Novelty Ironworks Lineshaft Hammer

[Blacksmith Jim]

Howdy all,

My friend is in the market for a hammer, and he happened to find a line shaft driven hammer made by Novelty Ironworks from Dubuque. Neither of us had heard anything about this brand, and it looked a little different. Does anyone know anything about it?

Thanks!

[Ice Czar]

with a flywheel that size it has a short throw, minimal inertia (meaning more torque from the lineshaft) and Id imagine alot of friction on those posts

I would venture a guess that its "rare" for a reason

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

After some creative googling, I got this. Not much, but some info. Seems it might be rare because (according to this site) very few were made, and were made for a very special purpose.

"The Boss" power hammer

-Aaron @ the SCF

Edit: found a few more hits. not much though.

http://omaha.craigslist.org/tls/932635771.html

http://www.spaco.org/pow.htm

More or less pictures. From what I gathered with a quick look, Novelty Iron Works seems to be a late 18th/early19th century do-all, cast-all, make-all if it will sell type of operation.

Edited December 3, 2008 by the_sandy_creek_forge

[irnsrgn]

The Albany Museum Blacksmith shop has one of those and its a nice running hammer, still running on a line shaft. The clutch is an idler pulley that tightens the belt to make it work. They are nice hammers similar in construction to an old "Boss Power Hammer". It will work fine for a small smithing shop.

To mount it the Albany Museum Shop they put down some RR ties cut to length and bolte thru, on a gravel bed and anchored it to the ties, Albany Shop has a dirt floor.


http://www.littlegianthammer.com/oldads2.html

Edited December 3, 2008 by irnsrgn

[ThomasPowers]

I have a friend who owned two of these, our guess was that they were originally designed for plow lay work and perhaps not as universally usefull as some other designs.

With the open lay out it would certainly be great for some things though.

[dablacksmith]

according to pounding out the profits they were dezigned to go places that a regular power hammer couldnt they came dissasembled and the anvil bace was the heavyest part.. aparrently they ended up used in mines and other places that access was hard (pack it on a mule) ide give it a try if the price is right... should work..

[SGropp]

A friend of mine just acquired a hammer similar to the ''Boss'', but it was some other brand I'd never heard of and can't recall the name just now. The major difference was that it had toggle arms similar to a Little Giant but instead of a coil or leaf spring it had a single rubber cushion. This hammer was in the 200-250# ram size range with a separate anvil with removable sow block. The anvil was captured in a hole in the cast base which also supported the four steel posts of the knockdown frame.
Apparently the hammer was in an old logging camp shop on the coast of Washington next to a large steam hammer.

[Blacksmith Jim]

according to pounding out the profits they were dezigned to go places that a regular power hammer couldnt they came dissasembled and the anvil bace was the heavyest part.. aparrently they ended up used in mines and other places that access was hard (pack it on a mule) ide give it a try if the price is right... should work..

Ya know, I've never thought about it before, but I can't imagine smithing IN a mine. I would think the ventilation would be horrible! :o

[Blacksmith Jim]

Thanks for all your feedback everybody!

[ThomasPowers]

The term "mine" is used for more than just the mine shaft and generally includes all the support stuff out on the surface.

As for ventilation; well it can be very bad, ok or horrendeously drafty depending on the specific shaft and how the mine is ventilated.

I can't say I have ever heard of a smithy down the shaft but have seen pictures of machine shops and welding set ups used underground and even underground scrapyards! I recently saw a video on salt that mentioned that all the specialized heavy equipment used for mining it under the great lakes had to come down in pieces and be assembled in place and when it finally gave up the ghost they would drag it off to an unused section of the mine and use it for parts to work on other pieces of equipment. They showed a brief pic of the "scrap yard" too.

Edited December 4, 2008 by ThomasPowers