[TheForge] Tire power hammer/YAK long

Tue Dec 6 21:51:57 EST 2005

	Hi Roger, Thanks for the report on your fun trip south.  Minus 9 at the
rest area wasn't much of a warm welcome home - but I'll be it felt more like
home.  :-)  That's cold - We've only had teens so far this season.  You and
Frosty are begining to make me feel the worst is yet to come!

	Your note seems to have somewhat of an air of a report - at the same time
being a question of:
 How can it be done:
	A) cheaper?
	B) faster?
	C) easier?

	With any home made hammer (or any project these days)......it seems with
steel so high in price to buy new - the art of scrounging has taken on a
whole new dimension.  Trying to scrounge 10 hammer anvils of 6" solid be it
round or square is going to be a trick - as that's about 4,000 lbs of steel
in a shape that's hard to carry off easy......not to mention plate and
tubing which are also high ticket items of late.
	If you try to buy smaller components or use more drops from structural work
like air hammers are able to do - you still are very lucky to build an air
hammer worth it's salt for less than $700.   I've done about five now - and
the best I've done was the last one that took $550 to build........BUT, I
scrounged for three years before building it.
	I talked with Clay at the Quad state and he was showing me a couple digital
pictures he'd taken of the hammer prototype and we chatted about time to
make parts, materials costs, jigs needed, and total time involved.  He said
about a strong week and your note indicates the same time frame.  The air
hammers are much the same time - it takes a good hard week's work to put one
together (after all the gear is collected)........and then you need an air
compressor to run it.  Fine if you've got one - but if you dont' - there
goes the price of your power hammer if your buying compressed air just to
accomadate a hammer.
	Clay and the fellow who did the prototype have come up with some ingenious
ideas for puting together a nice working hammer for what it's made
from......recycling at it's best.  :-)

	One thing I've grown tired of doing is the "free tooling workshops"  just
how many times can you build tools for other folks shops - when really the
name of the game is to actually do the forging work and get better at it. I
guess the answer is in doing it with local groups or chapters where you can
pool many resources to do a workshop where you make 10 power hammers in a 48
hour workshop week.  Not only does that require a large shop, but many
welders, and lots of room for multiple workstations -along with all the
tools to pull it all off in the given time.  That also gets into lodging,
meals, and time off from work and business to consider into the hammer as
well - but usually the experience in a group workshop is a good time
especially when a good team spirit comes to the front and progress just
rolls up as you get used to the project and working with each other.

	I'd be interested in watching that video as Clay asked if I had any ideas
to pass them on to him.......but studying how he built it, how it runs, and
what tooling he's got worked out under it would be helpful.
	I'll place my order thru proper channels - when I look it up on the web
site.

Ralph

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Roger R Degner
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 6:45 PM
To: 'Sponsored by ABANA'
Cc: blacksmiths at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [TheForge] Tire power hammer/YAK long

I have returned home from the Alabama Forge Council conference where I
got the opportunity to watch Clay Spencer run a shop made #50 mechanical
hammer made with a emergency spare tire as the clutch.  He gave the name
of the inventor several times but I don't remember it at the moment.

I thought this hammer was the BEST running mechanical trip hammer I ever
watched work.
It always stopped with the hammer in the up position
He was using it with flat dies and showed many different types of top
tooling mainly spring swages/fuller but some hand held top tooling also.
When just using the dies it did a very good job of drawing

The tooling he used could be used in a treadle hammer which he did for
years but the mechanical power was much easier on the body

Now the bad news:
Clay doesn't yet have plans made
He is only having workshops with groups at your shop.  He says it takes
48 hours to made a group of hammers.
Cost depending on how many extra hammers are made per group run about
$1000.  BAM had 4 extra hammers and the total was $1070 per hammer.  The
best price but they had a very good scrounger was $500 each.

Clay said the minimum size anvil for a #50 hammer is 6" solid square or
round.  36" is needed.
The hammer he had there the frame was made of 5" tube.

Other main components:  Spare tire and hub from a front wheel drive
vehicle, one 1" pillow block bearing, bronze bearing bushings, a coil
spring similar to one on a little giant and a 1hp 1727 electric motor
with a flat belt pulley welded up from pipe.  The hammer head was 4"
tube plugged at the bottom drilled and tapped for the top die, pored
with lead to make 50#.

The remainder of the linkage and hammer was welded up from pipe, angle
and flat iron.

I taped the demonstration and am converting it to DVD-R.  It will
eventually be avalible from the UMBA library for $7 shipped.  A full
list of videos are at www.umbaonline.org

The AFC group was very nice to visit.  They have two buildings for the
demos equipped with a little giant, a treadle hammer, forging press, one
of Tom Clarks Air Hammers vises tables forges and all the tooling a
typical shop could every want other than a cone mandrel.
The weather was a drastic change on the way home.  It was at least 50s
there and when I awoke at a rest stop at 4am on the way home to
Minnesota it was -9.  It was 1150 miles one way but well worth the trip.
They say next years conference will be the weekend after labor day in
September so mark your calendars.

Roger R Degner

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