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Dead blow treadle hammer


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Playing around in my head with a bunch of ideas for a treadle hammer, and was thinking about making the head from a 9-10" length of 4" square tube I have kicking around, welding a thick plate on the end, and filling it with lead (melted down from wheel weights). Then I find that wheel weights aren't lead these days, so I start thinking about other sources of lead. Thinking about lead shot for reloaders, it occurs to me that if I filled the head with unmelted lead shot (perhaps with some oil as well), I would essentially be creating a large dead-blow mallet.

This obviously wouldn't be good for a tire hammer or something like that, where you want to keep the tupp moving fairly quickly. However, since I'm envisioning this as replacement for a striker for punching, fullering, and the like, speed isn't that much of an issue, and the slower impact curve might actually be a benefit.

Anyone have any thoughts on the practicality or advisability of this, or maybe a notion about where I can get some cheap (or free!) lead for my original concept?

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35 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

Would it matter if it's lead or not? Wheel weights, lead or not, Are weights after all. 

Well, it's a matter of putting weight into a given volume. Assuming an interior volume of 3" x 3" x 9" (and I'm just guessing on that; I'm currently several hundred miles from my shop) or 81 cubic inches, that would be ~33 lbs of lead vs. ~21 lbs of zinc (which is what I gather they're using for wheel weights these days)

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I get your point.

Many tire/ mechanic shops still have lead weights. Out of enough junk weights I'm sure you could find enough lead weights. Just ask enough shops and you might end up with buckets of them. ( There's a bucket full just in our body shop mechanic bay I need to grab some time.)  I'd imagine you could test suspect weights by scraping them with a blade. You would end up with less weight with the loose bbs or shot anyway. 

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One bullet casting video I watched showed that you can differentiate wheel weights by rapping them against something hard and listening to the sound: steel goes "tink", zinc goes "clank", and lead goes "clunk".

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9 minutes ago, Charles R. Stevens said:

Unlike a solid mass of led. Shot keeps moving forward after the hammer face stopes moving. A led hammer is a direct animal from a dead blow

I understand how a dead-blow works; I'm just curious as to whether or not it would be good for my projected use. 

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I really like your idea. I would use steel BB's sort of like the kind dead blow hammers use. I believe that it wouldn't

take very long for the lead shot to nest and pack together. Please let us know if you go forward with your idea!

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I can't say to wether a deadblow with bbs or solid mass would be better but as far as cost it would probably be easier and cheaper to scrounge lead and melt it in then to scrounge bbs to put in it. Possibly could use wheel bearing balls but they are not always the easiest to scrounge in mass. 

On a side note, A friend of mine and his uncle do make lead shot but IIRC it's around $25.-30. Per 2litre jug. I have seen the setup and it's pretty cool. They have spent a lot of time perfecting it to get proper shape and sizes. 

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JHCC,

Hospital radiology departments and some oncology units, receive radioactive material frequently. The lead containers, these chemicals are shipped in, tend to pile up.

Years ago, and in another city, I had a nurse friend that collected them for me and I had a good pile of them in no time.

The staff did not have the time to scrap them. 

Creativity & obscure knowledge can help solve problems, sometimes.

SLAG

 

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3 minutes ago, SLAG said:

JHCC,

Hospital radiology departments and some oncology units, receive radioactive material frequently. The lead containers, these chemicals are shipped in, tend to pile up.

Years ago, and in another city, I had a nurse friend that collected them for me and I had a good pile of them in no time.

The staff did not have the time to scrap them. 

Creativity & obscure knowledge can help solve problems, sometimes.

SLAG

 

Thanks, SLAG. I've spoken with the radiology lab at the local hospital (I know one of the techs through the Boy Scouts), and they've already got a disposal method in place. 

However, my dentist still uses film for X-rays, and they're happy to give me the old film holders, each of which contains a small piece of lead foil. They're not very big, but I suppose enough of them do add up. 

4 minutes ago, Judson Yaggy said:

Sounds like a good way to get lead dust into the air, all those little pieces of lead shot scrubbing past each other every time they start or stop moving.  If you go that route weld up a solid cap to the tube.  

Would topping off the tube with oil help with that?

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JHCC, Do you have access to any supplies of solder? Particularly the older solders (reclaimed maybe) some of it is of comparible density to lead. Babbit metal may also be worth considering, depending on alloy.

For a treadle hammer which is returned by a ballance spring, the abscence of a rebound seems of no great consiquence to me, but I'm no expert on mech hammer design.

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I would of thought a dead blow hammer would be less efficent than a solid normal hammer as when you hit a hot piece of steel the energy is usually absorbed with little rebound anyway, I would think it would be less efficent for forging as we all go to great lengths to have an anvil with a good rebound to aid in moving metal so i would think a dead blow hammer would be the same.I can apreciate thinking outside the box though Cheers Beaver PS I dont know why the joy police have such a problem with lead wheel weights anyway I have always managed to fight the temptation to lick them 

 

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You could hit the yard sales circuit and grab up all the old fishing tackle that people ignore.  There are many tons of unused old lead split shot, sliding weights and sinkers sitting in almost every garage in America.  Heck, send out a Facebook request for people's old fishing lead.  Many bodies of water no longer allow the use of lead tackle.

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wherever it's used lead gets out into the environment and is toxic to more than just humans.

Getting it out of Gas was a big step!

Now with proper technique it's easy to deal with; my grandfather ran a baitstand and spent most winters casting sinkers and wen through tons of lead; he will be 94 next year IIRC and is sharper mentally than my father was at 80.

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