Thread: Air hammer?

First off, I've never personally built an air hammer. I have a working hammer I'm happy with. But smiths talk about such things and this is what I remember.

The original Kinyon design and all the subsequent variations, are really air powered treadle hammers. One blow per push of air. They consume air so think about having enough air supply, e.g. a storage tank of some sort in-line because I've seen these things suck a compressor tank down to nothing in a short working time (shorter than the demonstrating smith wanted to get work done).

Discussion, criticisms of that kind of operating system arise from those of us who want to stay on the hammer while the steel is still hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5IIuhCbNto

The above video illustrates an air circuit that recuperates air. Aside of not wasting so much air compressed, it also allows the operator to "feather" the blows, increasing control over the power of each hit and the resultant cushion at the end of the downstroke pushes the tup back into recovery ready for the next stroke. It also means that the power of the downstroke is not beating the bottom seals out of the cylinder or the anvil and then reflecting back into the upper parts of the hammer. It allows for rebound upward. This is the primary type, maybe not an exact match, for the working parts of Beche, Nazel's, Chambersburg and other old style power hammers.

The bigger the falling weight, the bigger the anvil, so pay attention to any required mathematical relationships recommended for any power hammer about that ratio. The bigger the falling weight, the relative increase required in the moving parts as physics strictly applies. Every action means reactions at the same power. You don't want your hammer beating itself apart because of the absence of stout. I think this is why we are all card carrying members of Over-Engineers-R-Us.

Hopefully some of this will help.