junkyard treddel hammer

[dirty curty]

hey check out the hammer we made out of a 58 283 a few leaf springs a scate board a pulley some collum jack 2" pipe and some r/r rail. its fun to use theres a vid thanks // the wicked hardcore iron shop.

[Scratch]

:o I'm speechless... just speechless...

[Ted T]

:o WOW!
Ted

[Ratel10mm]

That is scary! But looks like it works well! :D

[Bentiron1946]

There are some things that are really cool about it. The twin pipe guides are are a cool idea. Using the engine block as the anvil and the crank shaft are also cool. There is a lot of mass there. The sections of rail are OK but would be better with some reinforcing sections welded to the inside of the webs. I think that maybe springs might be better then cylinder heads for a ram return. Some really good ideas and uses of materials.

[Pault17]

Just watching the video makes me tired. You could almost get the same effect by putting a piece of hot metal between two cars in a high school drivers ed class when they are learning to parallel park... almost:o

very vreative use of parts though. the crank shaft is a beautieous fit

[Bentiron1946]

They do appear to be working rather hard. Not the best use of mechanical leverage.:rolleyes:

[rustyshackleford]

creative, and ultimately better than mine (I don't have one...)

but there's two of you...why doesn't one of you just act as a striker?

[ironrosefarms]

It does look like a lot of work, but I have to give them big time kudo's to the fact they got off their tail ends and tried. I'm still mulling over the concept and ho humming around about building one.

Really the thing I think causing it to be so much work though is the cable, if they could get a linkage to replace that cable it might be a decent set up???

[ThomasPowers]

I've seen it and shuddered. It looked like more work to use that then to strike without it.

[maddog]

Its very creative!

Some comments about the operation:
It seems to me that the only thing driving the down stroke is gravity and hand power! Do I have this wrong? In most treadle hammers the power stroke is driven by the big muscles of the leg. Here the legs are used to lift the engine which then gives the return stroke. Gravity doesnt build up much speed over a short distance. One reason its rarely used in hammer designs. Also the weight of the engine is unbalanced which makes the whole thing rock, hard to control and wasteful of energy. The thin webs on the RR dies must soak up some power too.

Then there is the safety issue of the cable which Apprentice Man pointed out. Wicked! Perhaps some sort of guard could be added?

I wonder what the fabrication time was compared to standard TH designs? It looks like it went together with found parts that didnt require much modification. Thats always fun to see because it requires more ingenuity.

The sliding tubes and the pulley system give a nice inline action. Also the big pulley lets the cable roll smoothly.

Definitely the sort of thing that gets me thinking. I would love to see a couple of good still photos of the whole thing.

I love this sort of thing. Its very much in a blacksmith's blood to dream up these contraptions and weld them together. But it's also useful to look at the results and see what works well and what doesnt.

A very cool video - thanks.

Edited September 15, 2008 by maddog