Jose Gomez Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Recently I built a small adjustable/transportable olliver hammer for a friend. During construction of the first hamer another friend stopped by and decided that he also had to have one. The smal ollie has an 8 pound head and the large one is 16 pounds. Both work very well and were easy to build, so I thought that I would post a few pics and a video in case anyone was interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlarkin Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Video! I gotta see da video! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Gomez Posted December 22, 2008 Author Share Posted December 22, 2008 It took me a second to get it uploaded but better late than never!!ollie hammer - Blacksmith Photo Gallery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Martin Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Great job, how much it cost for one, plus shipping to wisconsin??? Lol. JK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted T Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Jose I can always depend on you to build about anything, have interesting things to show, or have valuable comments to share here at I Forge Iron. That looks like a BLUEPRINT to me! Thank You for sharing your project with us! Ted Throckmorton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dablacksmith Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 nice looking olivers and simple! ive been toying with the thought of a portable oliver ... might give that a try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 JOSE I COULD KISS YOU!!!!!!!! Wow it's like a dream come true, amazing.....................This made my day thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Nice Olivers Jose, well done. The one thing I'm not so thrilled about is having to go behind the anvil and bend over to adjust the hammer height on the ones where you can that is. A thought just ocurred to me though. (DANGER Will Robinson DANGER!) How about making the height adjustment at the hammer head itself? Use a length of sq. tubing welded to the arm and a length of solid sq for the hammer head. A number of pin holes drilled through both would allow adjustment from the work station. I'll have to think about that. Hmmmmm. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keykeeper Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Jose, That is a great little design. Thanks for posting!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted T Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Jose, How long is the handle? Ted Throckmorton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pault17 Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Very cool deal Mr. Gomez. that looks a lot easier for the short term that welding up a treadle. for now. thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Im guessing you would fatique less with a threadle? I dont think this hammer could be simpler, very nice. Can you compare this hammer vs a power hammer like the rusty appalachian? Ex. which one would draw out a 1 inch stock faster? Im guessing the power hammer would but the oliver uses no electricity for guys like me that have a shop were no telephone polls run lol ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Treadle hammers, whether they're simple ones like an Oliver or really complicated ones like the Grasshopper are not power hammers. Two different beasts all together. Think of them like a striker for doing precision work and occasional heavy work. In most, power hammers are used for their speed. Meaning they move a lot of metal fast. The similarities being no need for a third hand or helper and heavier blow. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
element Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Thanks for making that clear. eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Gomez Posted December 24, 2008 Author Share Posted December 24, 2008 Thanks All! Ted T, the handle on the small portable hammer is about 26 inches long and is made of pipe. The handle on the larger ollie is about 38 inches of 1 inch solid round. Both handles are measured from the pivot point to the top of the hammer head. Frosty, I like the idea of puting the adjustment at the hammer head, but on both of these builds I was stuck using whatever "junk" my friends brought with them, or whatever we could dig out of the scrap pile. The only things that were purchased just for these hammers were the springs and a short length of chain for the bigger of the two. I think that in total we put less than 40 bucks into the set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGropp Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 Since the hammer is swinging in an arc , there is only one point where the face of the hammer and the anvil are parallel. This could be a problem if a lot of different thicknesses of stock or heights of tooling is used. This could be compensated for by having the hammer pivot point be adjustable vertically up and down. This could be done as simply as having a series of holes in the vertical post with an easily removable pin or something more sophisticated such as an acme thread or ratchet. The rack and pinion crank mechanism used on the original ABANA treadle hammer design would also work very well and allow quick height adjustment. What seems like a limitation in the action of this style of hammer could actually be an advantage : the ability to strike a powerful and controlled angled blow, something no power or treadle hammer or press can do. This would make it more akin to having a human striker without the wages or back talk. By making the pivot axis adjustable vertically would allow one to adjust for either a parallel or an angled blow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nealj Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 How are you attaching the hammer head to the handle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Gomez Posted December 27, 2008 Author Share Posted December 27, 2008 SGropp, you are right on both accounts. If you will notice, on the small transportable hammer there is a series of holes on the vertical post that the hamer pivots on. These holes allow the user to adjust the hammer to strike the anvil flat at its lowest setting, or up to 10 inches over the anvil at its highest seting to allow for the use of tooling. The larger hammer, on the other hand, is fixed. It is specifically designed for use by a bladesmith, so I set the hammer to strike paralell at 1/4 inch over the anvil face. By doing this the hammer can be used to draw or flatten blades, but when used on thin sections, the hammer face strikes at a slight angle which works perfectly for forging the bevel on a blade. nealj, to attach the head on the small portable hammer I first forged a piece of pipe down to where it would fit through the eye of the sledge hammer head. Then I took a good heat on the pipe and drove it into the sledge head. I followed this up by trimming the part of the pipe that was sticking out of the other side of the head off and welding the pipe to the hammer head. On the large hammer I used solid stock for the handle. First I forged the solid to the shape of the eye then took a high heat and drove the bar through the hammer eye. Before the bar cooled I turned the hammer over, stood the hammer up on it's handle, and forged the portion of the bar that stuck out back into the head of the hammer (like a giant rivet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feukair Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 Wow. I'm making one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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