For a while now I've been thinking of building one of these but nobody seemed to ever move any large pieces of metal until now. You sir have done it. Congrats.
Hi Rick, I have seen quite a few homemade power hammers on TH-cam and I must say that I believe yours is by far the cheapest and easiest to fabricate, not to mention very functional and sound. I have never forged anything in my life, but am very interested in starting bladesmithing, but on a budget and this will get me started just fine. Also, I really appreciate the way in which you went over in great detail all of your dimensions, cost, place of purchase, etc. Its the details for a newbie that we need to be successful. Great video, thank very you much,r/Wayne
Dear Rick Rabjohn, it has been a pleasure watching and studying your videos. What an amazing achievement you have reached with your final power hammer. Your workshop is awesome and so tidy!! I thank you for talking through the power hammer development and design, even admitting design errors along the way. If only our politicians could do the same, our world would be a far better place for all. Keep up the great work. Would love to see some other work from you. Many thanks!!
Wow Paul thank so much for your terrific comments and for watching. TH-cam is such a great app to bring together those with similar interests all sharing their experience and ideas. I'm glad to be a part of it.
Wow I really like this hammer. I am so impressed with your different builds. Then I think your videos are getting better and better, angles and how you do things. A big thumb up
If I had room to install one I would copy your design, you really thought out of the box and produced an absolute winner, thanks for showing us, I hope you have many years of fun and good use out of it.
Thanks for the comment. if I were to build it again I would make it 12 inches shorter or 40 inches long vs. 52 inches long and 24 inches wide. I originally though I would need a larger diameter Cam but it was not needed So, shorter would work just fine. Just food for though and thanks again. Cheers
Great job , I really like how you made the bottom die from the piece of track and added the horn so you can straighten a curl without having to switch back to your regular anvil. Thumbs up for sure, great creativity.
Thanks Jackson, appreciate your comment. So far, it's working out and saving my old arms and shoulders. I may even try making some Damascus. Thanks again.
fantastic easily modifiable design. Simply brilliant. Making the pedal a potentiometer to vary the speed and maybe using a metal cam would make this brilliant for many many home black smithing needs.
Tip for your coal forges heat production, get a piece of ar500 plate, cut it into a round piece the size that you need it, use a torch to put 3/8 in holes in it spaced out by 1/2" in circles, weld it into a brake drum off of a mid 90's Ford f150 and use a bathroom exhaust fan the moves at least 200 cubic feet of air per minute and your heat times will decrease drastically. I use one on my coal forge with a switch installed so as to not waste coal with a much smaller fan that runs constantly to keep the coals active. It has saved me alot of time as far as heating times go. Also they are fairly quiet so you aren't adding any unwanted noise. Love the power hammer design and will be building myself one soon.
Love your hammer. For those who don't know, this type of hammer is more properly called a trip hammer and was first invented in China around 1000 BC, with power usually coming from a water wheel. Trip hammers were typically in the 100-300lb range and used mostly for forge welding large billets. You don't see many modern power hammers designed like this any more but this is a very simple and affordable build for the hobby blacksmith. I like the mounting of the cam and the addition of springs to get some acceleration on the head. With a 1.5hp motor, I am wondering if you can get even more weight on the head? I also wonder what the minimum hp would be to operate that with the gear reducer? The gear reducer multiplies torque in addition to slowing rotation. Great job! I am currently in the process of building my own power hammer based on the Appalachian spring hammer (junk yard hammer) design.
Love your axes! Think you will have lots of questions and other channels copying your design, which is superb, and a great way to achieve the power in this mechanical hammer!
The railroad clips you used to make the axe are called Creepers. The Creeper keeps the track from expanding by laying, clipped to the under side of the rail behind the spike plates. When the sun heats the rail it stretches. Usually used before the track makes a corner to keep the corner from blowing out. We replaced 39' sections of rail with ribbon rail that is 1/4 mile long. To give you and idea how much a rail would stretch, we would cut the 1/4 mile ribbon rail short by 6' before making a joint connection to the end of the old sectional rail. Then we would use a 40' propane heater to stretch the rail the entire length of the 1/4 mile rail to make the new joint meet up. I started out working on the Railroad, on the track gang, as a Gandy Dancer. Never got any information on why we were called Gandy Dancers ;) Just a tidbit of information from a Retired Railroad Electrician that woke up to early.
Thanks so much Dale - really interesting background - I have read that the creepers are made of spring steel which is good for making knives. Do you know if that is true? They are hard to work for sure. Thanks again.
They are made of very good spring steel. They went under the rail and you had to hit them with a 10lb sledge to snap then onto the other side of the rail. If you did not hit them just right they would shoot back and hit your shin. I have a couple scars before I made the hit in the sweet spot.
Thanks for confirming they are spring steel. I don't think people have an idea of the great work you guys do on the RR - so my hates off to you and the other guys !!
Nice job. I think the rubber and wooden base may have helped with the sound dampening too. I thought it was going to have a much louder pinging noise. Not hardly a ping at all....
