Rusty Appalachian hammer build along

[Jason Fry]

I started a Rusty hammer yesterday. It’ll probably take me three or four weeks more work to finish, but I have a few pictures from day one. Yesterday we did most of the major cutting, layout, and engineering. This kind of project is like building from a tub of Legos. You know what you want to build, find the pieces you have that will work, and you put it together. It’s not at all like building Legos from a set.

The head of the hammer will be about 40 pounds, and the anvil around 400. I have a 32" length of 5 1/2" solid that'll go inside that green sleeve in the pics.

Layout on the floor... we don’t need no stinking plans, LOL.

Most of the big parts laid out.

A closer shot of the spring arm and head lay out.

After that, I put it all in the truck and hauled it home. 1000 or 1200 pounds in the back of a Tacoma is quite a load. Lowrider for sure, LOL.

Lots of drilling, tapping, welding to go, but I have the next two weekends to do it. I'm sure as I hit challenges, I'll ask you folks plenty of questions, lol.

 

[Jason Fry]

I ended up breaking my tap wrench threading holes for the head guide, so I switched to laying out the flywheel. The idea is to bolt the flywheel to the car room, so that if the tire wears I can just replace the tire. I plan to put three big nuts welded to the flywheel, maybe four, so that I can adjust the stroke length. I’m thinking of setting it up for six, 6.5, 7, 7.5 inch stroke. I left 10 inches of room in my layout on the head to allow for some flex in the springs. The flywheel is 11 inch circle of 1/2 inch plate.

 

[Gilbert M]

Hi Jason I made the holes closer together on mine , at first I didn't have a counterweight, but when I added it the stoke got smoother and the hammer seemed to hit harder . I'm not sure about your plans, but that worked for me .
Gilbert

 

[Jason Fry]

I ended up changing my mind a little from the initial picture. The pic has it laid out for 6,7,8,9 inch stroke lengths. Since then I've thought about narrowing it down to 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5. I have 10" clearance built in to the head assembly, to allow for the spring to flex. My thought is to have some adjustability within a fairly narrow range to tune the harmonics once we're running. As far as extra weight, I'm using a full sized tire and rim also. Probably spinning close to 40 pounds by the time it's all said and done. I drilled the holes to bolt it to the rim last night. Took me a bit of fiddling to get them to fit, but so far so good.

 

[Jason Fry]

Worked on the top of the center upright, to get the pivot in place for the leaf springs. All recycled/used/scrounged materials so far.

Closer look at the pivot.

 

[Jason Fry]

The hammer ram goes up and down inside a guide. That’s the “guided” part of the guided helve hammer. Inside the guide will be UHMW plastic, adjustable with screws. Lots of tapping in 1/4” thick tubing with 3/8” tap.

 

[Jason Fry]

Here’s the roller assembly that will transfer the curved path of the helve spring into a straight up and down guided hammer head.

 

[Jason Fry]

Here’s the other end of the hammer head. Made for interchangeable heads in case I want to try different die shapes.

Also built die plates for the anvil top. That way I can change the die or angle there as well.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

That roller assembly on the ram looks awful close to the end of the spring!

 

[Jason Fry]

That roller assembly on the ram looks awful close to the end of the spring!

It's not assembled yet, just sitting there for a pic. I figure I'll end up cutting off a bit of that next spring layer on the top and moving it all deeper into the roller, but I won't know for sure till I get it put together.

 

[Jason Fry]

Got the base plate screwed to the RR tie base last night. I also have most of the pieces ready to assemble on the base. Got bearings in the mail yesterday, and the motor should arrive tomorrow. Went with a 1.5 HP 1750 RPM motor and 3" drive wheel, which should end up around 218 beats per minute. I'll still have to fabricate the wheel once the round stock arrives later this week. Still lack the treadle and motor mount, but the design and fab there shouldn't be much, an hour or two. It'll be a hard push this weekend. If I can get it together on Saturday and work out the kinks on Sunday, that'll be perfect. Just as likely I'll fall a little short.

 

[Jason Fry]

More progress. Got the tire mounted where I think it needs to be on the base.

Got the bearings for the ends of the drive arm set up. Smaller one goes on the spring end, bigger one on the tire end. Threaded parts allow me to adjust the distance between the dies.

Hers a shot of the plate from further up the page. Bolts to the rim. Nuts welded on for 6.5, 7, 7.5 stroke.

Long way to go yet. More pics tomorrow and Sunday.

 

[Jason Fry]

Here’s the part I was most worried about. The anvil for the hammer is. 32” piece of 5.5” round stock, at 215 pounds. That is then inserted into a mud pump sleeve that’s another 175 or so, and also 5.5” bore. Now y’all know a hole has to be bigger than the thing you plan to stick in it. I polished all the rust out of the sleeve, then worked over the post with a flap wheel to knock off all the handling gouges and high spots. With that much weight, there’s not an easy way to test fit. It is all or nothing. I welded on some lift points to the anvil so I could lift it with a come along. I set the sleeve underneath, and used the come along to slowly lower the rod into the sleeve. I’ll be darned, it slid right in there. Whew!

 

[Jason Fry]

First major error. Got the column together and figured out that the column was a foot too tall. That 4” square tube is 3/8 wall, killed a chop saw blade but got it cut down and re-welded. Back on track.

 

[Jason Fry]

Got the guide mounted and the hammer head installed. I also added the push arm and mounted the motor. Still need to wire the motor and tune everything.


Hoping the welds hold and it doesn’t catastrophically and dangerously fail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jason Fry]

Final pic of the anvil assembly. 400 pounds.

Linkage between the push rod and the spring pack.

Final tire assembly

 

[A.McPherson]

Are you moving the motor to the tire or vise versa?

 

[Jason Fry]

Motor moves to the tire via a lever. I'm thinking of revising it to more of a toggle linkage. Have to see how it works once I get to tuning.

 

[Jason Fry]

Today’s the last day of my road trip. This hammer must absolutely be running by next Monday. Expect the finishing touches this weekend.

 

[Jason Fry]

Here is a picture of the toggle linkage that lifts the motor up into the drive wheel. I revised this from a simple lever, and it works much better. Stepping down pulls the top bar forward, which lifts the motor. A couple of 90° joints and pivot points and it works pretty good.