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17 years ago
anybody everseen anything like this (powerhammer?)
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17 years ago
The one on the top looks like a big air-powered hammer, but the one on the bottom looks like something out of the Middle Ages. Maybe it's Mjolnir in disguise.
Charly
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17 years ago
If you got a hand under it, it'd likely _feel_ like Mjolnir too. :)
It looks like a helve hammer. Hinged on one end of the beam, something; a water wheel, electric motor and gearbox, windmill, whatever, lifts it up and gravity sets it down. Been around since the Middle Ages and maybe earlier.
It's not so much the hitting that tires one smithing: It's lifting the darn hammer back up to hit again.
That's my guess and I'm sticking to it.
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17 years ago
Google "helve hammer" on google images.
Cheers Trevor Jones
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17 years ago
It's a tilt hammer. Usually water powered. It is usually pivoted close to the other end, maybe at 1/4 the length of the beam. Often, a shaft directly from the water wheel passes by above the far end. The shaft has pins or rough cogs that push the far end down, raising the hammer end. We got a chance to try one in Austria a few years ago. It certainly can strike hard, but the hammer stays down until the next cog comes by, cooling the workpiece. The one in the picture us a pretty big one. There were/are lots of smaller ones.
Pete Stanaitis
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MatthewK wrote:
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17 years ago
But used right into the mid-to-late 1800s. My Mousehole anvil was shaped with one.
dennis in nca
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17 years ago
Thanks, I've never seen anything like that before....cool stuff.
matthew "ignorant kid"
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17 years ago
Matthew, You may be interested in these plans and pic on the Helve Hammer. Yes I know its only small scale stuff for sheetmetal work, but its a starting point.
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17 years ago
Thanks, I love all this cool mechanical stuff. I really need to setup a forge.....I think I've settled on a design though. I may make a post later.
Matthew Ohio
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17 years ago
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17 years ago
When trahern put fingers to keys it was 1/13/07 1:09 PM...
How many on this list can honestly say that they haven't lost sleep trying to figure an easier/faster/more-efficient way to do something?
We stand on the shoulders of thousands of generations that stayed awake in the dark trying to find a better way.