[TheForge] Re: Purty power hammer

[ries]

I cant see needing a hole thru the column, (not that its even  
possible) given your die orientation- instead, most work would be done  
at right angles to the column. At least, thats how I, and most smiths  
I know, work with power hammers- with the work piece going 90 degrees  
to the long axis of the die.
The idea of a sow block that rotates the dies 45 degrees, with smaller  
final dies, makes some sense to me- mostly just because of how awkward  
it would be to always be working the treadle from the side, rather  
than from the front.
Personally, I like flat dies, with lots of add on tooling, but I know  
that there are many people who prefer the kind of combo dies you  
currently have.
I have an outboard support that clamps onto my lower die, and is  
removable in a minute or two, that my swage tooling in turn clamps to,  
so most of the time, I leave it in place and run swages and lower  
tools, but I can easily remove it if needed.

As for value- well, if you had spent the bucks for a new, 3 phase,  
appropriately sized motor, with new motor starter, I can imagine that  
hammer easily selling for between $5000 and $10,000 down here where I  
live. Several similar sized machines have recently traded in that  
range, to working smiths, who understand that a real, to spec footing  
could easily run them another 3 to 5 grand, with electrical hookup  
costing a bunch as well.
Both of the late Russel Jacque's hammers, a Nazel 3B and a 600lb  
Chambersburg, were priced at $15,000, and both sold, although I dont  
know what the final sales prices were.
This is not "collector" pricing- this is current usable tool pricing  
for 300lb hammers, which are pretty rare.
Its a great size, and many people run just one hammer, a 250lb to  
300lb hammer, and do everything with it.
As far as I know, the only new option for a hammer that size is the  
chinese hammers, which will run quite a bit more for a 300lb machine-  
the 165lb hammers are costing about $10,000  right now.
I dont know what they get for a 300lb machine, but I am guessing its  
north of  $15,000, landed in the USA.

By the way, have you considered pinstriping?
Adds value, character, and elan.

Ries



Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/