Bolting down tire hammer?

[setlab]

I need to bolt my hammer down to the floor and was going to use threaded rod and concrete anchoring adhesive to do it. Do I need to buy a certain grade of threaded rod or will the regular run of the mill 1/2" threaded rod you buy at lowes be sufficient strength?

[petere76]

Suggest using heat treated grade 8 anchor bolts.  As an alternative solution, if you have access to steel plate, try mounting on a 1inch a foot over your hammer base dimensions. Use .75 in studs and weld the studs to the plate using a 6011 root pass, back grind and finish with 7018.

I set up a Clay Spencer 50 lb hammer on a steel plate and it works fine. The advantage is that it doesn't fracture the floor. You may experience some cracking of the floor because the base isn't isolated from the rest of the floor (pour).  Unless your floor is exceptionally thick, the constant shock will eventually crack the floor where the studs (penetrate).  Big hammers have independent foundations for this reason. 

Another item to look at is noise. You can defeat the noise by cutting horse stall pads, rubber matting (tractor supply) to fit under the steel plate. Works great. 

Good luck with your install.

Peter 

[Frosty]

Just buy anchors. 5/8" long enough the stud end has no fewer than 3 threads showing through the nut. If you're sure of the rebar placement so you'll miss it. place your hammer where it's to go and drill through the base plate to the recommended depth, see directions on the box the anchors came it. Drop the tube of adhesive in the hole, chuck the stud in a good hand drill and spin it in a bit. Remove the drill motor and allow it to set. Washer and nut tighten to spec. Do NOT get carried away tightening the nuts, give it at least a couple days to fully cure especially if the slab is cold.

There are many kinds of concrete anchors and they all have directions it's not a hard thing. The above is my favorite type, not "best" just my favorite.

Frosty The Lucky.

[zadvorney]

I did use this anchor type 1/2"x 8"

I cut 1/4" plate 3"x3" and made wings off the 1" base of the hammer.  I beefed up the hole I drilled in the plate by welding a  thick washer I made from scrap around the hole.  Drilled the holes in the concrete where the holes in the plates lined up.  Put the anchor in the hole. Put the plates on and welded it in place to the hammer base.  Let cool and tightened the nut on the bolt.  Like frosty said.  The stall mat under the hammer helped with the vibration.  I'm using another chunk of the leftover mat to have a standing pad in front of the hammer.  

[setlab]

I thought about mechanical fasteners but I like the idea of epoxy better. Plus I already bought the anchoring epoxy a long time ago so it would probably be a pretty dumb waste of money on my part not to use it. How come you guys are leaning more towards mechanical > epoxy fasteners? Is there an advantage or is epoxy just a relatively new method? From what I've read others say epoxy fasteners are much more shock resistant and are pretty much just as simple to install. 

[Frosty]

I use epoxy anchors for anything that vibrates. What I described is a high strength self mixing epoxy anchor. However if high strength or code isn't involved you can mix up epoxy, 2hr at least put it in the hole, drive in some all thread and then sand. Double nut the end of the all thread first so you can use a wrench to turn it in the hole counter clockwise so the sand follows the threads down and jams it in the hole.

Another old school anchor is to drop nails in the hole and drive rebar or anchor screw in behind them, they'll pretzel up and ham it in pretty solid. Definitely not code though.

Frosty The Lucky.

[setlab]

I just re-read your post and I can picture it better in my head now. Is your regular all thread good enough or should I search for a certain grade? Thanks

[Judson Yaggy]

What size of hammer?  For a 25# LG or similar cheap low grade allthread from the local hardware store with epoxy will be fine as long as your embedment is good, get into bigger hammers increase the size and grade till you are casting BIG bolts in place in many thousand pound concrete inertia blocks.  

[setlab]

Ok thanks. Ya, just your run of the mill 50lb tire hammer. I built it pretty much to the exact detentions as the plan calls for, maybe 1000 lbs in total weight.