Greebe Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Just curious if anyone has built a beam hammer like this one seen on youtube? Seems inexpensive, and like it might be an ok option. Obviously it would not do the work of a little giant or other power hammer, but it might be better then nothing without spending a bunch of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris C Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 If you will notice, there is only one position where the hammer and anvil contact squarely. I don't think there is enough adjustability to gain much from using this hammer. So this hammer has it's drawbacks. Though, if you are just dying to have a power hammer, I guess this would be a place to start. You sure don't "need" a power hammer of any sort. Just watch Jennifer in some of her videos. She makes hammer heads and all sort of things that many smiths think they couldn't do without a power hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerHeart Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Who? Id like to watch those videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Note---variations on this have been around for about 1000 years; generally under the term "helve hammer". (The earlier ones water powered gravity based hammers.) I happen to have recently bought a Hawkeye Helve hammer ; you may want to search on that and see what was commercially available to smiths back when. As noted: how do you adjust the wooden version for differing thickness work or use of top tools with the work? For a really engineered version look up the Blacker Powerhammer that also allowed adjustment from side to side---while it was running! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greebe Posted February 14, 2020 Author Share Posted February 14, 2020 Thanks for the replies. I guess this hammer can be adjusted up and down to give more distance between the dies. However once it is adjusted higher, I am not sure that it would still work well as the stock gets thinner. I used to make loads of wrapped eye tomahawks and did it all by hand. A power hammer for that would have been great. I would like to start making hammers, and my body would not love doing all that by hand. Do I need a hammer? probably not, but if I want to step it up and do some production then it would be very helpful. I have a machine shop and that is where I make my money. I used to do blacksmithing on a small scale for income, but stopped for a long time after getting a bad injury. I would like to start doing it more though to fill in between jobs in the machine shop, and because quiet frankly I enjoy it more. I should have bought a little giant hammer back when they were more affordable, but now they demand a high price whenever they come up for sale. I have looked at the Anyang hammers, but unless you want to spend $8,000-$10,000, then that is not the best option either. The tire hammer is something I have considered and bought plans for years ago, but I have not taken the time to build one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris C Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 25 minutes ago, HammerHeart said: Who? Id like to watch those videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8WRbArfgi8kSaDek7kh_1Q She's an active member here on the forum. Go through her videos..............you'll learn a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 I don't think that hammer is adjustable for height unless the pitman can be extended. A solid anvil would increase efficiency and I worry a bit about how off center forging will wear the helve's connection to the upright. With a background in machining and access to machine tools you could probably easily make improvements to that design Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judson Yaggy Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Look into making a tire hammer (google Clay Spencer Tire Hammer) rather than putting similar effort into a less efficient design. There are hundreds if not thousands of tire hammers out there now, and are a proven design that you can purchase complete plans for. Many ABANA affiliates even have group builds that you can buy into. Probably a little more expensive than a thing made from wood, but far more economical in the long run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Not a bad basic idea but a few. Refinements may be in order. Old trip hammers used interchangeable heads and anvil dies plus relitivly long beams. This would alow thicker and thinner stock plus drawing and forming dies See the wedges? Those are interchangeable hammer dies. And judging from the condition of the wedges they changed them regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 3 hours ago, Chris C said: Go through her videos Here is a link to some of Jennifer's videos here (Reference Material section) https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/54803-jlp-videos/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greebe Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 I have the Tire Hammer plans. That might be the route I go. Wondering if I should build a 50 ton hydraulic press first though. That could be used for punching the eyes in my axes and hammers, and for forging most of that work as well. Also it would be a more multipurpose tool and be useful in the machine shop side of things. Going to order the "BUILD YOUR OWN HYDRAULIC FORGING PRESS" book which shows how to build the 24 ton version, and maybe that would be insightful enough to build the a 50 ton twin cylinder like below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HammerHeart Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 7 hours ago, Chris C said: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8WRbArfgi8kSaDek7kh_1Q She's an active member here on the forum. Go through her videos..............you'll learn a lot. Nice. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 14 hours ago, Greebe said: . I guess this hammer can be adjusted up and down to give more distance between the dies. However once it is adjusted higher, I am not sure that it would still work well as the stock gets thinner Most of the footage I've seen of triphammers in action were set up to do a single operation for a production type run with usually multiple hammers near each other or after one operation is done on all the pieces of the run the wedges are removed and the dies changed for the next operation. A video of the last water operated triphammer in Ireland comes to mind for some reason. One hammer to punch eyes in a bunch of blanks and then to the next hammer or remove the wedges change dies and on to the next operation. They excel at doing the same thing over and over for production runs. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Perhaps this as an artifact of a water powered hammer being an expensive item to build and maintain and so larger "factories" doing production runs were more likely to have them. There is a book "The Mills of Medieval England" that goes into a lot of detail on how expensive maintenance was---especially down time and damage due to flooding could be. Of course the small tub wheel mills mentioned in the Foxfire books could be easier to build and maintain for smaller jobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Water powered tilt hammers have been around a LOT longer than metal forging, there are illustrations from pre copper China. I don't have a cite t hand but I THINK I have a book. . . Somewhere. They were used early on to crush clay, hammer pulp to make paper and wool to make felt. IIRC the thinking was water powered tilts were originally "invented" to lift water from rivers to farm fields. The earliest were Walking beams where a log was balance and villagers would walk back and forth on it to power it for whatever you need a LARGE hammer or dipper or . . . ? Water power is a lot more practical for a line shop. A wheel is a large construction product, the more use you can get the better. I recall the Foxfire water wheels but not clearly it's been a couple few decades and I probably have the issue. Everybody bought the Foxfire books in the day you know, you just couldn't be cool if you didn't. I dinked around with a small Pelton wheel built from a bicycle. I just made small buckets and spun the rear wheel backwards. The first one I made had a 3 speed tranny and I thought a 10 or 15 speed would be funner than skinning a live skunk. Unless you have year around running water wind is more practical. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Topp Posted February 14, 2021 Share Posted February 14, 2021 Yes I have built it. it works great. I did change a few things on it though. Mine came out at 53 lb ram weight. There is 10” or so of adjustment. So you can raise the head via two top links to any hight you need to hammer square. The final “cam” from the video is just about done. Just need to weld it. But I got impatient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhyfelwr Posted February 15, 2021 Share Posted February 15, 2021 Looks stout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greebe Posted February 28, 2021 Author Share Posted February 28, 2021 (edited) Nice, thanks for posting that. I did not even see your build post till now. Here is the link for future use. Edited April 19, 2021 by Mod30 Remove @name tag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greebe Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 I am impressed with Justin's build, so I have decided to go through with a build as well. I just ordered my a USA made Leeson Industrial 1ph 2hp 1740rpm motor, and will try to go get parts tomorrow or early next week. The plans are a rough starting place, and not a complete set of plans. Dimensions are missing, wrong parts, etc. It also leaves out the top link sizes and what leaf spring to use. I wrote several times to Roy Adams who sells the plans, but he never responded. Since I am far out in the county this makes it hard to get what I need because most of the time I order online vs making the 1.5 hour drive to the store. I think I will be able to get it to work though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Topp Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 I found all the important dimensions are listed. Everything that’s not can be moved around a bit. The video series has details not listed in the plans. Like the top links. They are standard length category one. The spring I used was just from a a 1000 lb trailer spring stack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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