- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Messages
- 52
Why build it, thats been a recurring question, so here I will try to answer it.
Over the past 20 years I have built 16 power hammers and 7 treadle hammers. I have experimented with many designs of my own as well as designs of others. With all homemade hammers I have dealt with I came to one conclusion. None of these hammers performed to my satisfaction. Some were good and some were better but none performed as I wanted. So I set out with what I have learned and started designing what I wanted to be the best homemade hammer of this type. I worked and toiled for a long time and one fact was clear with the finished product. It was a dismal failure, not at all what I wanted. So I sat back and looked at what I had built and really studied the hammer. I reached several conclusions. First of all I wanted to make it more controllable. The feathering of the pedal worked well but when you backed off it slowed as well as lost striking force. I wanted control of this. Lets say you are working with an odd shape and really need to maneuver the piece. So you feathered off to slow the hammer, this made it a little easier but the number of heats needed went threw the roof. If the hammer would hit with more force at this slower rate then the number of heats needed would be greatly reduced. So how do we accomplish this? I thought, well a gear reduction would allow the motor to run at full force and still slow the hammer. So ok, I added a gear reduction in the form of a transmission. I fired up the hammer and it was better but still I lost to much of the striking force. I then thought well, how can I increase the force of the blow. The idea struck me that inertia would be a great way to increase the strength of the blows. I thought, well, how about a good heavy flywheel. So I went and got one from a junkyard, it was 21 inches across and weighed 32#. I attached it to my transmission and WOW, what a difference. Eureka, I thought I had struck gold. The hammer is the most controllable I have ever used. Its cheap and easy to build with simple readily available parts and easy to maintain. And honestly, I then thought I could make back a little of the money I had spent over the years building and playing around with power hammers by offering this rig to the smithing public.
So in short folks, this is the best explanation of why I built the 4 speed power hammer. I hope this clears up the question for all. Why was a valid question so I hope you find these answers equally valid.
Over the past 20 years I have built 16 power hammers and 7 treadle hammers. I have experimented with many designs of my own as well as designs of others. With all homemade hammers I have dealt with I came to one conclusion. None of these hammers performed to my satisfaction. Some were good and some were better but none performed as I wanted. So I set out with what I have learned and started designing what I wanted to be the best homemade hammer of this type. I worked and toiled for a long time and one fact was clear with the finished product. It was a dismal failure, not at all what I wanted. So I sat back and looked at what I had built and really studied the hammer. I reached several conclusions. First of all I wanted to make it more controllable. The feathering of the pedal worked well but when you backed off it slowed as well as lost striking force. I wanted control of this. Lets say you are working with an odd shape and really need to maneuver the piece. So you feathered off to slow the hammer, this made it a little easier but the number of heats needed went threw the roof. If the hammer would hit with more force at this slower rate then the number of heats needed would be greatly reduced. So how do we accomplish this? I thought, well a gear reduction would allow the motor to run at full force and still slow the hammer. So ok, I added a gear reduction in the form of a transmission. I fired up the hammer and it was better but still I lost to much of the striking force. I then thought well, how can I increase the force of the blow. The idea struck me that inertia would be a great way to increase the strength of the blows. I thought, well, how about a good heavy flywheel. So I went and got one from a junkyard, it was 21 inches across and weighed 32#. I attached it to my transmission and WOW, what a difference. Eureka, I thought I had struck gold. The hammer is the most controllable I have ever used. Its cheap and easy to build with simple readily available parts and easy to maintain. And honestly, I then thought I could make back a little of the money I had spent over the years building and playing around with power hammers by offering this rig to the smithing public.
So in short folks, this is the best explanation of why I built the 4 speed power hammer. I hope this clears up the question for all. Why was a valid question so I hope you find these answers equally valid.