I have been sort of letting this project evolve for some time, but it is starting to come together now.

I started with the main gearbox, which came of of some kind of giant, industrial squishing machine. I mounted that on a steel post, and started figuring how to make the rest with scrap in my shop

I made a couple of super basic die sets out of 440 stainless-

The mechanism allows me to adjust the space between the hammer and anvil on the downstroke from zero to about 2 inches, which can be increased a little more by removing spacers under the anvil. I can also adjust the amplitude of the swing by about the same amount.  Today, I temporarily attached a slow speed gearbox and motor to it, and ran it for a couple of hours to tweak things and look for friction.

What I have not done yet is design and build the lower drive and clutch. I have a nice big flywheel, and plan to have the motor drive the flywheel on the clutch shaft, and have a dual v-belt system to drive the main gearbox. It would be nice to have a cone clutch or the like, but right now I am planning to use a couple of 440 disks, one of which will have brake lining riveted to it.

I have no idea what the optimum striking frequency should be, but I have a pretty good assortment of gears and pulleys, so I can play with that a bit.

Advice or criticism always welcomed

-T

 

You're off to a start! Over my head a bit, following.

Whats the ram weigh? Little hammers run fast.

 

Almost looks like a pettingell hammer for doing sheet metal work. 

11 hours ago, marcusb said:

Whats the ram weigh? Little hammers run fast.

 

Right now, about 30lb. Plus the weight of the top die.