Anyang power hammers

"Andrew Mawson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

Andrew,

I have only the smallest experience with Anyang. It is this. A few years back a friend of a friend got one and was disapointed with the valving of the hammer. It was not adjusted properly from the factory and was hitting too light. Apparently the response from the seller was slow and there was much frustration. This was many years ago and I have heard more recently that an Anyang at a shop in California had a similar problem but was adjusted and made OK. I think this is a link to the actual hammer, along with the hitting weirdness.

For the record, my personal experience with Chinese made heavy tooling is good. I have heard much of terrible castings, non machined parts and poor costruction. Most of this is old news. The newer items coming out of China (industrial products I mean) are pretty damn good, especially for the price. I recently bought a lathe that has performed well. The basic design of the Anyang is taken from the Nazel power hammers made 50 years ago in Philadelphia. These hammers were VERY good hammers. I have logged many hours on the Nazel 2B. This is a 6000lb hammer with a 180 lb ram. The dynamics of the hammer just simply makes sense. A super heavy flywheel is brought up to about 300 RPM. The 2B's weighed about 350lb. This maintains a huge amount of rotational energy. That energy is driving a piston that has no pressure in the top of the piston. When you apply pressure to the foot pedal, the valves begin to close the escaping air off which makes all that rotational energy transfer to the ram. When you push full down on the pedal all of that energy is transferred so efficiently it boggles the mind. I remember often just sitting and watching the hammer in use and marveling at the design. Not only that, the hammer was designed to give a one shot, pause then full 120 per minute hitting speed. This was for set hits. Really an amazing feat of engineering for a smiths shop. Here is a link to a Nazel being run. Also a page on larger Nazels.

Sorry I got a bit off subject. The Anyangs are not what Nazel was, of this there is no doubt, but the design is based on the same energy transfer method. I think if the company's in China are improving their valving and casting quality, I would recommend this hammer. Just son't buy an old one.

I am currently running a Sahindler and two little giants. If you are forging tapers and scrolls, there is nothing like a mechanical hammer. If you are working more top tools and sculpture work then an air hammer is better. I think that your Anyang is more energy efficient than a Kuhn or Sahindler. The flywheel on those two is small and is only a gearing device not an energy storage measure. Also the valving is such that it sounds like the motor is pushing air under load when you are not using the hammer. What this means to your electric bill you can figure out yourself.

OK, I think I have written far too much and given you way too much opinion. Sorry. I am just trying to be helpful. If you have any questions feel free.

Andrew Molinaro

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Andrew,

That was a very useful set of links and comments - many thanks.

I have been offered a 60 lb Goliath here in the UK for £1500 (plus carriage of maybe £200) which frankly needs quite a bit of work to set it to rights although it is basically working. I got to thinking it was logical to start comparing these Chinese hammers price wise. Here a roughly equivelent Anyang (the C41-25) runs to about £3,500 and the rather bigger C41-40 is quoted at £4077, both prices including taxes and delivery. It's a lot of money for what is only a hobby, but I have to decide if I want to spend my days mending machines or making things!

As I understand it, a single blow on the Anyang is not so easy to achieve, but you can do a 'hold down' for twists etc - can anyone confirm this?

AWEM