Power Hammer Page

I've decided to sell my power hammer. The way my temporary shop is set up now I can't use it, and I would rather see it go to a good home than to sit here rusting. It is still connected and running, but it is sitting outside of my actual shop. If you're interested contact me and I can arrange for a demo. If you go to the end of the reassembly page there is some video of it running. I'm asking $2500 for it with the motor stand, or $2000 without. If you have an overhead line shaft set up this hammer will work just fine with it.

Go to page 2, reassembly.

I bought this hammer in August 2004, and picked it up the beginning of September.

It's a Common Sense Hammer No 2 Gunning Model, made by the Schuyler Company of Berkeley CA. It was most likely built sometime in the 1920's. They made these hammers in 50, 75, and 100 pound models. I believe the No 2 designation on this one means it is the 75lb one, but I will be weighing the hammer portion now that I have it out to make sure. This particular hammer came out of a foundry in Berkeley when it shut down a couple years ago. I bought it from the person who bought it at the auction and removed it from the foundry. I was told it was still in use when she disconnected it from the overhead belt drive system.

According to Pounding Out The Profits by Douglas Freund, as reviewed on Anvilfire (bottom of page), it was listed in the 1924 catalogue of machinery dealer Waterhouse and Lester for $275 while the comparable Little Giant cost $365. They were supposedly a popular hammer on the west coast because of this cost savings, and I would expect a significant shipping cost savings as well.

I have been trying to find out any information I can on this hammer, and have come up cold every where I look. There is really nothing on them anywhere on the web that I can find so far. Even though I am no expert by any means, I have decided to document my efforts to rebuild this hammer so that there will be at least something available for future smiths who acquire one. These 3 pictures show my starting point.

This is how I found it in the welding shop of American River College.	A close up of the main wheel.	Just after unloading in my back yard.

Getting it here. Thursday through Saturday, Sept 3-5, 2004

I took my friend Steve with me and drove up to Sacramento to pick up the hammer. It was at American River College, a 949 mile roundtrip. We took off after work on Thursday and made it to Stockton about 11:30 that night. We crashed at a Motel 6 then drove the last hour in the morning. It took us about 2 hours to load it and get it secured. I was actually surprised at how well the truck did. I have a Dodge Ram 1500 with 120,000 miles on it. I was told the hammer weighs about 1600 lbs. I actually got slightly better gas mileage coming back than I did on the way up. (It's downhill most of the way back)

Here it is loaded up at the college ready to go.	With the wood box built around it, and the straps holding it from the top, it never moved at all. Even when one of the straps was cut through accidentally. It was worth 4 holes in the top rail of the truck bed.	Here is the box close up. there was wood jammed tight against all 4 sides of the hammer. It never had a chance to make a move. I had cut and pre-drilled the 2x6 cross pieces. I took a bunch odd lumber with me, as well as cordless saw and screw driver to build what I needed.
This shot shows where the strap ended up rubbing against the base of the motor stand and cutting the one strap. I noticed it when I made my first stop an hour out of town and checked all the straps.	Here is the contraption I built to lift it out of the truck. I had planned to rent a forklift, but this cost about the same as the rental fee and I get to keep it. I already had the 3 ton chain hoist that I had bought off ebay 6 months ago.	Here is yours truly driving out from under the hammer. I don't know how much this could lift, but it didn't even squeak as we lifted this hammer. The cross beam is a 12ft long 4"x12" beam, and it's sitting on 12' 4x4's.
Here is my flying hammer.	And here it is just after we set it down. It is actually sitting pretty close to where it will be permanently. I plan to build a building around it later.	My wife bought this 10X20 car shade and we put it up over the hammer. I will get the side kit next pay day so I can work on it without baking.

Day 1. Sunday, Sept 12, 2004

Today I began working on the hammer in earnest. Until now I had simply been spraying it down with engine cleaner and wire brushing it to get some of the large volume of crud off of it. Today I took apart almost the entire top front of the hammer. Here is some of what I found.

This shows some of the bent bolts I encountered as well as some of the damage to the main guides.	This shows the broken casting along the side of the right guide, and the repair someone had made to it.	Here is the mount for the clutch pivot. It had broken and been repaired at the same spot on both sides. I am thinking of trying to replace these parts with modern pillow block bearings if I can find some the right size. It seems like it would work fine to me.
Here are the arms. When I took out the top bolt the spring popped out and nearly dropped on my foot. After that I slowed down and paid a lot more attention to each piece as I removed it.	It looks like they welded onto the bottom die to help hold it in place maybe. So far I have had no luck trying to get it out. I may just clean it up and grind it in place and never change it.	Here is the other side of the shot above. It shows the repair and the piece of scrap steel that was welded in for the brake.

