Dupont Fairbanks hammer back up and running better than ever. Put
the new pitman arm on the hammer today after work. Works better than
ever now, can get slower lighter hits up to fast real hard blows by
varying treadle pressure now, which before I replaced the spring was not
very doable. Glad that the pitman arm broke just a day after replacing
the spring so that I could get it fixed before I really need it for
something, rather than in the middle of a project.
Fix is mostly invisible once installed except for the modern grade 8 nut, washer, and spring washer on the front.
Also here's a real poorly lighted and out of focus vid testing the new pitman arm on a 2x4 =P
This thing packs twice as much punch as it did before, and even though
the hammer is SUPPOSED to be 75#, as I showed before when I measured
the ram with top die, it's 110.0 lbs on the button, so plenty of hammer
for me to get lots of work done with!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPhiiN6qSr8
Fixing up the pitman arm got rid of a lot of the slop in the hammer too, as
the inside of the big bronze bearing in the pitman was worn a good bit,
but pressing in the new bearings and using the 3/4 bolt took much of
that slop out. The only 'major' project left on the hammer is to repair the broken existing, or make a new, brake ring.
Right now the hammer is running off of a 5HP rotary phase converter (the
first motor I turn on before I flick the switch on the hammer) I'm
thinking about putting it on a 3HP VFD (KBAC29 or the like, which will
run off of single phase and give me 3HP 3PH)
I think the fastest it'll go is a little fast right now. Manual says
to set it for 350 bpm, it's closer to 385 currently. I think I should
probably slow it down to between 325 and 300, which is ratings for the C
and D size (100 and 125 ram weight)