My comments do not come from experience...

I think I would try the 3/4 plywood to begin with, more to absorb some of the impact than to dampen the sound. It will be interesting to see over time if/how the concrete is impacted by the hammer.

I got a kick out of the image of the hammer dancing on the leash...sort of as that would be scary indeed.

To fight noise with noise on the other side, instead of a sound baffle, make a sound reflector aimed at the offenders. Though I would expect your wife to be rather displeased by the racket.

--Larry

10 hours ago, LeeJustice said:

He was referring to the air line being the leash when it goes for a walk.

That dawned on me as I was working in the shop today.  Funny! 

19 hours ago, swedefiddle said:

The Air Line will be the Leash. LOL maybe.....

Neil

Took me a few hours to realize you were joking. 

7 hours ago, LarryFahnoe said:

To fight noise with noise on the other side, instead of a sound baffle, make a sound reflector aimed at the offenders. Though I would expect your wife to be rather displeased by the racket.

--Larry

Oh, you don't know how I've been scheming to fight back.  I put up bat houses right at the property line.  I'm hoping they'll swoop in and grab some loudmouth by the hair.  I bought two sets of super bright stadium lights.  They're about a million lumens. I'm going to put them at the top of a tall pole right at the property line.  Get loud and obnoxious after 9 pm? Say hello to my little friend.  I even have a remote switch so I don't have to get out of bed.

Calling the sheriff is pretty much useless.  Yes, they will walk right into the backyard of the BnB and give them a lesson on being considerate, but they have yet to issue a ticket, which the statute allows.

Here's one of the jerks who decided--at 2 am--to show the neighborhood how good he is at doing loud, free-style rap and climbing on roofs.  When the deputy came by, they were all "yessir! yessir!"

 

On 4/21/2025 at 10:59 AM, LarryFahnoe said:

I think I would try the 3/4 plywood to begin with, more to absorb some of the impact than to dampen the sound. It will be interesting to see over time if/how the concrete is impacted by the hammer.

I concur with this.  I glued 2 inches of plywood under the base of my hammer.  I believe it does relieve some of the impact stress on the concrete below, but there doesn't seem to be an appreciable amount of noise dampening.

MS,  I have one word for you regarding the noisy BnB:  Bagpipes.  You don't have to learn to play them yourself, just a sound system.  Most unsophisticated folk dislike them (unlike us cultured people who adore them).

Mideastern music can also have a deterrent effect and traditional Chinese vocal pieces can make your teeth hurt.

16 hours ago, Buzzkill said:

I believe it does relieve some of the impact stress on the concrete below, but there doesn't seem to be an appreciable amount of noise dampening.

What is your tup weight and does your hammer sit on a 4" slab?

16 hours ago, George N. M. said:

MS,  I have one word for you regarding the noisy BnB:  Bagpipes.  You don't have to learn to play them yourself, just a sound system.  Most unsophisticated folk dislike them (unlike us cultured people who adore them).

Mideastern music can also have a deterrent effect and traditional Chinese vocal pieces can make your teeth hurt.

LOL!  I actually tried to learn the bagpipes a couple of decades ago.  I didn't have the lungs for it.  I had a dream of playing the pipes and joining the McGuires Irish Pub marching band.  Turns out that an Ancestry.com DNA test showed me to be 54% Scandinavian, 15% Greek, and 31% Welch/Irish, so I had neither the lungs or genetics to play the pipes. 

Indonesian gamelan music might also be effective.

Yesterday, I made a mount for the ball valve.  Part of it is screwed together so I can replace the valve if needed.  Right now it's mounted with a magnet until I figure out the foot treadle.  Also mounted the filter/dryer/lubricator/regulator and the single pilot control valve.  I have a double pilot valve and two bearing lever valves just in case I want to try the Big Blu setup, but if a single valve works, then I'm going with the simplest arrangement.

I'm waiting for a couple of G3/8" to 3/8" NPT adaptors that are being delivered Thursday, so I guess I'll start on the foot treadle.

Today, this, plus about six hours on CAD trying to do the linkage.  Tomorrow is a new day.

 

 

Yesterday, I didn't get into it too much because I had to take two of our dogs to the vet midday. Nothing serious.  But I did make an adjustable bracket for the single bearing lever valve I'm using.  It's just held in place with a magnet for now.

At one point I designed a pretty Rube Goldberg-esque linkage for the treadle with several levers and rods, but by moving the pivot point of the one lever out over the treadle pedal, it solved the problem of turning 3/4" of movement at the pedal to 1-1/8" of movement at the ball valve.

 

On 4/23/2025 at 7:33 AM, MeltedSocks said:

What is your tup weight and does your hammer sit on a 4" slab?

