[TheForge] Trip Hammer Report (Longish)

[robert hensarling]

Aubrey, I used Dave's video to tune up my 100 Little Giant.  I also added a 
spring guard and a brake, at his suggestion.  He and I emailed back and 
forth for several months during my renovation, he was a fantastic person, 
and a gentleman.  I just don't understand why good people like that have to 
leave us, and others, that shouldn't be allowed out of their cell, go free 
to kill again.
Sorry, anyway, the tape helped me a LOT!  My 100 pounder can close a match 
box now (ok, ok, every once in a while it really closes the match box, big 
time.
Watch it several times, and use your rerun a lot to back up and see short 
segments again.  Pay attention to what's happening in the background also, 
lots of info there to be had.  The lead-in part of the tape, as well as the 
lead-out part, show many neat things he does with his hammer.  He has a 2nd 
tape out also, and he goes in to detail on making jigs, and tooling for his 
hammer.  It's as valuable as the first tape.
It makes me a little sad to sell my hammers, but I had a good time with 
those Little Giants.  My shop is only big enough for my air hammer now, and 
the 25, 50, 100, and 250 LG's must go.  I'll be advertising them in the 
classifieds in a little bit.
Get the tapes!!  or cd's.  Very valuable!
Robert Hensarling
4326 E. Main
Uvalde, Texas 78801
www.mesquiterocker.com
www.hensarlingknives.com
Uvalde, Texas
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Washington, Aubrey O." <awashington at ou.edu>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 3:52 PM
Subject: [TheForge] Trip Hammer Report (Longish)


Greetings All,

This is an up-date on my attempts to get my new/old Mayer Bros. 25# trip 
hammer up and running.  My daughter's house burned down on Thanksgiving day 
(night), so that took me away from the hammer for awhile.  But, in the 
meantime I've corresponded a little with Sid.  The main problem is that 
timing is off with the  bang-tap-miss thing going on.  Sid says there are 
about 200 things that can cause this, but the first thing to consider is 
that the spring is either too loose or too tight (most often too tight, in 
his experience).  So, last night I finally got back into the shop to monkey 
with it some.

I started by loosening the spring in increments, but that seemed to make it 
worse.  Next I tried tightening it.  It seemed to get a little better, but 
still not right.  Then it occurred to me that the fact that the hammer was 
walking, hopping, and rocking all around the shop while I ran it might be 
contributing to the problem.  (Duh.)  I'm not ready to bolt it to the floor 
of the shop, so I made a wooden platform 2' X 4' X 3" to bolt it to.  The 
next problem was how to lift the hammer onto the platform since I don't have 
any kind of hoist in my shop that will lift 900 pounds (with the motor 
removed).  What finally worked (barely) was a lift boom on the 3-pt hitch of 
my 1948 Ferguson tractor.  That was the absolute limit of my tractor's 
lifting capacity at the 6 foot level (though I could probably lift more 
closer to the ground).  By the time I got the hammer wrestled onto the 
platform, it was cold, dark, and dinner time.  So, it will be this weekend 
before I can get it bolted down and try again on the adjustments.

I have ordered Dave Manzer's DVD on trip hammers from Anvilfire, but it has 
not arrived yet.  I can't wait!  In the meantime, I'll entertain all 
speculation about how to fix my problems.  (No, not those problems, Frosty!)

Aubrey
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