Today I drove to Rochester, Minnesota to visit with Ron ( Utopian). I wanted to see his new toys.
Here is a link to some pics........
Rons-Little-Giant-Hammers - a set on Flickr
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Today I drove to Rochester, Minnesota to visit with Ron ( Utopian). I wanted to see his new toys.
Here is a link to some pics........
Rons-Little-Giant-Hammers - a set on Flickr
Looks that Ron has made a great acquisition there Randy!!
Ray
Very nice! Maybe one of these days I will have a shop big enough for "big boy toys".
Randy, Thank You. 'Worth it just for a visual on Ron. He patiently helped me learn. What's he gonna do w/ the presses?
He is going to sell one, keep the other, then start doing some blacksmithing in his off hours. First he needs a forge. Then start making more tongs. Maybe a few hammers? He already has the anvils.
If you guys think tooling up for razors is bad just wait til you try blacksmithing! :)
I'm glad Ron is doing well enough to want to sink his teeth into such a project. I can't imagine him tackling something & not doing well at it.
I Know nothing about forging etc,But are those machines also known as trip hammers??
DOH, just saw one says trip hammer on it, sorry
why are they called trip hammers??
I guess that was because they hang on a sear and the foot bar trips them to drop for a stroke. They are powered to lift the ram but have almost a pure gravity strike. Any one trusting that sear at all times would usually get the nickname lefty.
Just my take on the subject.
~Richard
Keep the one with the hole in the frame!! I had one just like it & they can hit far harder that the newer versions. I sure wish I had NOT sold my hammer back in the day. I wonder what the serial number of that hammer is? Mine was built in 1901 I think. It was the first hammer built after Little Giant foundry burned & they started over. Ron I can give you tips on that hammer!
Those are 50Lb. hammers meaning the ram weight was around 50 Lbs. & were sold all over the world. Many including the one I owned were used for drawing out plow shares & planter runners They usually had the top die smaller & fairly well rounded for that type of work. For knife & razor making flat dies of the same size work better as it is easier to use tooling . Also a brake makes the hammer more useful so you can hit a good single blow. Many other makes of power hammers had a brake built into them.
Little Giant made 25, 50,100,250 & 500 Lb hammers but sold more 50 & 25Lb. Hammers. I am thinking of getting a 100 Lb. hammer when I start my shop again.
If you can get the Clifton Ralph videos on Power hammer get them & learn & watch them again to learn more. Cliff was a blacksmith in the steel mills in Gary Indiana using huge steam hammers down to 25Lb. little Giant hammers. He taught me a lot about forging hammers of all types & is a great guy to boot.
Slawman
Geezer,
Little Giant hammers do not have a sear system that would be a drop hammer. Little Giant hammers have a clutch that allows you to feather the speed & power the hammer hits with. It has power both on the up & down stroke. Drop hammers are used mainly for closed die forging.