[TheForge] air hammer

[Andrew Vida]

ries wrote:
> I was just running a Kuhn at Carbondale a couple of weeks ago, the first 
> time I ever did any time on one, and frankly, I was not impressed at all.
> SIU has a 50kg Kuhn, an old one, probably at least 20 years old, and it 
> does not hit as hard, nor is it anywhere near as controllable, as my 
> 40Kg Anyang.

	At the 98 ABANA conference they had a Sahinler (Turkish) at one of the 
stations.  When they fired it up, it began to smoke and promptly gave up 
the ghost.  I think they brought in a Kuhn to replace it, which worked 
out OK.  I don't think that event was a very good one for Sahinler.

> I will take the Anyang any day.

	I'd heard many complaints against the early Chinese clones - cheap, 
thin, ratty castings.  IIRC, they quickly caught on and increased the 
wall thickness and overall  quality - apparently more than a trivial 
number of their hammers were failing.

> 165lbs is enough to do a LOT of stuff. No, you cant run 4" square with it.
> But I find my 88lb hammer just tops out working about 1 1/2" or 2" 
> stainless- it just plain works as hard as it can, and doesnt quite have 
> the punch you wish it would. Mild in that size range is fine, but 
> stainless, I want more power.
> Which is not to say I dont use it to work that stuff- I do, quite often, 
> but it just takes more heats.

	Andy's rule for power hammer sizing:  estimate the largest hammer you 
will ever need in your wildest dreams and then double it.  If you don't 
think you will ever need that much, you will probably be proven wrong. 
Once in place, one finds uses for the extra capacity. :)