[TheForge] Coordinated Hammers (was: Light weight forging equipment)

[jerry Frost]

This type forging machine has a name, folk have been using opposed hammers
for a long time, I just don't remember what it's called. 

Properly composing and heat treating the dies for such isn't anything new
either. There are a lot of machines designed to beat steel to steel
constantly without damage to the dies, think big shredder eating engine
blocks for small a scale example. Rock crushers are impact resistant on a
scale no hot forging machine would require.

for practical purposes in the home shop the trick would be placing the work
so it was impacted by both hammers at the same time so as not to be thrown
across the shop. If anyone needs an example of what it'd be like to be out
of position on impact in an opposing hammer try holding the work an inch or
so off the bottom die in a power hammer. NO, don't do THAT, just picture
what would happen if you did!

Anyway, opposing hammer forging machines have been around a long loooonnnng
time, probably as long as blacksmiths have been tinkering with power tools.
It's just a matter of gearing off a water wheel after all.

Jer

-----Original Message-----
From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Peter
Fels & Phoebe Palmer
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2014 10:59 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Coordinated Hammers (was: Light weight forging
equipment)

There are circumstances where it's impractical to bring the work to the
anvil and i've ended up heating with a rosebud and swinging opposed hammers
with both hands simultaneously to shape the work.It's difficult. 
With mechanical opposed hammers, one either has to use closed dies or forget
accurately placed tooling.which reduces their versatility. I can imagine
some exceptions.

On Dec 28, 2014, at 11:36 AM, Bruce . <freemab222 at gmail.com> wrote:

The safety fix could be to have two parallel striking surfaces.  Either the
hammers strike the workpiece, or, if somebody goofs and doesn't insert the
workpiece, the secondary striking surfaces hit each other.  These latter
would be made of unhardened steel, so might deform but wouldn't shatter.

The secondary surfaces could be remote from the primary hammers so as not to
be in the way.  The gap between the primary hammers could be made adjustable
by adjusting the secondary ones  -- which could be a neat feature if you're
trying to forge to a set thickness.

Of course, if you build a mechanical hammer like this, somebody is gonna
complain that they can't swing the hammer by hand!  (Voice of experience
speaking here.)

Which brings on the next thought.  Suppose you took two hand hammers (or
thing that were nearly so) and connected them through some guidance
mechanism vaguely resembling a lazy tongs or pantograph such that the faces
come together at the workpiece.  Use a tool balancer (to take the weight and
to allow some motion of the mechanism) and you could suspend this mechanism
on the far side of your work support (the mental equivalent of the place
where your anvil is now).

So you grab one hammer in your left hand and one in your right.  These could
be BIG hammers because the mechanism would support the weight.  You then
swing the two hammers together against the workpiece, one from the left, one
from the right.  The mechanism would ensure that they'd strike from opposite
sides at the same moment.

I can just see perfecting this only to hear somebody complain, "But, I can
do the same thing with ONE hammer and an anvil!"

Bruce
NJ

On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 10:28 AM, Andy Gladish <anjgladish at gmail.com> wrote:

> Maybe it's old hat, but I just realized, sitting here looking out the 
> window at lake Michigan at our vacation cottage, that the physics of 
> forging might not require a heavy anvil if you simply had two 
> coordinated hammers hitting above and below.
> Lots of safety considerations, don't try this @home, kids.
>