Day 3. Tuesday, Sept 14, 2004

Yesterday I just worked on trying to remove the front main wheel. I bought a puller from Harbor Freight, but it was too small. I decided to modify it so it would work. I made longer arms for it, but didn't finish it.

Today, I finished my modification, but it still wont work quite right. My wife came up with a good idea just as we were running out of light, so I will do some more on it tomorrow. I pulled the top cap off of the front of the main shaft and cleaned up the bearings to see what I have to deal with. I was surprised how good the bearing looked, but I will know for sure what's going on when I get the shaft out so I can look at the bottom bearing. If it looks anything like the top one I may not have to re-do it, which will make my life a lot easier.

This is the top cap after I wire brushed it a little. It looks like it is in really good shape to me. This is my first time ever working with Babbitt bearings, and I would rather not replace them if I don't have to.	Here is the same cap from a different angle. I am thinking that I may be able to just hit it with some very fine sand paper to smooth it out and let them go as they are.	Here is the shaft, and you can see the bottom bearing sneaking out a little. I haven't cleaned the shaft up at all, but it looks like it is going to be ok. There is no noticeable markings or discoloration from excessive heat.
Here is the rear cap over the back of the main shaft. I can't remove this one until I get the front main wheel off. The excess weight wanted to tip the whole shaft forward when I loosened it, and I don't think I can lift it off with that wheel still on it. I should have the wheel off tomorrow, and then the disassembly will be complete.

Update on bearings.

This is the lower rear bearing. Notice the brass insert in the center. Also notice the bad spot where it looks like it did not fill in well when it was poured. This bearing actually looks like it has had almost no wear on it.	This one looks better. It is the lower front bearing. It also has a brass insert. I'm not exactly sure what that is for. Maybe to add some strength to the bearing? If you know please email me and let me know. (I've since discovered that the brass rod was placed in the bottom as a spacer to ensure that the bottom bearing was poured thick enough.)

Day 4: Disassembly complete. Thursday, September 16, 2004

I finished stripping the hammer down to its base components tonight. Now the cleanup and rebuilding begins. I have a few new pics, but my camera batteries died so I will add some tomorrow of the bottom bearings. I was surprised by a couple of things. The first is that they are in pretty good shape, and so I don't think I am going to try to replace them. The second is that there is a strip of brass in the bottom of each bearing. Deborah brought home a gallon of parts dip from work tonight so I put a lot of the small parts in it and will let them soak over night.

Here is the puller I had to modify to get the front main wheel off. It started off as an 8" Puller with 3 arms. I made longer arms for it first since I was trying to pull a 12" wheel. The problem was that with the counter weight on the back of half the wheel it crewed up how the puller grabbed on. I found this piece of tubing in my scrap pile and drilled a large enough hole for the main screw to go threw. Then, I used a couple of 5/16 bolts with fender washers to hold it together. Instead of steel arms ai just used a nylon tie strap from my truck. This probably wouldn't work if it was on there real good.
	Here are a couple of shots of it in action.
Here it is all stripped down. Now the fun part begins. I hosed it down with another can of engine degreaser tonight and am letting it sit over night. Deborah and I did some scraping on it to get more of the big gunk off. I am sure I will be at this for a while.

Day 5: Interesting Discoveries. Sunday, September 19, 2004

I started cleaning things up today. I dug out my grinders with the wire brushes attached and started cleaning up the body. I also started really inspecting individual parts to figure out what needs to be done to them before re-assembly. During this process I discovered a few things. The first is that the two pivot points for the clutch/break assembly are not factory original. After cleaning all the grime off them I found that they had been manufactured by the mechanic at the foundry where this hammer spent most of its life. I was looking at the frame while wire brushing it and decided that the 2 tabs sticking out looked like the perfect place to have the clutch pivot. I pulled out the rod and put it in place and it seemed to work perfect. The one problem I can foresee with it in this position is the the brake material is ground to hit from the far side. Now it will want to hit from the bottom. I'm not sure if this can be overcome, or if I should just put it back as it was. There is probably more clutch action and better breaking action with it in the place the foundry had it. I think I will start with it there and see how it works first.

