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dies for my tire hammer


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Guys,
I just realized that I have some perfect material to make additional dies for my tire hammer, problem is, I don't have any idea what else to make, I know tooling is a big deal, and I have a lot already, can some of you who have several types of dies send some pics so I have an idea of what to make? It does not matter what type of hammer you have, I can adapt it, but I need to see what is available, my dies are simple drawing dies, The only other one I can think of is a combo die, and Clay Spencer said those are not really all that effective, can ya lend a hand?

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I've found that for a small hammer, the most useful dies are combos with aggressive fullers on the left side and flats with rounded edges on the right side. Also crown dies [ double fullering dies, radiused both directions ] work well in a hammer with some speed and snap.
On a big hammer , I like long and wide flat dies with eased edges and corners. These are good for driving tools and swaging operations and can draw and smooth with a lot of control.

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On my home built hammer I have aggresive drawing die/flat die combo. I took Hofi's suggestion and made mine as he drew.
The "flat" portion has about a 3/8" flat in the center, with a gentle angl down to the front and back with a generous radius at the edges. Makes it usable for tolls, flattens hot stock well, yet lets you draw gently on the flats. Mine are 2" by 4" wide with half and half.

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Combo dies (a fuller and flatter) are really usefull provided that they're of a decent size. You need each working face to be wider than the parent stock you intend to work through them though so with these dies :

Bam Bams ram and guide assembly - Blacksmith Photo Gallery

for example, anything wider than an inch and a half is too big for the dies (and the hammer as well of course)
This 'tyre' hammer had a tup weight of 25lb on the nose and ran at about 3 hits a second flat out. It was fairly accurate too (in spite of that sloppy looking ram guide) so setting tenons and such was easy with it. Biggest stock it worked was 50mm square. It was certainly ugly but did a suprisingly good job.
It also gave me a chance to figure out how to make the next even better.

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......, and Clay Spencer said those are not really all that effective, can ya lend a hand?


Mike, think about that statement. Maybe for the work and techniques Clay does he does not find them effective, but you might for the work you do and the techniques you use, give em a try if you have enough material to play with.
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One thing I'd suggest is being a little conservative with the die stock till you have a better idea what you want/need.

One of the guys in our club uses flat dies exclusively but he's made many dozens of dies that fit in a cage that fits around the bottom die. When he needs a top die to go with he has more dozens of rod handled top tools.

I can attest to how efficient this is, we can change hammer dies in seconds rather than minutes. Heck, it usually takes longer to fine the one you want than to change them out.

Frosty

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I know the clapper dies are quick in a saddle, and the boys from tha Alabama forge council make some nice ones, specifically Alan Kress, but it gets a bit expensive to buy em, and I never seem to know I need em till I see em in action. I guess time will tell, thanks everyone!

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Small flat dies, sized for the hammer 2x4 for a 25# are large enough to be useful and small enough on the short side that you are not ALWAYS biting off more than you can chew with a little hammer. (I have 3x5s on a 75# utility still air hammer, and I need to make smaller flat dies for more aggressive drawing... Volume, Area, Resistance, and Power, if you learn the proper relationships between them it makes life much more fun... ;-) And of course the fixture to hold the spring fullers, swages, and taper blocks that really make flat dies rock.

Bigger flat dies, that you can throw some furniture on to do some longer bends and shaping, you will still need to focus the energy of a small hammer to be effective, but having bigger dies gives you more options (operations like making the same bend in 20 pairs of bolt tongs...)

Crown dies, because they are fun, and you can squirt the metal anywhich way you like.

The flat center dies that ptree described, a little more aggressive draw then just flat dies, but still flat in the middle for straightening, not great for top tooling or using paddles...

Combo dies can be useful in a limited sort of way, but on a small hammer you are better off with dedicated dies: flat dies with tooling, soft drawing, hard drawing, crown...

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