lyuv Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 I need (want?) a power hammer, and intend to build one. All I could get for it is a 3/4hp motor. My dilema is the configuration: Most power hammers I see, use toggle connection between the hammer and the motor.But a trip mechanism is much simpler and suited to my humble means. Why is the trip hammer so unpopular? Will I be loosing much if I"ll go this way? Is there a simple design that is significantly better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 Triphammers are usually used for one operation in the production of an item. The drawbacks that I can see are that you can't change the force of the strikes and adjusting the distance between the hammer and anvil for different tools and stock sizes. Wherever I've seen them in use they did one thing and weren't really a multipurpose tool. I guess you could adjust the anvil height for different tools and stock sizes but it still makes a full force blow every time. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 If you look at trip hammers you will soon relies that the head and anvil are not fixed dies, knock out the wedges and you can remove them and install a different set. Now this not to say that more modern strait line models with ease to change dies don’t have advantages but trip hammers are just simple and cool. Or that many if the surviving examples didn’t have 2 or 3 hammers with different dies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason0012 Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 Trip hammers just got displaced by better technology, like 8 tracks or beta max. They work , and worked steadily for centuries, but a steam or mechanical hammer is more versatile. Just ad the modern preference for air hammers pushed mechanical hammers out. I always wanted to get to see some good info on them. I have hunted for, and come up short, into on commercially produced trip hammers. Pratt and Whitney built them at one time. That was probably pre civil war. I have seen a few (very few) photos of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Like a board or drop hammer? I saw a video on one of those with a 500# head being used to forge a hoe from large square stock: Heat, position for a 1/2 section blow to draw out to one side, do likewise to the other side and then off to a power hammer for clean up and done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyuv Posted January 3, 2020 Author Share Posted January 3, 2020 Thank guys. I"m not sure I used the right term. I mean something like this: It's a good point about power control. So I thought to add a spring that pulls down on the hammer (like in the picture), and a pedal that controls the tention of that spring. So I can increase the striking force with that pedal. However, I d not see anyone doing that, so there may be a bug in my logic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 Just in case you missed it: lyuv, looks like a trip hammer to me. What if one were to move the fulcrum forward and apply a foot-controlled sliding counterweight to feather hammer force? Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 I just saw on an another thread that Latticino mentioned a Da Vinci Cam, which is what you have pictured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAG Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Mr. John Taylor, Thank you for your identification of the DaVinci cam hammer. Not being familiar with it, I looked it up. And found a great site that both explains and depicts it in action. For anyone else that was not aware of it, until now, Try, www.leonardodavincisinventions.com/mechanical-inventions/leonardo-da-vincis-cam-hammer/ Regards, Good Guy, SLAG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basher Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 If you really want to go down this route have a look at "trip hammers" in reality. they are mostly big and heavy (many hundred pounds in the head) and running from a drive with huge inertia being powered by water. There are much better ways of harnessing a limited Hp and a guided helve spring hammer or tyre hammer would be able to utilise the limited power much more efficiently. the DaVincy hammer is elegant looking , but one has to ask ones self why it was never used during the period when similar technology was in use for almost a thousand years . I am thinking that having a slower moving larger radius with pegs was better as far as friction is concerned and that the seemingly elegant continuous lift of the DaVinci hammer has no real world advantage. I have found it worth my while to take the time and find an actual working model to copy when trying to make complex workshop tools ...even traveling across the atlatic when needed to see rolling mills and presses. saves wasted time space and money in the long run. unless what you want does not exist...then you will have to make it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Someone recently posted a video or pics of them visiting and working at a smithy with a couple of trip Hammers in Ireland. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 More on the DaVinci Cam hammer: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Here is another reference: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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