homemade power hammer dies

[hardheart]

I need some ideas for flattening and drawing. I have some 4" round stock, and a friend cut off a ~6", 20 lb. piece for the hammer. It's dead soft, and I doubt it'll harden. I was thinking of either welding it with hardfacing rods or tacking on a tool steel plate, but I also need something for drawing out. I'm guessing I need 4140 or something similar. The hammer is gonna be similar to these http://www.appaltree.net/rusty/index.htm

 

[Will52100]

The rusty looks to be the better machine and it'll work, but Clay Spencers toggle link tire hammer is probably the best home built out there. Simple, takes very little space, and pounds the crap out of steel with very good control. Only modifications I've made to mine was a heavyier base plate and bolted it down to a slab, and the motor mount(the flange that is made onto the motor) needed reinforcing, but that was my experiance with the rusty type I built a while back.

Mine uses 4140 heat treated steel for the dies and there holding up very well. I had thought of forging dies from a hydrolic cylinder, but couldn't find one large enough.

Good luck.

 

[SteelSlaver]

Plans, I want to built a small hammer. I have welders, steel, lathe, milling machine etc. Definately a journeyman metal smith with loads of fabrication time. Would love some solid plans to built a small hammer capable of doing decent knife sizes damascus billets. Thank you very much

 

[hardheart]

what hardness do the dies need to be, I can get some 4140 pre-hardened at 30. Would that be sufficient for moving hot steel without marring the face?