power hammer treadle design

[beaudry]

 I was going to put this in the ''How big a hammer thread'' but thought it might get lost and distract from that interesting and worthwhile discussion.

It seems that a big part of how much control a power hammer has [ either air or mechanical ] is often a factor of how well the foot treadle is designed.

My hammers have all been raised  from 4'' -6'' on timber riser blocks  with the hammer secured with heavy bolts passing through the riser into the concrete foundation.

This raises the dies to a much more  comfortable height [ for me ] and I think the hammer benefits from a slight cushion between the frame and anvil and the concrete foundation block.

I built these riser blocks from glued and through bolted pressure treated douglas fir glulam beams. 

The riser block is cut in the same shape as the footprint of the  hammer at the front business end  and is banded with 1/8'' steel flat bar to protect the wood.

The wood sticks out about an inch beyond the footprint of the frame.

All this means is that  factory treadle is too high, so I welded  short extensions bars down a few inches and welded a flat bar section curved to follow the shape of the treadle to act as a foot pedal. 

This extends around to the front and side of the hammer so I can work either direction, across the width or along the length of the dies.

I designed and built this modification to the treadle , so that when the treadle is full down the hammers is at full sped and power.

To operate the hammer, I stand comfortably upright on both feet with my  right foot forward and the heel solidly on the ground while I operate the treadle with the toe of my boot.  This means I am always  in a solid   stance and can concentrate on the work at hand instead of trying to stay in balance while  standing on one leg.

By operating the treadle with my toe, I can lengthen my stance to get back a bit to handle long bars and still be comfortably in balance. 

To back off on the speed or power or stop the blow , I just have to lift my toe while still  standing on both feet .

Since my forge shop has dirt floor, I found it necessary to solidly bed a timber block at grade  at the locations where my heel rests so that there is a consistent height and feel. 

Before I did this my heel would slowly grind a depression in the floor so that I was having to constantly adjust my stance.

I've seen hammers set up with a number of different ways to operate the treadle, but this one works best for me.

I'm curious how other people have set  their treadles up and how it works or not .

 

 

[Alan Evans]

I have done the same.

My hammers are raised and the treadles dropped for the same reason of being kinder to your back and  keeping your heels on the ground for stability and safety. 

On the 3cwt I ended up putting a couple of hook on stirrups to take the treadle height down...

Whenever I have a visitor that I let operate the hammer I stress keeping their weight on the back foot, so they can lift the operating foot away instantly...if they are using their body weight to push the treadle down they cannot get it off quick enough.

On all the treadle operated machines...vertical presses and hammers I have built a safety shelf above the treadle to prevent them being operated inadvertently by a falling workpiece or stumbling blacksmith.

Alan

[JNewman]

On my Massey I have a chunk of steel 2.5" thick x 4" wide by 14"  long that I rest my heel on when running the hammer.   When I got the hammer set up it just happened to be handy and I planned on using a block of wood but the heavy block of steel is nice in that it does not move easily when putting my foot in place to use the hammer.  The guy who works for me who sometimes runs the hammer likes the block much closer to the treadle than I do  so it is nice not to have it fixed.  It happens to be just the right size that I can kick it under the treadle while changing dies and the treadle can not be depressed. 

I also have a treadle guard which fits tightly around the anvil and is a handy place to leave tooling.  That is if an air hammer was any good to use with tooling  

Allan what did you do with your Blacker?  I have a friend who just put in a Blacker around 6 months ago.  He is happy with it but when I tried it out I found the extreme amount of travel on the treadle and the amount of force needed to press the treadle extremely awkward.

[Alan Evans]

5 hours ago, JNewman said:

Allan what did you do with your Blacker?  I have a friend who just put in a Blacker around 6 months ago.  He is happy with it but when I tried it out I found the extreme amount of travel on the treadle and the amount of force needed to press the treadle extremely awkward.

Still here in the yard under a couple of bits of carpet.

Yes the treadle movement on that is high and awkward. 

But like so many of these machines you get a working relationship going the more you use them. I haven't used my blacker for 25 years but what I remember is that you needed to show it who is boss with an initial hard push to overcome the inertia and then immediately back off to the blow weight you required. It was slightly counter intuitive but if you pussy footed around to begin with the first blow was extremely heavy and could make a mess of the job.

Even after I came to a grudging understanding with the beast I would still put the first blow where it did not matter in case it reneged on me!

Mechanicals eh?

As I think I said earlier...once cycling though, it was incredibly regular and consistent, so for fine tapers/finishing it was better than any other hammer I have used. 

Alan

[beaudry]

 The wood blocks I have embedded in the floor are flush or just below the grade of my dirt floor. They measure about 2'' x 12'' x 15'' and are lagged into the top of the concrete foundation block which is 2'' below grade. The only purpose of these blocks is to provide a solid consistent surface in a otherwise soft floor, not raise my foot in any way .

With  a flat concrete or wood floor around the hammer I would not need these  blocks.

The flat part of the lowered treadle  is about 3'' by 12'' so there are various options to where I can push down with my  toe while the heel is  always firmly planted on the floor [ or block in my case ]

 Most work is done straight in to the hammer, but just like working around an anvil at various angles with a hand hammer,  I tend to  work around the the power hammer die as  the shape develops .

Being able to move side to side while working  a piece, and still standing solidly on both feet seems much safer, easier on my body and allows  me better control of the hammer.

This is most apparent in handling heavy and/or long pieces.

I often find it easiest in using hand held top tools  to lay the work across the length of the die and bring the tool in from the front . This gives me  the clearest visibility of the set up and position of the tool relative to the work .

I also find that it works much better to finish long smooth tapers in solid or hollow pieces with the work laid almost corner to corner on large flat dies.

Notice  the use of such terms as usually, often , works best in my case, for my application , with my hammer etc.  etc.