Thread: I got a power hammer!!!

Kinda gives a new meaning to the phrases "Air Freight" and "Special Delivery."
Looks like the hard part is over.
Can't wait to see it up and running.

Pete <:-}

congrats on the new hammer!! ive never seen one like that one, but it looks about the perfect size for making razors and kitchen knives!

I found myself in the same boat awhile back. I was worried that a powerhammer might be too noisy for a residential neighborhood where my shop is. and the cost of powerhammers is nothing to sneeze at either. so I went to the salvage yard and built one. mine is a guided helve hammer, and the ram is about 50 lbs. total weight on the whole thing is around 1200 pounds. if I ever have to move it, ill just weld an axle onto it and tow the thing wherever it needs to go.

the noise thing I found that surprisingly it cut down on the noise. sure it is much louder when it is running than hand hammering, but you get SO MUCH more work done in so much less time that the overall noise coming out of your shop is much less. in fact I can run my hammer for one day, and not run it again for a month or more.

plus you can work larger stock, make Damascus, and your right arm will shrink to the size of your left, so that when you walk you aren't all lopsided anymore :}

here is a old video of my hammer not too long after I built it....

https://youtu.be/lWATNVCaaBc

3 phase is now available in my shop.
Hopefully the contractor who is working on my house finally gets his act together and finishes his job so that I finally don't need to worry about the renovation anymore, and can start thinking about using that hammer.

Nice, is that Maarten's old power hammer? Good stuff!!

I'm thinking about building a home made version...starting to collect a few things...

That's awesome buddy and I'm excited for ya. Would be able to see some wicked stuff come from ya. And yea the main thing is the efficiency. Save your arm a little. Wish I was close enough to come work with ya to make a razor of my own and take some notes and experience as I go. I'm really interested in making my own, but is difficult without propped tools or ample money to get alot of those expensive tools. Been going at it with a drill press, normal belt sander, grinder, Dremel, and files. Works. But it's alot of work.lol would love to get into forging and actually beating the steel out.

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

Nice, is that Maarten's old power hammer? Good stuff!!

Yep this is Maarten's.

One thing about that hammer is the dies are drawing dies. for other uses such as shaping razors & knives flat dies will work much better & enable you to use tooling with your Hammer. If you can find Clifton Ralph's video series on power hammers & tooling it will help you design your own tooling to make forging much easier. Clifton was a blacksmith in the steel mills in Gary Indiana for years & worked on 25Lb. Little Giants to 5,000 Lb steam hammers & since retiring has taught many smiths how to work on a power hammer & he is a good friend also.

The smith I bought that from made a couple of blanks using the dies to hammer in the blade hollows. It works surprisingly well.

Not saying those are bad dies but flat dies let you do more with your hammer. Wish it was in my shop Bruno!;-)

Dave