Build or buy a power hammer??

S

shawn9106

Joined
Jan 21, 2014
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I’ve been looking at power hammers and can’t seem to find any few and in between. Everything I see is 7,000 or to build one. I’ve seen the tire hammers and spring leaf hammers. Are there any upsides to one or the other. Was looking to spend around 2,000$ but I don’t think that would touch buying one unless I’m overlooking somewhere lol
 
Now days 2k$ is slim budget.
You might get lucky & find a derelict whats overhaulable.
Sort of like old anvils, they are out there but alot of digging & luck required.

Homebrew Hammers are definitely feasable. But only as cheap, fun or good as a guy is willing or able to put into it.

As far as building mechanical hammers. Spring helve design is about the easiest. Dupont link the most efficient.
Good luck with it.
 
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If you build it yourself you will know how to work on it when it needs it. And it should save you some $$'s also.
 
I going to be building a tire hammer in the future. I bought the plans and everything is done very nice in them.
 
Bought them from the inventor
 
Appalachian Power Hammer.
Frankenhammer, has a build manual.
Clay Spencer Tire Hammer, good set of prints but you need to know your way around a machine shop and fabricating.
 
That's what I got was the set of plans from clay spencer. I like knowing everything I need. The others seam to be based around what you can find. Which is fine but I'm more of someone that a nice drawn out cut list and go from there. Especialy building my first hammer. From the research there is much Moreno them then just moving a weight up and down.
 
I'm working on an Appalachian style hammer around 35 pound ram I hope it will end up at about $600. It definitely seems like the tire hammer is more popular but this one seemed simpler to me. On YouTube I like gunnhilda,norm tucker(frankenhammer) and one that's titled 100#power hammer. I made my plans first then searched my local scrap yard for about a month .30 cents a pound then some at the steel from a local supplier.
Gilbert
 
You can build a nice tire hammer for under $2K no problem. Ive seen them built for less than $100 before. Ive got pics of the first ever tire hammer built by my late friend Stuart Willis. He was friends with Ray clontz. They were setting at a diner table and ray sketched the plans out on a napkin.. Stuart built it.. Butch silver another member here has the second one that they built after Stuarts..
Stuart told me he had about $35 in his hammer..
 
A press is also capable of forging taller billets more efficiently than a modestly sized hammer. Once you get down to 3/4" and below a hammer begins to be better, but if you had to have one or the other I'd say begin with a press, too. You can build a nice press for around or under $2K, too. Just have to have a good welder and working knowledge of simple hydraulics.
 
Then you move from the press to the rolling mill ;)
 
The first thing to consider about building any type of press or power hammer is your welding ability. Just being handy with a wire welder or capable of stick welding a muffler on a car won't cut it. You have to be able to do high quality structural welds in heavy steel plate and beams. You need a big 240VAC stick welder for most hammer/press builds

Your second consideration is mobility. A press or hammer can easily weigh 600-3000 pounds. You can't move them around and do the welds with a buddy and a hand truck. The base plate alone is usually 250 pounds or more. The upright in hollow square tube is over 100 pounds.
 
It's pretty easy to find a stick welder capable of running 1/8" 7018 rods at 120 amps or so... you can go bigger but that will do the job. Heck even an AC only machine will do it. I built my press years ago when the only welder I had big enough was a 225 amp AC tombstone. You just have to do your diligence, v everything out, multipass, chip between passes while duty cycle comes around. Takes some practice but not awfully difficult. It could be done with a big MIG too.
I didn't use a hoist when building my press... the couple times I had to erect a piece and tack it, I did it under a truss with a come-along. Mostly things can be added on from the base up, or built in separate parts such as the slide and then installed.
Caution is indeed prudent but you can't have no in your heart. An afternoon spent with a book on simple hydraulics, or looking at press build wip threads, and some calcing at surplus center, and that's all the education you need. Do have someone knowledgeable check you plans over, and your build too if possible.
In my humble opinion, a knifemaker (particularly a forger) ought to know this stuff and have the equipment. It'll make you much better in the long run. You could take a fabrication or welding class at your local tech school perhaps...
 
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