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Lead hammer
- Thread starter Arcstar*
- Start date
so this is what I made.- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Messages
- 10,446
I have made probably hundreds of lead hammers, but they were made of solid lead/ antimony alloy with pipe handles, they are about 2 lbs weight and were made with a mold that an old friend gave me perhaps 40 years ago; one note, although wheel weights are about the ideal hardness for hammers, any harder, and they are liable to spall when struck, (this with hammers made from babbit) resulting in fragments of lead alloy whizzing past our bodies, and every time we remelt the weights/hammers antimony is lost and the hammers get softer and mush over more easily, and antimony should be added to the melt in the form of a lead antimony alloy, what I use for the purpose is 70/30% lead/antimony. One time I made my own alloy when making a babbit alloy, I bought antimony metal and alloyed it partially with wheel weight lead, this can be hazardous to one's health due to the fact that the fume (purple smoke) is toxic, it has to be melted first at red heat, then the lead is added, which I assume also emits fume at that temperature; I did buy a metal fume respirator for the project! Buying the alloy makes more sense. A lot of slag on a lead alloy can be re incorporated by fluxing with powdered rosin, it reduces the oxidised slag back to it's elements, makes lots of smoke, stinks up the place, but works well.
Those hammer molds are super cool!!! I've seen some guys on YouTube like Mr.Pete and Vintage Machine I think his name is Keith use them to cast the hammer around a pipe just like you described.
My design is ok but it has it's drawbacks. Like... if I don't shim the set screw that holds the shank in the hammer head it bites in too deep and gets loose. I've also had the head pop off leaving the shank flush and hard to get out. Last time it happened I just used my mapp torch and melted it out.
Keep in mind that all above described drawbacks are mostly caused by user error. So it's probably the archer and not the arrow
I'm using strictly ww's and fluxing with bees wax that I render myself. It smokes a lot until it hits it's flash point then I stir it in with a wooden spoon. When I re melt them they get mixed in with some fresh ingots. I go through a lot of batches in my lead pot because I cast all of my own bullets.
Nice thing about a heavy hammer is you don't have to swing it too hard. I need to make a heavier hammer. I tend to abuse this one because it's too light for some jobs.
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2013
- Messages
- 3,743
Nicely put, I like that!
I also liked the idea of the separate tips on the steel body but I was wondering if they would end up getting stuck in the hole after a bit of use. I never thought of just melting them out though, that was a clever solution. I may have to give one a try sometime — I rarely need a whopper hammer but a smaller weight one would be good.
-frank
Not near time to change them huh ? What's point of making a soft tip hammer if you don't bother to change the tips ? The lazy valve is wide open and the handle is snapped off .
No but seriously it's a good little hammer. You can see the one end is discolored from when I melted the shank out of it.
No but seriously it's a good little hammer. You can see the one end is discolored from when I melted the shank out of it.
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- Joined
- Nov 25, 2015
- Messages
- 9,631
I wish I had molds. I have 2 a large and a smaller , both standard molds, with pipe. Bought at the farm swap meet. A guy was there with a bunch, turned out the friend I went with and the seller worked with each other at some time in the past, or were part of the same hunting club... don't remember which. I wrapped the handle with leather, because I don't like a smooth metal handle while my hands are oily or greasy swinging a hammer. wrenches are fine, but hammers with bare metal and oily hands don't work for me... I think the copper and lead might work together.. The set screws on the original seem to be in a better position, you can just spin a regular allen key, whereas underneath you need to use a T or the long end of the allen... Still, not a bad design..