Need a "Soft" Hammer-Brass or Copper?

[12bolts]

I like my plastic mallet...........

The faces are replaceable, just screw straight in, its not deadblow but it has very little rebound due to the soft plastic, weighs about 1.5kg.
You can smack stuff really hard and not leave a mark.

Cheers Phil

 

[Redirish]

Plus 1 on the comments about lead hammers. I have two molds, one uses folded quarter inch rod, the other uses half inch diameter round stock. I use "unknown" lead alloy that people give me thinking I can use it for bullet casting. All the zinc wheelweights I've seen had ZN cast on them, easiest way to tell if they are zinc is when I melt down wheelweights, the zinc ones will float on top of the melt and won't melt without a lot more heat. Also, you will probably find some steel ones marked FE.

 

[McRuff]

The perfect dead blow is a Lixie, plastic heads, that can take one heck of a pounding, do virtually anything that a copper, bronze or lead hammer can and you can tap on really fine stuff without marring or fear of breaking. I have used mine in mold building for 30 years. I have used all the others and went back to my Lixie always. Got rid of all the rest of them. I would never use a ballpein to hammer parts in a vise, that has gotten several guys fired over the years in shops I have worked at.
The hammers are double ended with a different color, different hardness head on each end, lead shot filled with a hickory handle and replaceable tips.

The black plastic end is tough enough to drive roofing nails, I know because I roofed my garage with mine years ago.

 

[Tom Griffin]

I wwould never use a ballpein to hammer parts in a vise, that has gotten several guys fired over the years in shops I have worked at.

Lol. I was wondering how long it would take before I would be chastized for my use or perhaps misuse of a ball pein. I was introduced to the practice while working as a shaper hand back in the 70's and the practice kind of stuck. Why use a special hammer when there is always a ball pein handy? They aren't expensive like dead blows, they don't deform like lead and they work great as I demonstrate in my video on this site on how to square up stock.

Incidentally, what was the reasoning behind the ball pein firings? Perhaps they were using one on a finished surface?

Tom

 

[bcall2043]

Lol. I was wondering how long it would take before I would be chastized for my use or perhaps misuse of a ball pein. I was introduced to the practice while working as a shaper hand back in the 70's and the practice kind of stuck. Why use a special hammer when there is always a ball pein handy? They aren't expensive like dead blows, they don't deform like lead and they work great as I demonstrate in my video on this site on how to square up stock.

Incidentally, what was the reasoning behind the ball pein firings? Perhaps they were using one on a finished surface?

Tom

Tom,
What a coincidence just tonight I watched a video at http://www.machinistblog.com/ A guy was showing a way of squaring up a part in a mill. He was beating the heck out of an aluminum block with a ball pein hammer. I was thinking “what is that guy doing?” and then you admit doing it too. But then I like shiny new parts even with smiley faces in them.

Benny

 

[Tom Griffin]

Tom,
What a coincidence just tonight I watched a video at http://www.machinistblog.com/ A guy was showing a way of squaring up a part in a mill. He was beating the heck out of an aluminum block with a ball pein hammer. I was thinking “what is that guy doing?” and then you admit doing it too. But then I like shiny new parts even with smiley faces in them.

Benny

Come on Benny.

If you look closely, you'll see that those surfaces get machined after getting the "heck" beat out of them. Obviously if you were seating a finished part in the vise you would not use a ball pein hammer. :huh:

Tom

 

[8ntsane]

Good topic here !

I see alot of different opinions with hammers. I dont use anything special, I have a brass faced hammer that I use once in a while, but seem to constantly reach for the plastic faced hammer all the time. The hammers I buy, are the really cheap ones. When the plastic ends get mashed up, I just replace the entire hammer.

Bob
Good infro about the wheel weights, I never knew they had changed them. This brings up a question for you. Those lead hammers Used to be available every where, yrs ago. But seemed to dissappear from the shelfs of hardware stores and such. Have they been removed from the shelfs of the general public for health reasons? I had one yrs ago, and it was a good hammer, never marked the object you where strikeing with it. I was just wondering if the lead is that bad for the user, it should be avioded these days?

As to brass or copper? I just wonder if making up your own aluminum ends wouldnt be just as good? The plastic hammers I get, have plastic on one side, rubber on the other. They do unscrew, so I think Ill spin up a aluminum end , and replace the rubber end,just to see if it is durable enough, and performs well.

Thanks for the infro guys

 

[Tony Wells]

What??? No one said anything about rawhide! Maybe it's the Texan in me.




Actually, I use a small shop made brass hammer on my transfer punches, and other struck tools, and a 2 lbs shot filled deadblow if I need to whack something. I don't often feel the need though.

 

[McRuff]

.

Incidentally, what was the reasoning behind the ball pein firings? Perhaps they were using one on a finished surface?

Tom

Exactly but figuring if they weren't smart enough to know not to use one, what else would they tear up. To be perfectly honest they are horable at seating parts in a vise, simply because they bounce everywhere and induce shock on the part.
Now as for shop hammers, I use my Lixie for beating parts down in the vise, squaring vises, loosening collets, pounding nails, tapping inserts in place, putting bearings on shafts and everything else, I have replaced the heads on my Lixie 3 times in 30 years. They are like $3.50 a piece, available in 4 hardnesses. I have 3 hammers in my toolbox at work, an 8oz ballpein and 2 Lixie hammers, a 1" face for small stuff and 1 1/2" face (22oz) for larger stuff.

 

[Tom Griffin]

To be perfectly honest they are horable at seating parts in a vise, simply because they bounce everywhere and induce shock on the part.

That is not entirely true. What I am trying to point out here is that in there are many methods in machining to accomplish the same thing and it doesn't always take a special tool to do it. I agree with your statement that hitting a part in a vise with a ball pein can make the part jump and difficult to seat on the parallels. That's what it says in all the texts, and that's what we were taught in shop class (but not by me). However, if you hold the part with your fingers and tap it with the edge of the flat face or the ball end, it will readily seat on the parallels; as well as with any lead or dead blow hammer and you can be sure that it's seated because you can feel it seat through the part. If you refer to the video that Benny provided above, "the guy" explains quite well. It's kind of fun to see my video popping up all over the internet and I was not aware that it had made machinistblog.com.

Tom