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Design for a Gas Powered treadle hammer


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so i have been looking at a treadle hammer for our first power hammer so that we don't have to keep beating our arms to death so im gonna make a foot operated version first and then upgrade to the gas powered when i get a chance if i can engineer it  and if your wondering why im going with gas well its because i don't want to use power, and i don't have a big fancy 60 gallon two stage air compressor but i do have a 5 gallon one, so using a harbor freight engine and some engineering i will make a gas powered hammer, now since all of you are way more experience in this department and mine is some what in the motor department, so i have looked at this design but i have no actual plan because their not free for some reason, and i have more important thing to spend my money on than plans that ill only use once and never bother with again so i have some what of an idea how this works but not completely and im kind of low on the scrap department so i will have to go the the junk yard looking for parts.

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Buying the plans is not within your important spending needs???? By buying the plans you will save - by far - time and trial and error mistakes. Buy them ( what are they like $30? ) and save yourself lots of trouble and you will be able to regain that $30 on a machine that works as its intended to right from the start. Unless of course you are asking us all to spend our time to tell you how to build one so you don't have to buy the plans - sign me up!!!! I have nothing better to do.... Not. A treadle hammer is Not a power hammer - they have their own uses and in a slight way they can overlap on those uses but they are a very different piece of equipment from each other. I do encourage you to build something yourself, but in doing so, you will have more time and effort into it than just purchasing something. That cost - buying a whole piece of equipment is hard for anyone if you do not have the work to justify it - its a calculated risk investment. Good Luck on your journey. Show pics of the build process as we all like to see pics.

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First off, like Jeremy said, a treadle hammer is NOT a power hammer. It will take some work off your arms but it's by no means a power hammer. I'm not sure how long you guys have been forging, but you will learn to swing a hammer better, faster, harder etc. After a not to long amount of time, you will be able to move faster and more efficiently on most steel sizes by hand hammer and anvil than on a treadle hammer.

If we knew what design you thought you wanted to work off we would also be able to help you much better. As some treadle hammers can converted over to air in less then 10 minutes, then back a treadle hammer in the amount of time. buying plans would be great in my opinion, many guys that sell you plans would be willing to help you if you are having trouble with something, and may go back to fix something later on and need those same plans. Buying the plans to have the material cut lengths would save you the money many time over if you miss cut a large expensive piece of steel.

Let us know how you get on!

 

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20 hours ago, jeremy k said:

Buying the plans is not within your important spending needs???? By buying the plans you will save - by far - time and trial and error mistakes. Buy them ( what are they like $30? ) and save yourself lots of trouble and you will be able to regain that $30 on a machine that works as its intended to right from the start. Unless of course you are asking us all to spend our time to tell you how to build one so you don't have to buy the plans - sign me up!!!! I have nothing better to do.... Not. A treadle hammer is Not a power hammer - they have their own uses and in a slight way they can overlap on those uses but they are a very different piece of equipment from each other. I do encourage you to build something yourself, but in doing so, you will have more time and effort into it than just purchasing something. That cost - buying a whole piece of equipment is hard for anyone if you do not have the work to justify it - its a calculated risk investment. Good Luck on your journey. Show pics of the build process as we all like to see pics.

yeah you know that's like half my paycheck when i still have tools to buy like drill press, bench grinder, etc and looking at the designs and i know these are not power hammers but there was a conversion for air or electric so its something to look into but this is an upgrade not what im going with now. and sign you up well consider yourself sign up whenever i get the stuff to make it. but i have to save some money for the engine. but im going to convert the treadle hammer into a power hammer not the other way around. and well precision guess work is what we do. so we are going to build one but no gas right now. but i got to buy stuff in the next two weeks im saving my money. 

 

14 hours ago, EJRailRoadTrack said:

First off, like Jeremy said, a treadle hammer is NOT a power hammer. It will take some work off your arms but it's by no means a power hammer. I'm not sure how long you guys have been forging, but you will learn to swing a hammer better, faster, harder etc. After a not to long amount of time, you will be able to move faster and more efficiently on most steel sizes by hand hammer and anvil than on a treadle hammer.

