First startup and other safe practice for preowned Anyang-type self-contained hammers

[Vinito]

I will be a new owner of my first power hammer this Saturday. I'm sure even for a brand new hammer, there will be some sort of checklist and first-run, maybe even a break-in procedure.

But since this hammer is not new, I wonder if there are additional other things I should maybe do as a matter of course for prepping for a first run of the machine.

I am counting on checking out the lube system and cleaning things up. But for instance, since it's been sitting for years, is there a tip for making sure there is lube inside the cylinders so the initial startup isn't a shock to its system? I would like to make sure nothing is dry and know it isn't dry before I power it up. I couldn't find much of anything online. Power hammers are evidently esoteric enough that even the Omniscient Internet doesn't have a ton of info for them, in my experience so far anyway.

One more question is, the two control valve shafts are set to some kind of timing. Yeah, they are set at the factory and a guy shouldn't have to disturb that ever probably. But what if the timing has been disturbed? What's a guy supposed to do then? And how does one determine if the timing is correct or not in the first place? A little writeup on that would be a nice resource I would think. I would like to be able to do some sort of systematic go-through for making sure the timing of the valves is set to optimum. Lets face it, you can't always trust (at best) the worker on the floor at the manufacturer to always be having a good day and set things just right all the time. I would think that even a long-time owner might even not have considered that maybe their timing isn't set to optimum simply because the thing does seem to be smashing metal. Maybe a good working hammer could be brought up to awesome with just a couple minor tweaks? Anyway, I for one would like to know how to verify that the setup is optimum for what I've got.

Anyways, any tips on these two issues will be appreciated by me, and undoubtedly others in the future. Also, of course any other tips on getting started with a new power hammer are welcome, because a new guy doesn't even know what he doesn't know.

Thanks for any input.

[T Van Til]

I just bought a pre-owned Anyang and I have the exact same question. I haven't even started mine up yet. I was looking at the linkage on the valves and thought if someone ever messed with that how would you get it back to where it should be.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

The Anyang web site has a lot of info on operation and maintenance.

[Vinito]

From what I could find, both Anyang USA and the overseas website do not have much information on maintenance or operation. In fairness, normal operation and maintenance are pretty light so they shouldn't need but a one page list of typical things to do. So what they provide is fine for the typical needs.

The TLDR then is that I am asking whether there is anything special I should do before starting a hammer that has been sitting for years other than a full inspection as I can muster. Any tips?

2nd, is there any information anywhere regarding a valve timing setting procedure?

[dkaschner]

I just sold my 33 lb. Anyang.  At one time I was fired up to get it setup and working (I got lazy and just bought a new 55 lb. from James).  James Johnson was very helpful with the old hammer even though it wasn't purchased from him.  That is one of the reasons I will always buy from James.  IMO, he and his dad provide world-class customer services.  But I digress.  Given that it was sitting for some time, James suggested that I put 1/2 cup of oil in the cylinder before starting it up.  He also sent me a nice little list of items to check / adjust when starting up an older machine.  You might try calling or emailing James.  He is one of the good ones. :-)