Foundations for hammers

[stiletto]

Heya all. I'm going to be putting concrete in the other portion of my shop tomorrow. Eventually I'll probably build a treadle hammer to put in there. It might get replaced eventually with a larger power hammer, too. How thick should I make the concrete floor? I want to avoid problems down the road as much as possible. Any suggestions on thickness?

Stiletto

 

[T. J.]

Dude, if your even thinking about putting a power hammer in your shop, figure out where you want it, and pour an isolated pad for it before you pour the rest of the floor. No reasonable thickness of floor will support a power hammer without shaking everything else in your shop when you run it. Depending on the size of the hammer you might even possibly dream of having you might need to pour a separate slab up to four foot thick. Then you can pour your floor to normal thickness and not worry about cracking it.

There was an excellent article about this exact thing in the last LAMAgram, but I don't have the address to it here at work. Somebody surely can post it though.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to have heard this direct from the burning bush, or experienced it myself, but better safe than sorry.

James

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Those who are willing to trade freedom for security deserve neither, and in the end, seldom retain them!

 

[mikeS]

My 25# Little Giant is bolted to 2 pieces of 3/4 plywood 4ft by 4ft the plywood simply ssets on the4in concrete in my garage I got this idea fro a sword maker from K.C. I know of another smith with a 50# L.G. that just sits on his shop floor, not even bolted down. If you where using a hammer bigger than this maybe. I read somwhere that a foundation of logs set endwise in the ground was preferred.I know of another hammer bolted to railroad ties.

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Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about!