Hello All
I am planning on building a treadle hammer. I have go the clay Spencer plans and have had a good look at them as a starting point. I have built a small power hammer.
I have been browsing the archives. On and off for the last two weeks for comments and ideas. I am interested in finding out more about the grasshopper design. I cannot find anything on the net and was wondering if any one on the list has built one and knows where I can get a look at the plans. I can work it out for myself but would like some idea on how successful the design was.
Then I would also like some recommendation how high the anvil should be. I have some 50mm thick plate that I can add to the round bar cut in half and add a piece from the hammer material. SO the total height will be
725mm plus what whatever I use to hold tooling. Will this be way too low. I guess I could just raise the whole hammer up by adding wood underneath, that will also insulate it a little from.I would also like the group to comment on the ratio from experience of those who have built power and treadle hammers. The mass of the anvil is going to be about 250kg. I know from stuff I have gleaned from the net that people recommend a 10:1 ratio but people have worked successfully with a 3:1 ratio. My power hammer has a ratio of about 6:1 and works well. I am not really that keen to stretch the limits to get heaviest hammer possible but would like something that works really well.
I would consider a air hammer as that may fit the bill better than a treadle hammer but I would then have to outlay a lot more money on a compressor to run it and that I don't have the cash at the moment to outlay for a large enough compressor.
Thank you for comments and advice.
Geoff