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LG25 New Style Toggle Link Dimensions


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Folks, I am trying to help a friend get a new-style LG25 hammer up and running.  The existing toggle links are wrong (home-made by persons unknown).  We've been in touch with the folks at Little Giant, and they have been very helpful as far as they can be, but it's not in the budget to drop $200+ on toggle links.  

Can anyone provide the between-centers and horizontal offset dimensions for this hammer? 

I've got the facilities to make new links, just need the dimensions.

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You want, "The Little Giant Powerhammer," by Richard E. Kern

It won't tell you the lengths, offsets, pivot sizes, etc. directly but it does tell you how to measure what you have. When written LGs had been made by so many folks and modified or repaired so many times no specific dimensions really worked so you get to learn how to measure and make your own.

Frosty The Lucky.

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And watch out!  My wife once commissioned a retired master machinist  to make her a solid black walnut spinning wheel based on one in a museum.  He went to the museum wit his micrometers and then made her an *EXACT* duplicate of a totally worn out spinning wheel. Useless to spin with.  How do you know if the ones people measure for you are *good* ones---when they may not know themselves?

(Thankfully this predated our marriage!)

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I'll bet it's pretty though. 

Having someone else measure for me makes me too skeptical for words. Buy the book and measure your own, maybe by the third rebuild you'll know how to use the them.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Yes it was very pretty and we moved it every time we moved for a decade or so until finally someone wanted to buy it as a decoration and swore a solemn oath that they would *NEVER* try to spin on it or sell it on as a working spinning wheel. She sold it at a loss.  Me I have had machinist friends and know how they work---one once offered to make a shaft for me to use with  a crane's headache ball as a ball stake. It had a hole in it with two  nonconcentric differing diameter sections.  He gave me a LONG tale about making an offset holder to turn each section *correctly*.  I told him he should have just used an undersized shaft and pour melted wheel weights around it and be done in under an hour. (But it is very nice!)

Also why I have a battered abused micrometer that I bought at a junk store for a dollar and use as a small clamp when machinists will be visiting my shop.

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The cable channels in headache balls are different diameters so they won't slip when clamped to a cable. I don't know why it works but that's what the guy at "Arctic Wire Rope" told me when I bought one for mushroom stakes. 

Yeah, tell me about machinists, I grew up with one. Dad must've looked at 8mm. German Mausers for months before finding one worth taking his instruments to. When he was satisfied he spent a bunch of time cleaning up the machining and replacing parts, the trigger was first to go it was rigged for a trip wire and would fire if moved any direction. 

The new stock was Myrtle wood he picked out special in Oregon and when he finished bedding the rifle in the stock there was less than 1/32" clearance between the barrel and stock. Dad was like that with everything he did, he built the house on Lake Davis to machinist tolerances. 

I don't think he built anything worn out to tight tolerances though. Then again he didn't show me everything he built so . . .

Frosty The Lucky.

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19 hours ago, JHCC said:

It is against forum policy to post commercial links

Thanks. Ive never been called for doing this, but seen it happen to others.

In this case, would it have been wrong to post a direct link to the centaur forge page where this book is? My guess is thats wrong. Ive done this a lot with clinker breakers and firepots. Just tuning up my act.

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Direct link to Centaur Forge (either the general site or the specific product) would be wrong, yes. Saying, "You can get The Little Giant Powerhammer by Richard E. Kern from the Centaur Forge website" is just fine.

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  • 4 months later...

.I want to say that pin to pin on a 25 is 11 inches. That is from memory from over 25 years ago so dont trust it too much. Find someone with a 25 near you that you can measure. I have forged the arms before for both 25 and 50 pound hammers. Forged from 1 1/2 inch round for a 25.the best replacement though that I have seen were burned from 1 inch plate. They were traced from originals, torched out, then the clevis at the link end was fabricated and welded on. Lastly the upper hole drilled. Most painless way to build the arms. The ones I forged were 4140, I never saw a significant disadvantage to those burned from a36 plate. The burned to shape arms were used on hammers in a factory where they ran 3 shifts a day. They are kind of fun to forge, if you have a big hammer available- not so much on a 25 or 50.

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  • 1 year later...

Thanks for the posting. I just accidently bought an abused LG 50# at an estate sale for $800. One toggle arm was broke and the other had been welded.  I can afford the replacement parts from LG, but I figure fabricated would be stronger than cast. I have a plasma table and I'm thinking of cutting two pieces from 1/2" plate, welding together and spreading one end for the yoke end and welding on a holder for the spring. I will probably drill the holes for the pins and may harden the inside of the holes with Cherry Red. On the other hand, store bought would enhance resale value. Your post has me leaning to fabricating. 

image.png

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Here are a pair of tracing from when I worked in a shop that flamecut arms fro 1 inch for a 25, and 1 1/4 for a 50. For the clevis, we would weld tabs of 2x5/8 with pin holes to the end. Pin to pin should be 14" i think for a 50. These were the easiest arms i have ever fabricated.

20200208_180509.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

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