# If I Had aHammer



## RJSakowski (Oct 29, 2021)

Yesterday, the wife asked me "did we have a toffee hammer?"  "What's a toffee hammer", I asked.  "To break up toffee." she said and proceeded to Google it to show me what they looked like.  They are diminutive hammers that are often packaged with British toffee and used to break the large sheets into bit sized pieces. "No, we don't, I replied" although I do have some smaller hammers that I'm sure would do the job.

The wife then proceeded to order one.  The first choice was $32 plus S&H.  "Ridiculous!" I said.  She then selected one for $18 plus S&H and placed an order.  Subsequently, she realized that it was coming from the UK and wouldn't arrive in time for Bonfire Night on Nov. 5th and cancelled.

"I can make a toffee hammer.", told her and went down into the shop to look for some material.  After scrounging around for some stainless, I settled for some 1" o.d. 300 series for the head and some 1/2" o.d. 300 series for the handle.  The design that I had in mind was a scaled down version of a rounding hammer used by blacksmiths and farriers  It is a double ended hammer with a flat face on one end and a domed face on the other end.

Normally, I will make a SolidWorks model for  any machining project  but for this one, I decided to wing it.  My target for the head was 3/4" diameter by about 1.5" long.    The handle would be made from 1/2" stock, necked down to 1/4" to fit the head.  I turned the head stock down to .8" in diameter and necked down the central portion to ....what looked right.  The length was not critical and I left it at 1.7".  I cut a slight dome on one face by eye.  The head was sanded with  400 wet or dry for a satin finish

The next step was to bore the hole for the handle.  I mounted the head in my machine vise and used my edge finder to find the center of the head.  Then I used a 1/4" carbide end mill to spot face the cylindrical surface and drilled a #33 pilot hole .6" deep.  This was followed by a #19 drill.  Nothing special about the drill sizes; I just grabbed what was handy.  I finished the hole with a 1/4" carbide router bit as my last carbide end mill was getting dull and the stainless was showing signs of work hardening.  Checking with pin gages, the hole measured out at .4982"  with a no go for the .4992" pin.

Next, it was back to the lathe to make the handle.  I turned about  .7" if the end of the 1/2" stock down to .4995" and then proceeded to reduce the diameter with the 400 grit paper, checking the fit with the socket in the head.  I ended up with the shaft diameter at .4992.  Then I extended the 1/4" section to about 2", ending in a fillet to the 1/2" diameter.  The 1/2" diameter was turned to .475" to clean up the surface and the handle was parted off for a total length of 4.2".  The end was domed slightly and the handle was then treated with the 400 grit paper for the satin finish, being careful not to touch the precision fit at the end.  Final assembly was accomplished with a small Nylon faced hammer.  Aside from the interference fit, there were no critical dimensions.  It was more about what was aesthetically pleasing.  The finished hammer weighs in at 150g.


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## silence dogood (Oct 29, 2021)

The successful honeydo projects that work out are the best.  The last one was when I gave up my 1/2 ton arbor press  and modified it so wife could add snaps to her sewing.  It worked far better than the hammer and anvil that the manufactures supply.  Unfortunately, HF was not selling any more 1/2  ton presses.  So I had to break down and buy their 1 ton arbor press to replace my old one. Forced to come up with a series of clean words.


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## mmcmdl (Oct 29, 2021)

If I had 200 hammers , I would have 1 less than I thought I had . Nice job on yours .


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## Bi11Hudson (Oct 29, 2021)

mmcmdl said:


> If I had 200 hammers , I would have 1 less than I thought I had . Nice job on yours .


Or needed. . .


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## rwm (Oct 29, 2021)

That is beautiful. I love the radius transitions. How did you do those? Form tool?
On a more serious note, I hope you checked the hardness of the toffee before selecting materials. Is toffee measured on the Rockwell scale?
Robert


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## RJSakowski (Oct 29, 2021)

rwm said:


> That is beautiful. I love the radius transitions. How did you do those? Form tool?
> On a more serious note, I hope you checked the hardness of the toffee before selecting materials. Is toffee measured on the Rockwell scale?
> Robert


 Thanks.  I have a round carbide insert tool the essentially is a form tool.  The outside curves were just done by eye.

I actually had some 400 series stainless that I could have used but elected to use the 300 series. I was more concerned with food grade than hardness.  I suspect that toffe hardness is measured on the Rockwell C(andy) scale.  I haven't any toffee samples to test as yet.  From what I was able to gather, at least some of the toffee hammers were made from pewter and I'm sure the stainless is harder than that.


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## rwm (Oct 29, 2021)

RJSakowski said:


> Rockwell C(andy) scale.


That's frigging funny. Send me some toffee samples and I can test them for you...
R


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## talvare (Oct 30, 2021)

I love it. Another one of us that adheres to the mantra that " for a little more money and a lot more time, I can just make it myself"

Ted


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## Lo-Fi (Oct 30, 2021)

In engineering circles over here, "toffee hammer" is used to describe any hammer that deemed too small. Often anything smaller than ab 8lb sledge....

Lovely work!


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## Dabbler (Oct 30, 2021)

@RJSakowski Very nice work -and only a complete metal shop to do it in 

It's always nice when you can make something for that  special someone!


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## Janderso (Oct 30, 2021)

Oh she has to be happy with that!
Beautiful job sir!
I have a couple of those round carbide tools. You inspired me to use it on the Buick carriage pivot pins.


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