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4:25 pm
January 11, 2012
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Hi
I am fairly new to blacksmithing and this site. I have been at it on and off for about a year. I recently had the opportunity to use a treadle hammer and loved it. I decided to build one for my shop.
Most use a spring recovery. I decided to try a counter weight system. I made some other modifications to the traditional design.
Some of the advantages to this design include the ability to easily adjust both treadle and hammer height to accomidate the work and tooling.
I just finished it (except for a paint job) a couple of days ago. I am pleased with how well it works so far. The only possible draw back is the cost. I have about $850, mostly in scrap steel. Since the head is holding up a lot of weight it is much heavier than most hammers.
Here is a link to a video I made that demonstrates how it works.
5:28 pm
NWBA Member
April 22, 2010
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It reminds me a little of Bruce Freeman's Grasshopper treadle hammer.
https://sites.google.com/site/grasshoppertreadlehammer/home
10:22 am
January 11, 2012
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I believe the grasshopper has a complicated mechanism. This is just a cable and pulleys connecting the counter weight to the hammer
7:39 pm
May 13, 2010
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Looks like it works well. I have often thought of using a counterweight with the counterweight on the opposite end of the swing arm. Think teeter totter, the counterweight's inertia would then be assisting the blows as well. It would take a lot more room however because of the counterweight hanging out the back.
11:30 pm
January 11, 2012
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"I have often thought of using a counterweight with the counterweight on the opposite end of the swing arm. Think teeter totter"
That should work. If you had my set up and extended the actuator arm back 12 inches from the axis of the roller you would need about a 400 pound counter weight for my hammer. The distance from the axis of the roller to the lift cable on my hammer is 24.75 inches and I have a 190 pound counter weight. So if I remember my mechanics that would be 24.75*190/12 which is 391.875 pounds. The density of sand is about 100 pounds/ft^3 so that would be about 4 cubic feet of sand or about 30 gallons. I was going to use sand in the hammer to bring it up to about 75 pounds but the volume of the 4 inch square pipe was not large enough, so I poured 25 pounds of lead.
12:02 am
January 11, 2012
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I have finished the hammer. I am pleased with how it turned out. I have attached a photo. I added wheels to stabilize the counterweight. It does a good job preventing the counterweight from wobbling during repetative hammering, which I like. I don't think it adds much to the efficiency but I like the addition.
A 30 pound weight will depress the treadle. When I rested my foot on a bathroom scale it registered 30 pounds. It takes very little effort to operate. It is a great alternative to spring hammers. It has the advantage of being able to easily adjust the hammer and treadle height.
7:18 pm
January 11, 2012
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I have talked to several people about whether or not this desing is as good as the spring design. I decided to test the two. I used a 1/4 inch round punch on a piece of aluminium. The spring model punched an impression one and a half times deeper than my counterbalance hammer. I found the spring model had a faster recovery.
This shows that the spring model is a superior design. I will keep mine set up as is. It works well for me and it is fun having a unique hammer.
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