# building a mechanical forging hammer



## MG-42 (Jul 20, 2013)

As I am getting up in years I find swinging a hammer for any extended period of time difficult. So with the help of my neighbor and the material out of my scrap pile we built 2 mechanical forging hammers.


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## MG-42 (Jul 20, 2013)

With this set of pictures you can see that the support and hammer base are welded in place. The second picture shows the pulley system welded up.


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## Old Iron (Jul 20, 2013)

I'll be watching this thread looking good so far.

Paul


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## MG-42 (Jul 21, 2013)

Once the basic frame was completed it was time to add the hammer arm. This is a couple of leaf springs that were cold bent to be straight. Then the spring assembly was set on a pillow block for a pivot point.

- - - Updated - - -

The next phase was to attach the linkage arm to the hammer and spring assembly.


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## MG-42 (Jul 21, 2013)

This last series of pictures is of the completed hammer


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## Rbeckett (Jul 21, 2013)

Have you thought about different sized wheels to change the length of the stroke of the hammer?  Im thinkin like a short throw for sheet metal thickness and a bit faster rythem and a larger wheel to lengthen the stroke and slow it down for larger billets of material.  I assume you will be forging the billets straight out of the furnace or after being heated with the torch, Right?  It is a good lookin project and appears to be well engineered and nicely assembled.  Perhaps a drawing and a Bill of Materials list for those of us who might be interested in copying your work.  Looks like a really fun project and a very useful tool for those of us getting too old the swing a hammer for the time it takes to form a lot of shapes for our projects.

Bob


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## Old Iron (Jul 21, 2013)

Pretty cool you need to get a video of it running and post it here. Thanks for sharing your project.

Paul


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## MG-42 (Jul 21, 2013)

Next on the posting list is the hydraulic forging press


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## Bill C. (Jul 21, 2013)

MG-42 said:


> This last series of pictures is of the completed hammer



Nice job


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## Ben (Jul 21, 2013)

Fantastic build! I second the request for a video. Knowing me I would get something pinched in it.(hopefully only a finger!:roflmao


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## mgd (Aug 2, 2013)

MG-42 said:


> This last series of pictures is of the completed hammer



Nice work. What type of steel did you use for the the anvil and hammer pieces?


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## RandyM (Aug 2, 2013)

Very Cool! Nicely done. :thumbsup: Let us know how it works.


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## MG-42 (Oct 21, 2013)

mgd said:


> Nice work. What type of steel did you use for the the anvil and hammer pieces?



The Anvil started as a large piece of semi less pipe. The hammer was a piece of scrap steel that I got out of the scrap yard. The actual faces for the anvil and hammer are just hot rolled steel that was machined to the proper size. The tooling is made from s-7 steel and heat treated. Sorry for taking so long to answer. I have been busy with building the hydraulic forging hammer and installing dro's and a 6 jaw self centering chuck on my lathe.


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