Hello all, I stumbled across this today at my work.  It was tucked away in a barn and if it’s not some sort of power hammer, I don’t know what it would be.  It has a short stroke, about 1.5” and there’s a small transformer on the top side of the rear wheel.  

Any ideas of what it could be if not a power hammer?  Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.  
 

Links removed as you must log in to see the image

your links are useless, need log ins to reach them, try posting a photo we can access

 Links didn't work for me.......             Dave

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You can copy the photos and paste them into a comment. Just make sure that they don't display too big; you can doubleclick them while you're in commenting or editing mode to change their pixel counts and thus their size. 500 pixels wide is good, and if you click "keep original proportions" (or whatever the instruction is), it will keep everything looking good.

Looking forward to seeing what you've got.

Okay...I think I have pics loaded, but I should get better ones tomorrow.  Hopefully Those of you that are smarter than me can make sense if it 

Thanks for your help JHCC
 

It's not a power hammer, although it is interesting. Looks like it was used for stamping, like coins with the proper dies or possibly leather work. Are there any name's or name plates on it? Looks like a name cast into the front crankshaft wheel but I can't make it out.

It's a punch press and completely unsuited for forge work. These are used to punch holes, stamp shapes in specific thickness of metal, coining is a possibility. 

Frosty The Lucky.

That's what I was thinking but couldn't come up with punch press.

Thank you guys!  That’s the first punch press I’ve seen and looking similar to a power hammer, I was cautiously optimistic.   

As a side point, when I got into smithing about 15 years ago, my first anvil came from the same property so I was hopeful when I stumbled on this thing.

Punch presses are designed to cycle through their complete range of motion under full power. If something gets in the way, that force has to go somewhere, so they either power through th at resistance (i.e., punch the hole) or break.

 Power hammers, on the other hand, are designed with a variable range of motion; think of the Dupont linkage on a Little Giant, the flexible arm of a helve hammer, or the compressibility of the air in the cylinder of a Big Blu. This allows the hammer to deliver forceful blows, but also to absorb the excess force if those blows are stopped partway down.