Wanna check out my #9 Beaudry rebuild??

Salem Straub

Salem Straub

Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
5,547
I'm the proud owner of a #9 Beaudry power hammer... been rebuilding it for the past 6 months and am nearing completion. If anyone wants to waste time having a look at what it's been taking to get done, here's a link to a thread I'm keeping up about it at another great bladesmithing forum...

https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/in...0-lb-beaudry-full-rebuild-with-detailed-pics/

Enjoy! It's been a blast for me, although a bit much at times...
 
Very impressive!
 
Excellent ! I am a DuPont linkage guy.
Never see close that style hammer.
Thanks for the tour.
 
wow, awesome project. That is some serious perseverance!
 
MASSIVE COOL....

My friend Pep Gomez has a 300 Chambersburg and it can move some serious metal!!!
 
That's pretty amazing to be able to bring that beast back to life. Congrats!
 
that's great! you were definitely, inspired, motivated, and capable :)
 
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Pretty frickin' awesome Salem!
Wish I had the space/skills/money/time to undertake a project like that!
Color me impressed!
 
I've been watching, but just wanted to say you're kicking ass with that thing man. Too many people buy fixer-upper power hammers (or other things, like the 3 Jeeps I'm supposed to be restoring ;\ ) to only let them sit and get worse. These big mechanicals aren't being made anymore, so we gotta save them!

Yeah, working on big old iron, can be VERY frustrating, and humbling at times. When I screwed up my drive cable spool on my bigger surface grinder, it took me a few months of trying to figure out how to fix it, getting pissed, threatening to scrap it, getting drunk, and repeating the process before I finally got her back together, better than ever. In the end it was worth it, and it made me brave enough to tackle some even more fucked up machinery shit that I'm in the same cycle with currently. ;D

For many makers, it's not good sense to mess with this sort of thing, if you "just wanna make knives", but for masochistic nutters like you and I, it's not really a choice is it?
 
Thanks, very interesting. It's a good thing you have a metal lathe and know how to use it.
 
Salem, I've followed this on Facebook.
I love those big mechanical hammers. A Fairbanks or beaudry is something I'd love to own.

But I've also done these sort of projects before so I know just how bad they can be...
And that's why I'll probably buy a new anyang instead of something old and cool when I get a hammer.

That said, I really can't wait to come down and beat the crap out of something with that hammer. In terms of impressive hammers that's pretty high up the list for things without a boiler
 
kuraki said:
I dig it.
How does that spring linkage work exactly?
Click to expand...

Well, the pitman arm goes down into the spring box. Inside the spring box is a round central fulcrum, against which the big set screws set the tension for the lower long arms of the two BIG leaf springs that hang down into the ram.
The leaf springs have got rollers on the end of them. The inside of the ram has got elliptical tracks, one on each side, that the spring's rollers move up and down against. When the pitman and thus the spring box move down, the force of the motion drives the springs down to the bottom of the tracks, where they are pushed together at the narrow point in the bottom of the ram. This pushes the ram down, while cushioning the upper linkage against the shock. On the upstroke, the springs compress again at the top of the ram tracks, catching the ram and pulling it up. The tighter one runs the spring box set screws inward, the more outward tension against the ram the spring arms with their rollers have, and the snappier the action gets. The pitman arm itself has a long rack to adjust the ram height, and the crank pin is also adjustable in its eccentricity from the main shaft, to control stroke length. These hammers can really be tuned well to suit specific work. I look forward to dialing mine in for what I do!
Javand, no it's not really a choice at all... I mean I have to justify owning a large metal lathe by having projects for it! Not to mention the other stuff I have that's beyond what's absolutely necessary for a working bladesmith shop. The real trick is knowing when to stop buying old tools, although it helps that I'm out of room again. Until I expand the building lol...
 
john april said:
all of it is impressive. especially driving 48 hours to get it !
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It was a fun trip, just me and the old Ford haulin' through the American West on a flawless and hot Memorial Day weekend. To be clear, the drive itself was about 12+ hours each way, then loading it up in Idaho and sleeping a couple nights in the truck added up to 48 hours total I was gone from home to get it.
 
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