[TheForge] Speaking of hammers

[Jerry Frost]

It's like I'm finally going to get to build a real shop this summer. With a
real shop I'll get to start bootstrapping myself into some equipment.

One of the things on my short list is a self contained power hammer. There's
been a lot of discussion on home built power hammers Kinyon type and self
contained. I've done almost all the drawing borad/screen design work I can
till I find out exactly what I'll have available for rams, anvil, etc. then
I can get specific on the design.

I don't have much hands on power hammer experience so I have an operational
question. From reading through lots of patents and list messages I know self
contained hammers have a few functions other than just beating the snot out
of hot steel.

On another list a poster mentioned his chinese hammer idles with the ram on
the anvil. This tells me the hammer in question has the (or something
similar to) simplest version of the control valving in the 1903 Massey
patent, # us707,246.  This is basically a valve in a bypass airway, when
it's open the hammer is idling and the ram rests on the anvil, when closed
the ram cycles.

A simple 1/4 turn ball valve in the bypass airway will produce the above
described action. The addition of a check valve in the control valve will
allow the hammer to idle with the ram off the anvil. Some additional
internal shaping of the valve and simple changes to the linkage will yeld a
hammer capable of giving dead blows and clamping. A single blow is a
function of the linkage rather than the valve itself so I'm not including
this function in my question.

Okay, enough of the preface, here's my question. Does anybody using a self
contained power hammer use the clamping or dead blow functions?

Basically I'm rather lazy and don't want to go through the headache of
milling the multi-function control valve and never use the other functions.
I do like the idea of the ram idling in the up position but if having it
idle on the anvil isn't a problem I might keep it REALLY simple.

Thanks

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.