I haven't weighed it, but I estimate the tup weight around 35 lbs.   The hammer sits on a standard garage floor.  The detached garage was already built when I bought the property so I don't actually know the concrete thickness, but I'd guess it's roughly 4 inches thick. 

My hammer is mobile and I can move it out of the way when not in use.  The base plate is 4" thick and 20" by 24", so the base weighs around 500 lbs by itself. The anvil is another 250-300 lbs. That probably helps a bit with the stability, but I did install outrigger supports to limit the swaying and walking that happen at certain RPM.

I worked on the linkage some more today.  I designed it in 2D, but when I did my 3D real life thing, I realized the valve lever is offset 2", so I'll have to cut and weld an offset on the lever.  No big deal.

I also got my extra air tank set up in the smithy.  I'll connect my new upright compressor to this tank via a 3/8" air hose.  Milton fittings. Should give me plenty of air.

Just need to find a return spring of the appropriate weight. I guess I could start by measuring the force required to return the treadle to the top with a luggage scale.  Then what?  Double, triple, quadruple it?

The linkage is the most tedious part of this project so far.  I need to add a couple of set screws to the ball valve bracket to eliminate a little slop.

 

The treadle looks pretty light.  Maybe start by figuring out what you think the control force should be.

35 minutes ago, Mike BR said:

The treadle looks pretty light.  Maybe start by figuring out what you think the control force should be.

Meaning how much resistance to my foot pressure I want?

That's what I was thinking.

I hardly ever throw away things like knobs, pulleys, springs, etc.  But yesterday, I pulled an old hood latch cable and spring assembly that I think went to an '81 Ford F-100 I used to have.  It could have also been a parking break tensioner.  The spring had a hook on one end, but a long cable and eyelet on the other end.  I contemplate on how to utilize it--maybe a complex network of pulleys--but chucked it in the garbage.  I figured 20 years was long enough to hold onto it.

This morning, I pulled it out of the trash and replaced the cable with a section of 1/4" round bar.  I upset one end so it wouldn't pull through the hole in the spring and made a hook on the other end that will fit over a 5/16" bolt.  It feels like the right amount of tension.  I made several notches on the main lever so I could adjust it.

I had to rethink the ball valve linkage.  The problem was a tiny bit of movement of my foot translated to a big movement at the valve, plus there was a lot of resistance, so I overshot what I was going for.  But I moved the linkage rod end an inch further away, and it now works wonderfully.  I'll make a video of that, too.

Now I just need to take some of the play out of the foot treadle.  I'm thinking of replacing the pivot bolts with a through-rod that is threaded on both ends.  I don't like the threads of a bolt being the pivot.  Just seems wrong.

It doesn't walk around as much as I thought it would, but at full impact, boy does the earth shake!  I haven't put any plywood under it yet.

All-in-all, I'm pretty thrilled, as you can imagine.  It was a long, hard, physically demanding project for an old man with a bum left shoulder.  I know what you're thinking, Frosty! 

 

I thought "cracking an egg" was just a saying.  

 

 

I can well imagine the thrill and gratification you're feeling about now! I wasn't expecting to see videos of basic functioning yet, but you've been full steam ahead, well done! Now, how many eggs prior to the video that you shared? 

--Larry

3 hours ago, LarryFahnoe said:

Now, how many eggs prior to the video that you shared? 

I did a wooden dummy egg first, but that went so well that I stepped it up to a REAL egg $$$$. 

3 hours ago, LarryFahnoe said:

I wasn't expecting to see videos of basic functioning yet, but you've been full steam ahead, well done!

--Larry

I actually expected to spend a month tweaking it. 

Good Morning,

Great Work and Figuring out what and how, to get to that point.

No mean question, I hope it was a Hard Boiled Egg!!!  I am not being mean, just a question!!!

Great video, Great Job!!!

Neil

5 hours ago, swedefiddle said:

No mean question, I hope it was a Hard Boiled Egg!!!

 Nope, it was a fresh egg courtesy of my chickens.  Thanks!

Last piece of the puzzle: making it a stationary machine. I didn't relish the idea of drilling though 3/4" plate with a 5/8" drill bit using a hand drill, so I came up with these hold-downs.  This thing is rock solid.  Widening the stance front to back by rotating the base plate 45 degrees worked like I knew it would.

Now it's time to paint.  I've got it all taken apart, wire brushed, degreased, and sprayed with Ospho.  I can't prime and paint until tomorrow afternoon.

Now I need to think about my die problem.  I've got a chunk of 2x2 mild solid square bar that I can make into dies without the worries of post-weld heat treating.

The wife said it had to match my workshop and garden shed. Luckily, Rustoleum had a close match to my blue trim color.  I'll accent the hammer with black like my shed in the far background.

 

You know what's upsetting my OCD right now, right?

 

Pinstripes and flames?   Upset or not, I think the O-part has helped you move fast on this build though!

--Larry