February 15, 20215 yr Hello all, I've started building a copy of a Dienalt & Eisenhardt "bracket" hammer. The image below shows the upper arm. it will have leaf springs that are about 24" across and a ram that is around 25 pounds. I had always planned to have a cone clutch machined, but maybe there is a tire type clutch option that could work. I've attached a current rendering below and some questions for those with experience or who care to speculate. Must a tire clutch be pneumatic or might a hard rubber wheel work? Has any one tried smaller diameter tires for smaller hammers? Does anyone have a proposal for a better clutch configuration for a hammer like this? I could stick with the traditional idler pulley. -A.
February 17, 20215 yr People build tire hammers with pneumatic tires because they are very common in the USA as is the hardware necessary to mount them to this purpose. A hard rubber wheel will work just fine, all you need is a surface with enough friction to not slip. Same for the drive wheel on the motor, solid rubber works very well. A while back I was going to experiment by gluing a layer of inner tube rubber to the pully on my Little Giant mechanical power hammer and rigging the motor with a rubber drive wheel but it works great as is so common sense prevailed. For once. Frosty The Lucky.
February 18, 20215 yr Author Thanks for your input, Frosty. I'm willing to give it a try. I have to sort out the pulley sizes. This hammer is intended to run much faster than a forging hammer so I'm optimistic I can get smaller diameter wheels to work. -A.
February 19, 20215 yr The only problem I could see with a hard rubber tire is that after lots of use it may suffer a catastrophic failure under load. Rubber becomes brittle with time. Pnut
February 19, 20215 yr Author Pnut, that is a great point. I suppose a lot of friction on the surfaces would really shorten the lifespan. Thomas, this hammer likely predates Yoder, Pettingell and Quickwork sheetmetal hammers but it is the same configuration. It won't be 900 bpm like a modern sheetmetal hammer, but it will be faster than a blacksmith's powerhammer. They were available in a few sizes, the one I'd like to build is the largest they made. I was trying to buy one for many years, but ultimately I lost out. My only option now is to build one.
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