Any machinests intrested in making a set of power hammer dies?

Dan Seaver

Dan Seaver

Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
898
I have a fairbanks #150 hammer and I need to have a pair of custom dies made for it. I need to have the dies custom made because the dovetails are perpendicular rather than parallel. My drawings are for the original dies with a slight variation, getting hammer dies made this big is... expensive from the quotes I have gotten so far. I don't have the exact dovetail size yet but will have it soon; for now I included the slot each of the dovetails goes into.

I can pay cash, trade steel, or make damascus as part of the trade. Basically I'll do anything short of working the corners to get these dies made at a reasonable price.

File0001.jpg

File0002.jpg


Thank you
-Dan Seaver
 
Dan,

You would likely be able to get them made at Little Giant. Keri and Sid were willing to make and HT a set of #50 Fairbanks dies for our hammer. If you need dimensions, you might be able to get them from Doug Freund. He has written a couple of books on the history and design of the various hammer types. I think you might track Doug down through some of the blackmithing sites like Anvil Fire or IForgeIron. If you decide to look for him and don't have any luck, holler at me and I'll see if I can come up with other ideas.

Lastly, there is a guy nicknamed "Bear" who is an architectural iron worker near Eugene, Oregon. He runs (and maintains) a number of hammers all day, every day. He says a person can build their own dies and HT them... or not. What you need is dimensions and they don't have to be exact. You scribe them on a block of 4140 and cut them out on a bandsaw. Yup, it's rough. Bear evens up the cuts with a 4 1/2" angle grinder and a big, coarse-cut file. I know, this doesn't sound like it ought to work. I've got no doubt "Bear" makes it work and because of that, so can anybody... just have to be hard headed enough... like "Bear".

Mike
 
Dan, what face are you planning on putting on them ? I have some dies that come with my Fairbanks. Let me check and see what is there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top