Hauling a two-piece power hammer.

[Jarntagforge]

Hey all,

I've bought a 100-year-old two-piece self-contained airhammer. It's a Mammutwerke model MW3 from Nürnberg, Germany. It's in southern Finland though so it's not that far. The hammer body weighs 2200 kg/4890 lbs and the anvil 1300 kg/ 2890 lbs. The seller arranges extraction from the blacksmith shop and onto our Renault S150 midliner. I have a few questions I hope some wise man or woman could answer. Our midliner truck has a flat bed, made up of softer sheet steel on the frame, do I need to put wooden boards under the power hammer to distribute the load evenly on both the hammer and truck? Or is that even a stupid idea for some reason? I'm a little worried about the hammer possibly standing on a few bearing points and driving with it through bumps and uneven roads for 7 hours. What if the ring-like part of the hammer that holds the anvil cracks?

Another thing I'm wondering about is what are the minimum requirements for fastening such a heavy load to the truck? We have 3 half-inch chains with tightheners and five 2-inch, 50 mm ratchet tie-down straps. That's 8 fasteners all in all. I assume 4 fasteners per piece is minimum. Are these enough for this load or do I need to buy more?

Here's a truck with bed similar to my dad's Renault S150., minus the fold-down-ramp.

I'm thinking I might put the hammer body close to the cab and the anvil behind the body. My dad and brother-in-law will becoming along. What do you guys and gals think, is there any other advice that's good to know?

Best regards,

Hobby blacksmith,

Jakob Staffans
Kimo, Finland

Here's a link to a german forum with some pictures of a hammer of this make, but the hammer in that forum is smaller, a 50 kg model.

and here's a video of that 50 kg MW1 running. Watch out, the audio is broken and gives "BEEP" "BLIP" sometimes so keep the volume down.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Congratulations on the hammer purchase!

Metal on metal slides, always put some wood between between a metal deck and a machine to keep them from sliding. It can even be a piece of plywood sheeting, it doesn't have to be thick. As to the truck's deck bending. That would depend on the bracing underneath. If you use a couple of thicker wood beams under the hammer, try to put them over the bracing under the deck where it is strongest, or use enough of them to spread the weight out. With a thin wide base like in the picture I would want it flat on the deck.

How are you getting it off the truck?

As to restraining it. I would do the chains low and tight pulling in opposite directions to keep it in place and the straps up high to keep it from tipping sideways. And yes, this is one case of more is better   But for that weight, two chains and some straps should be fine for each item.

[Jarntagforge]

3 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

 

Metal on metal slides, always put some wood between between a metal deck and a machine to keep them from sliding.

How are you getting it off the truck?

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll bring some 2" boards and place them under the load.

As for getting it off, our neighbours have a JCB tractor so I'll ask them first if it has the capacity to lift it, otherwise I'll widen my search. The hammer can wait ontop of the truck.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The tractor will most likely lift it, however the bale spikes may not be up to the task.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

As for lifting it off, the JCB should handle that. I would use a sling from above as opposed to coming in under the base. It is always best to be above the center of gravity and suspend the load when it is tall and tippy like a hammer is. It also makes setting in place easier.

I was a little envious of you Finns when I was active on a firearms forum. One member from Finland would show off his latest purchase from the government, and his last one was a Suomi KP31 he got for I believe $150. I am also on a Forward Look MOPAR page and found out how much the American cars are liked over in the Nordic and Scandinavian countries. Pretty fitting that the Finns like cars with big fins . I have a 1960 Windsor 2 door hardtop myself.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

A sling from above should eliminate the possibility of bending the bale spikes by putting the weight closer to the loader.

[Jarntagforge]

The hammer is home! Thanks for the advice, friends! It was really useful to hear about putting wood boards underneath. I think it anchored the hammer well onto the truck bed - wood being a perfect mix of stoft and sticky and supportive. I couldn't notice any movement at any time. We really underdid ourselves on the fastening. A chain and a strap for the anvil. Two chains and one strap for the hammer (and one strap to hold the ram in the air). Yeah it was dangerous, but at least we drove carefully and had long safety distances between us and the car in front of us. Some cops in a car we passed on the roads really turned their heads to look at the load but they didn't stop us.  That's my dad on the picture with all the trucks and our feisty steel horse.

A thing the crane operator told us was that it was lucky that it was raining, as it cools the tires. The tires could overheat when driving long distances with heavy loads. The front tires got a little warm but not anything alarming. We stopped every 1,5 h on the way home. The way there took 7 hours and the way back took 8 hours. So sleepiness was also a danger. That's why we drove carefully and stopped often.

The hammer felt small when I looked at it at home, and when I measured the footprint of it, I realized it was a size smaller. It's a 75 kg hammer, and the seller said 120! The closest model was a 100 kg one so I went by that. But I got it for less than scrap price so I'm happy anyway. With transport it cost me 900€. I'll have to fix it up, it's out of tune somehow and only has a 4.5 kW motor that they said is too small also.

Best regards,

Jakob Staffans

@Jarntagforge

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Glad it all worked out.

Tire heat is one reason I like traveling at night during the summer here. When it is 115F outside the roads get extremely hot.

[ThomasPowers]

Another is engine heat; a lot of vehicles are blowing their head gaskets out here going up long steel hills in 105 degF heat; being about a mile above sea level doesn't help.  (My last trip north with a load of smithing stuff I left before dawn as I wasn't going to run the AC---I need my pickup to last the move!)

[Jarntagforge]

Our tractor wasn't able to lift it off the truck. When the lifting arm is high up, as in above the hammer, the hydraulic cylinder is pushing along the lifting arm and thus is very weak. I'mm have to ask a neighbour with the JCB tractor or a professional. Also as the hammer was a smaller model afterall, the body weighs only 1700 kg. We managed to lift the anvil down, that one was 1000 kg.