Thank you. I loved the camb idea the first recorded powered tool was in China a hammer with a water wheel on a rotating camb. Only they had several heavy wooden hammers working at once first industrial use of power other then grain milling. Simple yet satisfying to see. 😀 Anthony Kent HAWK woodlore knives UK ( may try it myself 😀)
Really like this design. I'm interested in building a smaller version. An idea I had while watching was to also add 2 extra cams stepped down. 4" then 2" with the cam lift wheel setup to move from each cam. For when you need to adjust how hard the hammer comes down. How to move the cam lift wheel between cam's effectively I'm still working out in my head lol. Great design, thanks for sharing!
+Mike Killingbeck thank you mike!! Sounds interesting. If you made three different cams you could always switch them out on the gear reducer shaft depending on what your forging. Either way, I look forward to seeing your build and how your design worked out.
first of all the videos are A+, just wondering, I was looking at the springs you have . If you use the springs out of window wiper arms perhaps you would get more downward thrust ? I have used them on quite a few projects and they have never let me down, anyway just a thought.
Love how you're Blacksmith shop looks and the hammer is fantastic. .....The horseshoe on the smoke stack is dumping out you're luck! ....I think that's what they say.
Rick Rabjohn nice work. Your power hammer is not complicated that if you don't mind I wold like to built one for my self. I would probably want to go little faster and one easy way to do it is to make two strokes per revolution of the cam. I noticed that when your hammer comes down the cam follower has a long dowel time so another lobe on the cam may work just fine. Thanks.
Nice job. How is you frame and hammer pivot mount holding up to the use? PS I hope you have turned that horse shoe on the forge stack up the right way, bad luck where I come from to mount a horse shoe facing down, legend is all the good luck falls out!
Thanks Matthew - would love to see your finished power hammer when done - I'll add you to the power hammer playlist of fame wich comes with full bragging rights :-)) Good luck with your build - Cheers!
I would get some concrete wall board and put it next to the hammer to keep sparks and hot steel scale of tge framing. In my shop i put brick pavers over the plywood flooring for fireproofing. It becomes important ehen uou forge weld and sparks go every where
It looked like the lights dimmed whenever you started it up, or maybe it was a lighting change that the camera was adjusting to??? I'm wondering if an idler pulley clutch set up on the belt would be easier on your motor in the long run... Keep it running all of the time. Going to be a whole lot of starting and stopping going on there. Love the simplicity of your hammer. Nice job...
+Idaho Sagebrush Thanks for the tips - it did dim the lights that day. Maybe it's coincidence but it seems to have gone away when I changed to a shorter 12 gauge extension cord. If it happens again, I'll try the clutch approach. Thanks again..
Thanks EPetersen. The total cost was about $400 excluding the 1 1/2 HP motor which I already had. In part 2 of this 3 part series I discuss the cost towards the end of that video. It didn't take too long to build it. I think I spent about 3 weekends on and off cutting, welding, and installing it in my forge. That said, I spent a full month prior to building on and off researching power hammers and thinking through the design and collecting all the materials (e,g., gear reducer from Ebay, foot switch from Amazon, steel from Login Steel, and the springs, wood, and bolts from my local hardware store, etc..). Thanks for checking it out and if you decide to make one, let me know how it turned out.
Very nice! If you could do it again would you make the hammer fall at a faster rate? Is there a mechanical way to do that without replacing the reducer gear mechanism?
+Luchi Sm Thank you and good question. The input to the gear reducer has a step pulley where I can increase the speed of the hammer cycles. I can also add a larger spring to the front of the hammer to increase the speed of the hammer fall. That said, I find that higher speeds make it harder to work with because you have to move faster between blows like turning your work from one side to another. So, I would not change it for my needs. Thanks for our question.
Thank you !! While I do not have written plans, I try and cover all the materials and dimensions in the first two videos of this power hammer series. Hope those videos can help give you an idea on the design. Cheers!
This might sound a over-complicated, but I have an idea to stop the hammer from bouncing. Copy the design of a "dead blow" hammer head, a short heavy-walled tube 3/4 filled with lead shot or sand. I suppose it could be attached on the top of the existing head, rather than replacing it.
Hey I'm a beginner blacksmith and need to build a power hammer and am interested in building my own as buying one is far too costly. I have a heart condition so making it easier on my body is the goal haha. I was wondering if you were to increase the downward force from the springs pulling it back to resting position would the cam need to be upgraded to a metal one due to the impact force on the wood?
good question Ben. When the hammer head slams down, the wheel back on the arm should not hit the cam. So, the only force on the cam is the upward force on the roller fixed to the arm. That said, it does take a lot of wear. So, I'm thinking of upgrading my wood cam someday by wrapping the outer edge with steel. Will probably secure with screws counter sinked. Hope that makes sense and good luck with your build!
@@RickRabjohn Or you might try swapping out the plywood for something plastic. Maybe two kitchen cutting boards, laminated together to get the required thickness. A million thanks for the many useful ideas!
Just a suggestion, set the speed of the hammer to about the speed in the sped up part of the video. in my opinion you are losing a lot of heat in between hammer strokes at your current rate of speed.Excellent job on the video!
Thank you Frank and agree for sure. I think I've been easing into it conservatively because it's new and I'm new at it :) Thanks for the tip and for watching!!!
+Rick Rabjohn . No worries Rick. I might just borrow your idea and mount my big old, long peen sledge hammer over my anvil, to make it a bit easier on my 65 yo arms and back. ;) You seem to be working your metal too cold. Remember that mild steel can be worked down to dull red, but as soon as there are alloys added, then the steel needs to be really hot to be malleable. Couldn't you have put your fire closer to your anvils? Would save a lot of legwork, especially in winter. ;)
+Tony Small (Afro) Thanks Tony - your right about working the metal too cold - I was thinking about too many things when shooting the video - probably created a lot of stress cracks in the RR spring clip. Thanks for your comments, and good luck with your build..
Thanks Corrie - so far so good - I blacksmith for fun on the weekends, and I just needed something simple and inexpensive to help out the aging arms and shoulders. Cheers!
Sorry if you already answered this question, I am currently making one of these - Awesome work by the way! How specifically did you attach your Cam to the Reducer Shaft?
The shaft from the reducer had a key way - so I took the wooden cam and a jig saw and cut a key way the same width as the shaft (e.g., about 1/8 inch), but I cut the key way deeper into the wood - about 1 inch. Then I took a piece of 1/8 x 1 inch flat stock and cut a piece that was 2 1/4 " to use as the key - at 2 1/2 inches the key would span the entire wooden cam thickness. Overall, the key was 1/8 x 1 inch x about 2 1/4 inch. So far it's remained on the shaft with no slippage. An alternative to consider, I would probably buy a steel bushing with flange (the flanges usually have 4 to 5 mounting holes in them) and the bushing would already have a key way. Then I would mount the bushing to the reducer shaft and then bolt the wooden cam to the flange part of the bushing. Search google or Ebay for Bushings with flanges. While I am no expert - at least those are the two options I have used to mount wooden cams or pulleys to shafts. Hope that helps.
I am almost finished up with mine just have to build the Cam and throw it on. Does it worry you working with red hot metal over sheets of plywood? I cannot think of anything non flammable that would absorb all the shock as well as the rubber and plywood combination.
Wey hey she bangs she bangs Rick, much better than the hammer I can see that, just thinking you might get more force on the work if the striking head had a smaller surface say 3 inch square or circular you could maybe weld a piece under it? just a though but great job all the same.
+ppotty1 - hey hey - another project - I think I'll try making a hand tool - a smaller square with welded handle to hold in one hand that I can place on top of the metal I am forging in the other hand. That should work without changing the head.......I'll give it a try...thanks my friend!
+Charles Wright - Thank you and yes of course you can share it. I purchased the gear reducer new from Ebay for $65 dollars plus shipping from NRI Industrial. The reducer is a Dodge 1.91 HP 15:1 Worm Gear Reducer.
+Rick Rabjohn Thanks Rick....I will sure pass this on...I think its absolutely ingenious and if you want to sell plans, I'm sure it would be a huge money maker....the genious is in the simplicity and effectiveness. How is the plywood holding up....even if its a weakpoint, it is surely easy enough to replace....perhaps a tire wrapped around the cam....
Thank you very much! The plywood Cam is doing just fine so far, but I like the idea of the tire - maybe wrapping the contact area with rubber will help - thanks for the idea
+Charles Wright - Originally by itself the head weighted 25 pounds and then after assembly I placed a scale between the head and the base and it said 30 pounds; which included the added weight from the spring tension, main arm, etc... Might be interesting to test and see what happens at 40 or 50 pounds.....or double the springs to increase the speed (i.e. kinetic energy) at impact.
Great work, however I would see about getting a better power supply to the motor. If you keep on running like it is now you will eventually burn out the motor.
+A1986Ge1995 thank you - it seems to have gone away when I changed to a shorter 12 gauge extension cord. That said, I'll keep watching it and run a separate line if it happens again.
Is there any way to increase the hits per minute of the hammer??? If u get s bigger motor or what would u have to do? I have the steal and track I want to make Damascus with this I just want it to go faster
I installed a step pulley on the input shaft to the gear reducer which provides the option of speeding up or slowing it down. The details include the following - Marathon 1.5 HP motor runs at 1800 RPM with 2 inch outside diameter (OD) pulley on the motor output shaft running to the input shaft of the gear reducer with a step pulley mounted. The step pulley has a 2", 3", or 4" OD which results in an input RPM into the gear reducer of either 1800, 1200, or 900 RPM respectively. Then comes the gear reduction which is 15:1 reduction ratio. So, the output RPM from the reducer which drives the CAM is either 120, 80, or 60 RPMs. I like the 80 RPM speed as it gives me enough time to rotate the work between blows. Hope this helps.
If your using the 2 inch tubing for the frame - I don't see why that would not work given I used 1 1/2 inch square tubing for the frame and hammer arm and it seems to be holding up.
Thanks Bos Dad! As it turns out, I tried different speeds and for some reason prefer the slower speeds (e.g., around 80 beats per minute). Currently, I can change pulleys between the motor and the gear reducer to get a maximum of 120 beats per minute - but I found that's too fast for me. Adding a lobe to the cam is another good way of increasing the BPM - perhaps even a better idea than changing the pulleys. Thanks for sharing your sound idea; appreciate it. Cheers
I love the design. I think I'll make mine like this. I have the skills to make either an air hammer or power hammer like a little giant but I just don't want to spend the time and money on a power hammer like those until I can justify it. I think the only difference on mine will be the cam follower (rigid caster{that's actually an oxymoron[rusting idiot?]}) will be hinged so that when I don't step on the pedal(or bar) the cam follower won't push on the rotating cam. So to say that precisely, the cam follower will be cammed into the rotating cam. The harder I push the pedal, the further the cam follower will cam into the rotating cam making the hammer arm rise further from the axis of the rotating cam. Do you follow what I'm saying? Was that funny, well that de puns on how you look at it. Well maybe it wasn't punny after all. Around here the hardware store usually has a really wide variety of pulleys in part because of what we call swamp coolers that are just a blower drawing air through a moist pad. The pulleys are used on the blower motors. So the cam follower (here we go again) push rod isn't affected by the hammer arm cycling ,the lever arm (an arm that pivots to isolate the hammer arm cycling) that actuates the camming action of the cam follower (wewee, last time folks I promise) will have to share it's axis with the axis of the hammer arm. I'll have to make a video of it for my piratewelding channel. Thanks again for the video and like the idea of making the cam go faster. Maybe I'll use a step pulley to very the speed.
That sounds really interesting Robert, and thanks for sharing. Would love to see a video on your build; especially how you incorporate the cam follower. Your right where I was in wanting a hammer that did the job without a lot of time and money to get there....good luck with your build.
Thank you Ross - I have the option to go faster via the step pulley and I need to try it out - I've been conservative with it too long :-) Thanks for the push and for checking it out!
I did end up adding 10 more pounds for a total head weight of 40 pounds - that - with the springs added - has been plenty for what I'm doing. Thanks for checking it out
For a while now I've been thinking of building one of these but nobody seemed to ever move any large pieces of metal until now. You sir have done it. Congrats.
Hi Rick, I have seen quite a few homemade power hammers on TH-cam and I must say that I believe yours is by far the cheapest and easiest to fabricate, not to mention very functional and sound. I have never forged anything in my life, but am very interested in starting bladesmithing, but on a budget and this will get me started just fine. Also, I really appreciate the way in which you went over in great detail all of your dimensions, cost, place of purchase, etc. Its the details for a newbie that we need to be successful. Great video, thank very you much,r/Wayne
Thank you so much. Appreciate that and wish you great luck in your builds. Bladesmithing is big fun, so enjoy the ride.
Agreed! "Thumbs Up"
Dear Rick Rabjohn, it has been a pleasure watching and studying your videos. What an amazing achievement you have reached with your final power hammer. Your workshop is awesome and so tidy!! I thank you for talking through the power hammer development and design, even admitting design errors along the way. If only our politicians could do the same, our world would be a far better place for all. Keep up the great work. Would love to see some other work from you. Many thanks!!
Wow Paul thank so much for your terrific comments and for watching. TH-cam is such a great app to bring together those with similar interests all sharing their experience and ideas. I'm glad to be a part of it.
Wow I really like this hammer. I am so impressed with your different builds. Then I think your videos are getting better and better, angles and how you do things. A big thumb up
+Project of the day Thank you my friend
If I had room to install one I would copy your design, you really thought out of the box and produced an absolute winner, thanks for showing us, I hope you have many years of fun and good use out of it.
Thanks for the comment. if I were to build it again I would make it 12 inches shorter or 40 inches long vs. 52 inches long and 24 inches wide. I originally though I would need a larger diameter Cam but it was not needed So, shorter would work just fine. Just food for though and thanks again. Cheers
Great job , I really like how you made the bottom die from the piece of track and added the horn so you can straighten a curl without having to switch back to your regular anvil. Thumbs up for sure, great creativity.
Thanks Jackson, appreciate your comment. So far, it's working out and saving my old arms and shoulders. I may even try making some Damascus. Thanks again.
I have forged some rail clips into knives by hand, they are an absolute pain to forge.
I think that's a great design. never seen one quite like it before, thanks for sharing
many thanks!!!
AWESOME,love it...as we get older the arms and shoulders really take a beating.....GREAT JOB
Thank you Ken and your sooo right.
fantastic easily modifiable design. Simply brilliant. Making the pedal a potentiometer to vary the speed and maybe using a metal cam would make this brilliant for many many home black smithing needs.
Yes - A metal cam would be really awesome - perhaps something out of Aluminum - boo yah !!
Tip for your coal forges heat production, get a piece of ar500 plate, cut it into a round piece the size that you need it, use a torch to put 3/8 in holes in it spaced out by 1/2" in circles, weld it into a brake drum off of a mid 90's Ford f150 and use a bathroom exhaust fan the moves at least 200 cubic feet of air per minute and your heat times will decrease drastically. I use one on my coal forge with a switch installed so as to not waste coal with a much smaller fan that runs constantly to keep the coals active. It has saved me alot of time as far as heating times go. Also they are fairly quiet so you aren't adding any unwanted noise. Love the power hammer design and will be building myself one soon.
Thanks for the tips Josh, would be great to see your setup in a video. Booyah!
@@RickRabjohn check my Instagram accounts. Jas7018h4r and tgmaw309l
wow that's a great tool! a simple approach to a trip hammer. I'm impressed and inspired. thank you
Thank you Robin - appreciate your comment. Cheers!
Good job of trying to show and trying explain your fine work...Thanks
Thank you John!
great design , simple build, works great too ,,,,, price seems ideal for the hobby guy too ,,,, tks for showing it
Thank you !!!!!
Love your hammer. For those who don't know, this type of hammer is more properly called a trip hammer and was first invented in China around 1000 BC, with power usually coming from a water wheel. Trip hammers were typically in the 100-300lb range and used mostly for forge welding large billets. You don't see many modern power hammers designed like this any more but this is a very simple and affordable build for the hobby blacksmith. I like the mounting of the cam and the addition of springs to get some acceleration on the head. With a 1.5hp motor, I am wondering if you can get even more weight on the head? I also wonder what the minimum hp would be to operate that with the gear reducer? The gear reducer multiplies torque in addition to slowing rotation. Great job! I am currently in the process of building my own power hammer based on the Appalachian spring hammer (junk yard hammer) design.
+AndTheCorrectAnswerIs Thanks for the history - very interesting....I look forward to seeing your power hammer build. Thanks again
I found straightening those spring clips in my vice took a lot less time. Saved my arms for the 4lb hammer.
That's a ooo way as well - thanks narhan
ITS ALIVE ,!!!! Works a treat, well done!
Love your axes!
Think you will have lots of questions and other channels copying your design, which is superb, and a great way to achieve the power in this mechanical hammer!
Thanks so much for your comment - really appreciate it!!!
The railroad clips you used to make the axe are called Creepers. The Creeper keeps the track from expanding by laying, clipped to the under side of the rail behind the spike plates. When the sun heats the rail it stretches. Usually used before the track makes a corner to keep the corner from blowing out. We replaced 39' sections of rail with ribbon rail that is 1/4 mile long. To give you and idea how much a rail would stretch, we would cut the 1/4 mile ribbon rail short by 6' before making a joint connection to the end of the old sectional rail. Then we would use a 40' propane heater to stretch the rail the entire length of the 1/4 mile rail to make the new joint meet up. I started out working on the Railroad, on the track gang, as a Gandy Dancer. Never got any information on why we were called Gandy Dancers ;) Just a tidbit of information from a Retired Railroad Electrician that woke up to early.
Thanks so much Dale - really interesting background - I have read that the creepers are made of spring steel which is good for making knives. Do you know if that is true?
They are hard to work for sure. Thanks again.
They are made of very good spring steel. They went under the rail and you had to hit them with a 10lb sledge to snap then onto the other side of the rail. If you did not hit them just right they would shoot back and hit your shin. I have a couple scars before I made the hit in the sweet spot.
Thanks for confirming they are spring steel. I don't think people have an idea of the great work you guys do on the RR - so my hates off to you and the other guys !!
it takes practice...this hammer will speed up the process and save you a bunch of sore joints. well done my good man.
Thank you!
Nice job. I think the rubber and wooden base may have helped with the sound dampening too. I thought it was going to have a much louder pinging noise. Not hardly a ping at all....
Yes I think is has helped - that said my neighbors are hoping I rubberized the whole Forge area :))).
Excellent work! I always like to see homemade contraptions like this. Keep up the good work!
Thank you. I loved the camb idea the first recorded powered tool was in China a hammer with a water wheel on a rotating camb. Only they had several heavy wooden hammers working at once first industrial use of power other then grain milling. Simple yet satisfying to see. 😀 Anthony Kent HAWK woodlore knives UK ( may try it myself 😀)
Well done mate works really well
Thanks Greg!!
Really like this design. I'm interested in building a smaller version. An idea I had while watching was to also add 2 extra cams stepped down. 4" then 2" with the cam lift wheel setup to move from each cam. For when you need to adjust how hard the hammer comes down. How to move the cam lift wheel between cam's effectively I'm still working out in my head lol.
Great design, thanks for sharing!
+Mike Killingbeck thank you mike!! Sounds interesting. If you made three different cams you could always switch them out on the gear reducer shaft depending on what your forging. Either way, I look forward to seeing your build and how your design worked out.
Nice simple, but efficient design. Easy to repair if something breaks and speeds up the work process.
+roireb1 Thanks - appreciate the comment and so far so good. It's opened up a whole new set of projects I would otherwise not do...
Excellent work and well explained many thanks.
Thanks Phil!!
Hi Rick, she works great, I love it!
I dig your shop man you'll get it going right heat is the answer.
Thanks man - appreciate that!
Wow amazing build my friend! I've never seen a power hammer like that! Me likes : )
+Smish Smisher - Thank you & so far, my arms and shoulders like tooo :)
first of all the videos are A+, just wondering, I was looking at the springs you have . If you use the springs out of window wiper arms perhaps you would get more downward thrust ? I have used them on quite a few projects and they have never let me down, anyway just a thought.
Thank you Sam - I'll have to check into that - sounds interesting. Booyahh!
Love how you're Blacksmith shop looks and the hammer is fantastic.
.....The horseshoe on the smoke stack is dumping out you're luck! ....I think that's what they say.
Thank you - appreciate that!
Rick Rabjohn nice work. Your power hammer is not complicated that if you don't mind I wold like to built one for my self.
I would probably want to go little faster and one easy way to do it is to make two strokes per revolution of the cam. I noticed that when your hammer comes down the cam follower has a long dowel time so another lobe on the cam may work just fine.
Thanks.
Interesting idea and look forward to seeing it when done . Thanks!,
Nice job. How is you frame and hammer pivot mount holding up to the use?
PS I hope you have turned that horse shoe on the forge stack up the right way, bad luck where I come from to mount a horse shoe facing down, legend is all the good luck falls out!
That is the coolest thing! I will definitly put that on my Bucket list, thanks! :)
Thanks for checking it out and good luck with your build!
Very nice Leonardo hammer.
+Bryan Morgan Thank you!
Making one of these is on my to-do list. Nice job mate, you've given me inspiration !!
Thanks Matthew - would love to see your finished power hammer when done - I'll add you to the power hammer playlist of fame wich comes with full bragging rights :-)) Good luck with your build - Cheers!
Mate that’s brilliant
I love your workshop! You are awesome!
Thank you very much!! Cheers
Thank you so much for sharing this info
+Paul Roberts thanks for watching and the nice comment :)))
Really cool stuff, man.
I would get some concrete wall board and put it next to the hammer to keep sparks and hot steel scale of tge framing. In my shop i put brick pavers over the plywood flooring for fireproofing. It becomes important ehen uou forge weld and sparks go every where
Gosh - I never thought of that but your right - hate to burn down my man cave - Thanks Frank
It looked like the lights dimmed whenever you started it up, or maybe it was a lighting change that the camera was adjusting to??? I'm wondering if an idler pulley clutch set up on the belt would be easier on your motor in the long run... Keep it running all of the time. Going to be a whole lot of starting and stopping going on there. Love the simplicity of your hammer. Nice job...
+Idaho Sagebrush Thanks for the tips - it did dim the lights that day. Maybe it's coincidence but it seems to have gone away when I changed to a shorter 12 gauge extension cord. If it happens again, I'll try the clutch approach. Thanks again..
Beautiful job, fantastic.
+Jake Cartee 3 Thank you Jake!
What do you think the total project cost was and how much time did you spend on it? Thanks for the videos!
Thanks EPetersen. The total cost was about $400 excluding the 1 1/2 HP motor which I already had. In part 2 of this 3 part series I discuss the cost towards the end of that video. It didn't take too long to build it. I think I spent about 3 weekends on and off cutting, welding, and installing it in my forge. That said, I spent a full month prior to building on and off researching power hammers and thinking through the design and collecting all the materials (e,g., gear reducer from Ebay, foot switch from Amazon, steel from Login Steel, and the springs, wood, and bolts from my local hardware store, etc..). Thanks for checking it out and if you decide to make one, let me know how it turned out.
Ah, must have missed it, I was watching it sped up so that would have done it. Love the build man. Thank you!
Very nice! If you could do it again would you make the hammer fall at a faster rate? Is there a mechanical way to do that without replacing the reducer gear mechanism?
+Luchi Sm Thank you and good question. The input to the gear reducer has a step pulley where I can increase the speed of the hammer cycles. I can also add a larger spring to the front of the hammer to increase the speed of the hammer fall. That said, I find that higher speeds make it harder to work with because you have to move faster between blows like turning your work from one side to another. So, I would not change it for my needs. Thanks for our question.
Thanks Rick.
Awesome work you are good, keep up the good work. Would you sale the prints?
Thank you !! While I do not have written plans, I try and cover all the materials and dimensions in the first two videos of this power hammer series. Hope those videos can help give you an idea on the design. Cheers!
Waoh a very nice work 👍
+Uwe Roh Thank you!!
This might sound a over-complicated, but I have an idea to stop the hammer from bouncing.
Copy the design of a "dead blow" hammer head, a short heavy-walled tube 3/4 filled with lead shot or sand.
I suppose it could be attached on the top of the existing head, rather than replacing it.
Very sound idea, plus it will help transfer more force to the material being worked.
Hey I'm a beginner blacksmith and need to build a power hammer and am interested in building my own as buying one is far too costly. I have a heart condition so making it easier on my body is the goal haha. I was wondering if you were to increase the downward force from the springs pulling it back to resting position would the cam need to be upgraded to a metal one due to the impact force on the wood?
good question Ben. When the hammer head slams down, the wheel back on the arm should not hit the cam. So, the only force on the cam is the upward force on the roller fixed to the arm. That said, it does take a lot of wear. So, I'm thinking of upgrading my wood cam someday by wrapping the outer edge with steel. Will probably secure with screws counter sinked. Hope that makes sense and good luck with your build!
@@RickRabjohn Or you might try swapping out the plywood for something plastic. Maybe two kitchen cutting boards, laminated together to get the required thickness. A million thanks for the many useful ideas!
Just a suggestion, set the speed of the hammer to about the speed in the sped up part of the video. in my opinion you are losing a lot of heat in between hammer strokes at your current rate of speed.Excellent job on the video!
Thank you Frank and agree for sure. I think I've been easing into it conservatively because it's new and I'm new at it :) Thanks for the tip and for watching!!!
Very creative, nice video also.
+Manarinni thank you!,
Thank You !
Thank you for watching and your comment!!
I was just wondering, and maybe I shouldn’t ask, but how do you get you rail and the two track pins?
Well I was lucky to stumble upon them at a flea market? I also see them on Ebay.
very nice build congrats
Thanks Bryan!!!
Hi Rick. Nice hammer. Very simple. :)
+Tony Small (Afro) Thanks Tony !!!
+Rick Rabjohn . No worries Rick. I might just borrow your idea and mount my big old, long peen sledge hammer over my anvil, to make it a bit easier on my 65 yo arms and back. ;)
You seem to be working your metal too cold. Remember that mild steel can be worked down to dull red, but as soon as there are alloys added, then the steel needs to be really hot to be malleable. Couldn't you have put your fire closer to your anvils? Would save a lot of legwork, especially in winter. ;)
+Tony Small (Afro) .......PS, I guess you could call your design, a Trip-drop hammer. Kool.
+Tony Small (Afro) Thanks Tony - your right about working the metal too cold - I was thinking about too many things when shooting the video - probably created a lot of stress cracks in the RR spring clip. Thanks for your comments, and good luck with your build..
Interesting! How well has it held up over the last six months?
Thanks Corrie - so far so good - I blacksmith for fun on the weekends, and I just needed something simple and inexpensive to help out the aging arms and shoulders. Cheers!
Very nice work!!
+amm1270 Thank you!
Paw patrol
You might want to pick your steel up between blows to preserve heat as the hit rate is so slow
Ummm, I never thought of that but that's a good idea. Thanks for the tip and for watching!!!!!
Nicely done!
Thanks for checking it out John - Booyah!
very cool idea
+Datalus Kazan. thank you Datalus
Sorry if you already answered this question, I am currently making one of these - Awesome work by the way! How specifically did you attach your Cam to the Reducer Shaft?
The shaft from the reducer had a key way - so I took the wooden cam and a jig saw and cut a key way the same width as the shaft (e.g., about 1/8 inch), but I cut the key way deeper into the wood - about 1 inch. Then I took a piece of 1/8 x 1 inch flat stock and cut a piece that was 2 1/4 " to use as the key - at 2 1/2 inches the key would span the entire wooden cam thickness. Overall, the key was 1/8 x 1 inch x about 2 1/4 inch. So far it's remained on the shaft with no slippage.
An alternative to consider, I would probably buy a steel bushing with flange (the flanges usually have 4 to 5 mounting holes in them) and the bushing would already have a key way. Then I would mount the bushing to the reducer shaft and then bolt the wooden cam to the flange part of the bushing. Search google or Ebay for Bushings with flanges.
While I am no expert - at least those are the two options I have used to mount wooden cams or pulleys to shafts. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much! I'm going to look into the bushing idea - On second thought, I have 1/8 steel laying around and it's free - I like your way better.
I am almost finished up with mine just have to build the Cam and throw it on. Does it worry you working with red hot metal over sheets of plywood? I cannot think of anything non flammable that would absorb all the shock as well as the rubber and plywood combination.
Compared to a air hammer what do you think the equivalent capacity is?
By capacity do you mean size or thickness of material that can be forged?
clever cam use. I Like it.
Thanks Robert!
Wey hey she bangs she bangs Rick, much better than the hammer I can see that, just thinking you might get more force on the work if the striking head had a smaller surface say 3 inch square or circular you could maybe weld a piece under it? just a though but great job all the same.
+ppotty1 - hey hey - another project - I think I'll try making a hand tool - a smaller square with welded handle to hold in one hand that I can place on top of the metal I am forging in the other hand. That should work without changing the head.......I'll give it a try...thanks my friend!
Good idea should let you know if it moves the steel better.
Do you have a drawing for the cam on your power hammer?
Have you tried it on the other pulleys on your gearbox?
I'm going to do a video on this soon but the short answer is no as the current speed is good for me..
I gotta have one!
Rick, I love your design....where did you get you gear reducer? May I share your videos on our ArcSmithing FB page?
+Charles Wright - Thank you and yes of course you can share it. I purchased the gear reducer new from Ebay for $65 dollars plus shipping from NRI Industrial. The reducer is a Dodge 1.91 HP 15:1 Worm Gear Reducer.
+Rick Rabjohn Thanks Rick....I will sure pass this on...I think its absolutely ingenious and if you want to sell plans, I'm sure it would be a huge money maker....the genious is in the simplicity and effectiveness.
How is the plywood holding up....even if its a weakpoint, it is surely easy enough to replace....perhaps a tire wrapped around the cam....
Thank you very much! The plywood Cam is doing just fine so far, but I like the idea of the tire - maybe wrapping the contact area with rubber will help - thanks for the idea
How much weight is on the hammer railroad track
+Charles Wright - Originally by itself the head weighted 25 pounds and then after assembly I placed a scale between the head and the base and it said 30 pounds; which included the added weight from the spring tension, main arm, etc... Might be interesting to test and see what happens at 40 or 50 pounds.....or double the springs to increase the speed (i.e. kinetic energy) at impact.
Great work, however I would see about getting a better power supply to the motor. If you keep on running like it is now you will eventually burn out the motor.
+A1986Ge1995 thank you - it seems to have gone away when I changed to a shorter 12 gauge extension cord. That said, I'll keep watching it and run a separate line if it happens again.
nice hammer nice axe
Thank you!
Good Job... !
Thanks for checking it out Robert! Cheers
Is there any way to increase the hits per minute of the hammer??? If u get s bigger motor or what would u have to do? I have the steal and track I want to make Damascus with this I just want it to go faster
I installed a step pulley on the input shaft to the gear reducer which provides the option of speeding up or slowing it down. The details include the following - Marathon 1.5 HP motor runs at 1800 RPM with 2 inch outside diameter (OD) pulley on the motor output shaft running to the input shaft of the gear reducer with a step pulley mounted. The step pulley has a 2", 3", or 4" OD which results in an input RPM into the gear reducer of either 1800, 1200, or 900 RPM respectively. Then comes the gear reduction which is 15:1 reduction ratio. So, the output RPM from the reducer which drives the CAM is either 120, 80, or 60 RPMs. I like the 80 RPM speed as it gives me enough time to rotate the work between blows. Hope this helps.
+Rick Rabjohn would it still work if I used 2in square tubing?
+Rick Rabjohn would it still work if I used 2in square tubing?
If your using the 2 inch tubing for the frame - I don't see why that would not work given I used 1 1/2 inch square tubing for the frame and hammer arm and it seems to be holding up.
you should add a second lobe to your cam to get it to hammer a little faster.
Thanks Bos Dad! As it turns out, I tried different speeds and for some reason prefer the slower speeds (e.g., around 80 beats per minute). Currently, I can change pulleys between the motor and the gear reducer to get a maximum of 120 beats per minute - but I found that's too fast for me. Adding a lobe to the cam is another good way of increasing the BPM - perhaps even a better idea than changing the pulleys. Thanks for sharing your sound idea; appreciate it. Cheers
Great job!!!! 11 out of 10😳🔥🔥🔥
thanks Pete!!!!
Good
Good going!
Thanks!
Impressive
Thank you!
Good job
what is the ratio on gear box and where did you get it ?
Hi Morgan - it's a 15 to 1 reduction - I purchased the gear reducer from Ebay. Hope that helps and thanks for checking it out.
Add some extra weight to the top hammer and that should go even faster.
I agree - thanks for checking it out!
Rick Rabjohn always enjoy your videos please keep them up.
Many thanks mate; cheers
I love the design. I think I'll make mine like this. I have the skills to make either an air hammer or power hammer like a little giant but I just don't want to spend the time and money on a power hammer like those until I can justify it. I think the only difference on mine will be the cam follower (rigid caster{that's actually an oxymoron[rusting idiot?]}) will be hinged so that when I don't step on the pedal(or bar) the cam follower won't push on the rotating cam. So to say that precisely, the cam follower will be cammed into the rotating cam. The harder I push the pedal, the further the cam follower will cam into the rotating cam making the hammer arm rise further from the axis of the rotating cam. Do you follow what I'm saying? Was that funny, well that de puns on how you look at it. Well maybe it wasn't punny after all. Around here the hardware store usually has a really wide variety of pulleys in part because of what we call swamp coolers that are just a blower drawing air through a moist pad. The pulleys are used on the blower motors. So the cam follower (here we go again) push rod isn't affected by the hammer arm cycling ,the lever arm (an arm that pivots to isolate the hammer arm cycling) that actuates the camming action of the cam follower (wewee, last time folks I promise) will have to share it's axis with the axis of the hammer arm. I'll have to make a video of it for my piratewelding channel. Thanks again for the video and like the idea of making the cam go faster. Maybe I'll use a step pulley to very the speed.
That sounds really interesting Robert, and thanks for sharing. Would love to see a video on your build; especially how you incorporate the cam follower. Your right where I was in wanting a hammer that did the job without a lot of time and money to get there....good luck with your build.
I think you would appreciate the difference if you stepped up the strike rate on your power hammer...!!
Thank you Ross - I have the option to go faster via the step pulley and I need to try it out - I've been conservative with it too long :-) Thanks for the push and for checking it out!
throw more weight on your hammer head you have a hole there and double your springs cool hammer mate 10 out of 10
Thanks Jeff - your right about that and once I did - it made a big difference; especially the springs.
add some more weight to the hammer
I did end up adding 10 more pounds for a total head weight of 40 pounds - that - with the springs added - has been plenty for what I'm doing. Thanks for checking it out
IMG_0975.png
exellent