[TheForge] Re: Purty power hammer

[Jerry Frost]

Another option for changeable dies rather than clamps 
is a slip on frame. It's a simple box that slips over 
the bottom die, additional specialty dies slip into it 
and are held in position by the frame. A couple set 
screws will hold the frame and dies in it.

One of our local guys has this set up on his 90lb 
utility hammer and it's very practical, especially for 
quick changes. Basically just lift one die out and drop 
the other one in.

And yes, pinstriping is a must for all well dressed 
hammers.

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

Meadow Lakes, AK.


From: "Mike Spencer" <mspencer at tallships.ca>



>
>
>
> Ries> Seems quite bizarre, as most every big hammer I 
> have ever seen
> Ries> has the dies at 45 degrees, so you can work 
> both axis of them...
>
> This is a good time to think about that.  I've had a 
> vaguely
> formulated notion that I would have the dies milled 
> flat and
> dovetailed so that they acted as sow blocks for new, 
> smaller, more
> versatile dies.  It didn't occur to me that the 
> dovetails should be at
> 45 deg.  Excellent and timely observation, thanks.
>
> At the moment, I'm making a clamp for the lower die 
> to hold tooling on
> top of the flat part of the die, just so I can have 
> something more
> than "squash" or "taper" for learning purposes.  I 
> won't muck around
> with altering the existing dies until I've had some 
> practice and get
> some feel for how the thing behaves.
>
>
>
> - Mike
>