[TheForge] Re: scroll machine/ power hammer

[Mike]

> Over four hundred years of power hammer development and the Rusty was 
> the first to to use and eccentric/crank and a  leaf spring?

I haven't been able to get good views of either rusty or pitbull
hammers.  But the first hammer I got was this configuration.

Before I had a shop or knew much, I spotted a power hammer in a closed
shop.  Found the owner (who had retired after he sawed off his right
thump) and bought most of his gear including a hammer.

Ca. 100# ram, very heavy leaf spring, 3' long conrod and a crankshaft
about as heavy as one in a 10HP gas engine.  Eventually I had a shop,
set it up with flat belt drive.  Worked great for bashing -- making
anchors, drawing out heavy bars, punching 1" holes -- but I never
got it tuned to be very responsive or controllable.

It looks like circa 1900 design but there are no numbers, names or
anything on it anywhere that I could find and no one who's seen it has
ever seen one like it.

Got it in Sunderland, Mass in 1968, swapped it off for an air hammer
in 2002 so I wouldn't have to move it.  Tim Bolivar, the new owner, is
real happy with it.  Maybe I should try to get a digital photo for the
web.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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