using with tooling is ludicrous.  Probably 95% of the forgings I do involve tooling used under the hammer either hand held or held with a hardy hole cage.   Any of the self contained air hammers I have used had very fine control.  Some of the mechanicals not so much.  I realize many have added brakes to hammers and many hammers came with brakes to achieve similar levels of blow control.  The ability to adjust the ram to allow faster light blows is certainly an advantage but  personally I feel not having to adjust the ram to forge different  heights outweighs that advantage.  I have some coke oven chisels I forge where often in the first heat I partially flatten the stock then check it, draw it out, cut it off, swage it and finally upset it in a bolster sometimes on top of the swages so I can get it done while I still have heat.  I am forging down to 1" and  then in the same heat I am forging something about 7" high,  11 if I do it on top of the swages.  I could not do that with a mechanical hammer.

It took me 2 heats in this video but I  did not have to adjust the hammer between heats.  I normally have 2 of these on the go at a time one in the forge while I am forging the other constantly adjusting the hammer would really slow me down.

A home built utility hammer like a Kinyon, Iron kiss, Big Blue etc. do have the speed  adjustability  a mechanical hammer has and in many such as the iron Kiss or my smaller hammer they can be adjusted in seconds.  That being said most of the mechanical hammers will outlast most of these type of hammers in heavy duty commercial use. 

Any power hammer will change the way you work and can be used to turn out fine work and every hammer has its advantages and disadvantages.

Allan that is a beautifully clean looking forging.

[beaudry]

 I think that after a while  you get to know the strengths and limitations of the machines in your shop and you begin to design your work to take advantage of those capabilities.

Every  hammer that I've run [ not many, aside from my own three ] seem to have a distinct ''personality''  in how they perform.

Maybe this is why I like it so much and forging has such a feeling of being a living process.