If we knew what design you thought you wanted to work off we would also be able to help you much better. As some treadle hammers can converted over to air in less then 10 minutes, then back a treadle hammer in the amount of time. buying plans would be great in my opinion, many guys that sell you plans would be willing to help you if you are having trouble with something, and may go back to fix something later on and need those same plans. Buying the plans to have the material cut lengths would save you the money many time over if you miss cut a large expensive piece of steel.

Let us know how you get on!

 

like i said i dont have a fancy 60 gallon two stage air compressor, and that was why im going with gas, their was one person who showed me a treadle hammer and it looked kind of nice not made out of spare parts like some of the others except maybe the structural part. but ill let you guys know when i get my plan together

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If you are on that tight of a budget look into building a "Rusty" aka "Appalachian" spring hammer.  Probably the simplest of hammers, designed to be built out of scrap and scrounge, and they run on a 1/2 to 3/4 horse electric motor, also findable as scrap.  Running an electric motor that size is FAR more economical than any kind of gasoline engine.  

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Could you explain what when you work you expect a paycheck; but when the designer of a treadle hammer works he should do it for free?

If the set of plans can cut your material costs and your build time costs by a LOT would that cover their cost?  Can you sell them on at a discount after you are done with them?

Most treadle hammers cannot be made into good power hammers as they are designed with a different cycle time in them---a Little Giant powerhammer can do around 250 beats per minute, a treadle hammer maxes out around 40.  An air assist treadle hammer is just that, an air assist treadle hammer it's not a power hammer.

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You have a LONG way to go before you'll have the skill to use a power hammer and maybe by then you'll have put away enough to buy a set of plans. Do you give your work away? Oh no, you work for a paycheck. Show a little respect and honesty will you? Pay the man for his work or do your own. If it's too expensive to buy a set of plans you REALLY need to find a cheaper hobby, you aren't going to make pro in this one.

After reading your posts for a while I recommend you pay more attention in school. Just having a set of plans won't build you a power hammer anymore than having a power hammer will do the work. The work is on YOUR shoulders, tools don't do anything without a human. Aiming high is a good thing but getting real is required to succeed.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I will favor you learning to forge consistently by hand, than before thinking you "Need a Power Hammer or Treadle Hammer to start off with" especially if your budget is that tight. You will "really need" to learn how the metal moves by hand before using a treadle hammer or power hammer - if you don't you will just make scrap much faster than by hand.

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How many times have you forged an for how long were those times?

2 times, 3 times, 5 times?

and were they for 30 minutes or 10 hours?

It is going to take time to get your hand forging down, and even longer if you try to learn to use a power hammer before learning hand forging. Even people who own power hammers don't JUST use the power hammers, you can't do everything under one, well almost, if you have the time and money for the tooling, which you have expressed that you don't than you could make the tooling to do almost anything. But doing so isn't reasonable. Though making a treadle hammer before you have forged much is also unreasonable. Give the hobby some time, heck, you may find that this isn't for you and in a year or less you are doing something else. Now that would stink if you had just spent all your paychecks on something that you cant use.

a few months ago I used a power hammer for the first time. It was a larger one, something like a 250lb ram, Nazel, a real beauty. I drew out some tapers, something I could do blindfolded with a hand hammer. with the power hammer, it takes some figuring out till you get nice clean even tapers. This is 2 years of experience,  10 days on Saturdays and Sundays at the forge. This isn't much experience at all, but I struggled some, and you are struggling with hand forging. What makes you think a power hammer or treadle hammer, will help that?

looking at your previous post, quite a few of them are about blades. lots of blades don't need a power hammer to be made. with experience In 30 minutes or less you can forge a nice blade, depending on what size, and what your starting stock was. A power hammer and/or treadle hammer is overkill for Bladesmithing unless you will be doing large Damascus. Though you still don't need a treadle hammer for the simpler smaller Damascus billets.

Slow down, spend some time at the forge, and figure out what you actually want, so you don't waste all your money and time.

                                                                                                                      Littleblacksmith

 

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