[TheForge] air hammer

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

I was part of the group here in CA that bought the first container full 
of Anyang hammers over.
Most of the motors and all of the starters were useless or problem plagued.
All of the castings were profoundly ugly, covered entirely with bondo. 
When i opened the port on mine, there was 1/2 a gallon of sand, rocks 
and gravel in the crankcase and the whole cavity is covered in coarse 
grit. I still don't have the foundation all these years later so i don't 
know how it runs.
One of the hammers had a broken piston ring, one had a problem with the 
piston hitting the head.
One friend finally discovered that one of the air channels serving the 
valves had mostly collapsed during the casting. Another hammer was 
machined so tight in the cylinder that it'd only run on WD40 as a 
lubricant..and even then was erratic.
The Anyang people were alternately non-responsive or smarmy helpful in 
their promise rich responses, but failed to deliver most of the time.
I think Helmut Hillenkamp may be the AnYang problem champion.
Ironically, that region of China has a very ancient tradition of 
splendid, massive and ornate bronze castings...way, way before the west 
was anywhere near as good...pf

Andrew Vida wrote:
> 
> 
> ries wrote:
>>
>> On Nov 3, 2008, at 1:25 PM, Andrew Vida wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Andy- I have heard rumors to this effect- but I have never actually 
>> met a single person who had one fail.
>> Do you actually know anybody?
> 
>     Some of the complaints came from folks right here, though I cannot 
> recall who made them as this was about a decade ago.  I was only 
> relaying what was said or written by others.  Could have been an 
> assassination campaign against Chinese products for all I know.  But I 
> do seem to recall at least one person (here??) who had claimed they'd 
> had one and that it had failed in some significant manner and then the 
> usual "I would never have another" sort of talk.
> 
>> I do know probably 30 to 50 people who have Chinese hammers who like 
>> them, and have not had problems- but I have not been able to track 
>> down any of the people who got the lemons.
>> I have no doubt there were some lemons, but I just hear third hand 
>> stories.
> 
>     Same here.  I do clearly recall, however, a thread here on the 
> Strikers... or whoever's name is on the Nazel clones... that they were 
> good hammers but were not as precise as a Nazel.  Well, given what one 
> pays for it, I suppose that is only to be expected.
>>
>> I do know that Anyang, in particular, is VERY responsive. The 
>> president of the company (who speaks no english) and his  chief 
>> engineer both came to the 2006 Abana conference in Seattle, to talk to 
>> blacksmiths.
>> The late Bob Graham, who was the US Anyang distributor til he passed 
>> away, told me that he would email China with a problem or suggestion, 
>> and often get a new part fed-exed to him within a week, custom made to 
>> put on his test hammers, to try out.
>> I think that James Cosgrove, who imports the Striker hammers, has had 
>> a similar relationship with the factory he works with. They will 
>> customize hammers, listen to their customers, and change accordingly.
> 
>     Well, don't forget that there is a lot of enmity towards the Chinese 
> these days for having stolen "our" jobs.
>>
>> I know my Anyang had a couple of poorly tapped holes, which I 
>> repaired, and had substandard chinese motor starter and oiling system- 
>> both of which I have replaced or upgraded- but the basic castings and 
>> machining are very solid and strong.
>>
>> There is no doubt I would prefer a Nazel. But a 70's Nazel is a new 
>> machine, and the smaller ones are old, tired, and expensive. 
>> Chambersburg quoted a price of $125,000, in the early 80's right 
>> before they went under, for a 150lb hammer.
> 
>     Larry Foster of Chambersburg quoted me $250K for a 250 utility.  The 
> "safety cap" alone was $30K.  I already had one so I neenered.  I think 
> They went under in 2000.  Larry and I were conversing as late as 98 or 
> 99.  I got a set of foundation plans for the 250.  Over-engineered is 
> right - I just found them in the bus after all these years.
>>
>> So a chinese hammer offers a lot of bang for the buck, especially if 
>> you are out west.
> 
>     West ain't so good for tooling like this, I have to say, but the 
> east is also becomming less well endowed.  Lots of fabulous tooling went 
> to the melter.  A damned shame too, I might add.
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