How to NOT slot punch a hammer.... | Problem Solving | Forum

Good Morning,

The trick that I learned from Tom Clark was to drill 3 - 1/4" pilot holes for the slot punch. I haven't screwed up a hammer head yet since doing that.

I remember someone asking Francis Whittaker (at CanIRON II in Calgary) "How do you punch a hole at an angle, through another member?" Francis looked the way he looked when someone asks an obvious easy question "Drill a pilot hole at the angle you want, The punch will follow the pilot hole" he answered.

Another day of learning, watch the children!!

Neil

JNewman;16364 wrote: The trick I learned from steel mill blacksmiths for punching hammer eyes is DON'T USE A SLOT PUNCH. Use a round punch. The sides bulge out, and when you hammer them back in the eye becomes oval ready to be drifted. Punching a round hole you cannot end up with the hole twisted and a round punch is less likely to be bent.

I've got a new tool made up for the press with just that- starting with a 5/8" hole. My prior tool used an oval punch but by the time I was done drifting it, my little 2lb. hammer head took a sledge handle to fill the hole! However, it's the alignment that's the deal breaker. I can deal with a bigger hammer handle but a bad twist or angle in the hole makes me sad... Second photo shows the over-drifted result (fail on the right hand one)

Some pictures here of my experiments. The oval punch could conceivably work better if I reduced the size. One shot- that's the goal here. The 5/8" hole is through 1 3/4", the oval is 5/8 x 1" through 1 1/2" all 4140.

Looking back close to 2 years ago now I mentioned on this forum my intent was to try to mimic a Brazeal/rounding hammer pattern. The last photo is mine next to a 100 year old Heller. I think I'm almost there!:happy: