[TheForge] Little Giant advice sought

Thu Nov 14 21:50:19 2002

        Mike,  The speed seems about right for the lighter hammer.  A friend
in Deer Isle Maine runs one about that speed and has good luck with it.
        The rubber mat is a great idea to take up the inconsistencies in the
base casting.  I found adding 2" of maple blocking to be a plus in raising
the hammer........and IF I were to do it again, I'd add about another 4-6
inches.  Getting it up to a good working height is a real positive move, as
these hammers were designed mostly to be used to sharpen agricultural
equipment at waist level........when doing artistic smithing you will find
the anvil height it comes with to need a lot of bending over.  If you sit
often to run the hammer, it isn't bad.  I do that often with low profile
tooling to use under the dies.

Ralph


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Spencer" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 2:00 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Little Giant advice sought


>
> Well!  I posted this last night late and this morning it wasn't there
> in incoming mail -- just complaints about a drought of mail on
> TheForge.  And then Dave reported:
>
> > The QTH.NET mailman list server has been having severe problems
> > lately....A number of list postings in the last three days have not
> > made it through.
>
> So here's a topic to get us off the frozen slacktub:
>
>
> I'm about to set up my 25# Little Giant in the new shop -- actually
> it's a Jardine (aka Canadian Giant) knock-off of the LG.  A web search
> seems to indicate that it should run at 425 to 450 RPM.  Anyone know
> the ideal speed or have any other advice?
>
> The rest of this post is the yarn that explains why I'm asking.
>
>
> In the old shop, I originally rigged up:
>
>    A motor given to me by the local fish plant owner who didn't want
>    to go to the trouble of getting it off the old pump it was rusted
>    on to, and
>
>    The transmission of an English Ford that the previous owner of my
>    house left out in the field after he had driven it to despair and
>    his teenage sons had driven it to death and disassembled it, belted
>    to
>
>    A line shaft that I fetched out of a blacksmith shop in Sunderland,
>    Mass.
>
> All of this to run a clunky 100# no-name hammer -- the one I've
> swapped off for a 300# Alldays and Onions -- with lots of friction
> loss.
>
> When I got the 25# Jardine, I just hooked up the same belt and it
> worked fine.  I was able to mess with the adjustments and get pretty
> good control and good blows with no stuttering or hula.
>
> But that old Ford transmission makes a terrible racket even with SAE 90
> gear oil in it.  I want to use the 2HP 1725 RMP motor that the
> original owner of the Jardine used.  I saw it run in his shop and it
> went way too fast at ca. 700 RPM (4" pulley to 10" pulley on the
> hammer.)
>
> So I have a bunch of flatbelt pullies, line shaft, bearings etc.  and
> a couple of neighbors with promising junkpiles of that kind of stuff
> whom I'm going to visit tomorrow (if the rains stops).
>
> Since I'm sort of starting from scratch, any advice about speed or
> setup would be welcome.  I have in mind mounting the hammer on a piece
> of 1/2" thick gravel conveyor belt on the concrete floor.  Anyone know
> if that's a really bad idea?  The base of the hammer isn't really
> flat and needs somthing.  Would, say, 3/4" of plywood or maple be better?
>
> (I don't think a rebuild is due at this point.  The giudes seem true
> and I've shimmed them to a good fit.  The shaft has little or no
> slop.)
>
> - Mike
>
> ---
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada
>
> [email protected]
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/
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