Here is the clutch mounted where I think it was originally designed to be mounted.	What I originally thought was just a repair turned out to be a fabrication. If you look close you can see that the pivot is made by welding 2 square nuts on the end of some steel and drilling it out where needed.
Here the brake material would engage the wheel on the same side as the weight, or right at the bottom. I don't think that will work as well. That's probably why it was changed some time later.	Here is the way it was mounted when I got it. You can see that the brake material actually engages the wheel on the far side from where the weight is hanging.

I also did some work on the bottom die today. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will probably never get it out. It looks like they welded the ends of the wedges to the die to keep it in place. I decided to grind it flat and go with it as is for now. I can remove the top die easily, so I will just have to deal with it like this.

Here is before & after of the back side of the bottom die	Here is before and after looking from the front of the bottom die. As you can see I still need to do more work on it. I need to get some more belts for my belt sander.

Day 6-10: Lots of Cleaning. Monday, September 27, 2004

I didn't do any updates for the last week because my camera batteries are dead. All I've been doing is lots of wire brushing to clean things up. It's really starting to come along. I plan to do some painting this weekend. I decided on colors this past week as well. After spending a lot of time looking at all the color chips at home depot and trying to decide what color a power hammer should be I decided to do it in a color I like since I will have to be the one looking at it the most. I decided that the main color will be purple. I also decided to do a secondary color of a light green, and an accent color of safety yellow. One thing for sure will be that this hammer will stand out when it's done.

Well I just changed my mind while I was looking at the colors above, and I decided I didn't like the green. I asked my wife's opinion, and she suggested blue, so there you go. It will be purple and blue with yellow. Deb also wants to do some black highlights as well. This is definitely going to get interesting.

Day 11: New Discoveries. Wednesday, September 29, 2004

I started working on the actual hammer that travels up and down, and on the top die tonight. I had just set it off to the side when I first took the hammer apart thinking it would be no big deal, because the top die looked in pretty good shape. Well tonight I found out differently. Someone really beat the snot out of this hammer. The top of the die, where it connects to the die holder is broken pretty badly. I didn't think steel could break like this. Now I need to figure out how to repair the die, or replace it. (Update) I found that buying a new die may cost around $300 dollars, so I am definitely going to try a repair on it first. I think I am going to try to build it up with an arc welder and then grind it to shape.

Here is a close up of the top die before I started cleaning it up.	Here is another shot of it. As you can see, it is in pretty good shape. I thought I would just need to do some minor dressing with a grinder and belt sander to get it back in shape.	Unfortunately, what I found when I removed the die and turned it over made me stop and think for a second. I'm still trying to figure out how I will repair this.
I hadn't noticed this corner before because it was facing the rear of the hammer. Of all the damage to this die, this is the least of my worries.	Here is the top die sitting next to the slot. I have labeled some of the damage. I am not exactly sure what I am going to do at this point. I will probably price a new die, but the last one I priced was $350 for a set of combo dies, and they wouldn't break up a set. I obviously need to keep looking.	Here is a good shot of the slot where the die sits. You can see the damage the broken die has passed on to the holder. I am not sure how I am going to grind this smooth. I know I can get the edge of the grinder in here, but I am afraid I will end up with lots of grooves that way.

Day 12: First Paint. Wednesday, October 20, 2004

I haven't actually worked on the hammer for about 3 weeks because I had to finish the shed. It's done now so I got back on the hammer. I built a small bench in the shed and mounted a vice and grinder to it. I also mounted a pedestal grinder in there. Now I can work in the evenings till my hearts content without getting too cold. I cleaned up several pieces tonight and started on my painting. I am very excited about the colors. They really look sharp. This hammer is going to be very unique when it's done.

Here are the first pieces I painted tonight. This hammer will definitely stand out when it's done.

Day 13: Shiny Bronze. Thursday, October 21, 2004

There is a part which connects both arms to the main wheel that is made of bronze. I decided to clean it up tonight with the wire brush and leave it raw. I think it will give a nice contrast. While cleaning it up I found that it had been rebuilt at some point. There is brass build up around the 4 holes where the arms connect. I assume that they used brazing rod to build up around the worn holes then re-drilled them. The picture isn't very good because of my cheap camera and my poor photography skills, but I labeled it so you will know what I am talking about.

Here it is. All 4 holes have this buildup around them. The main hole looks great though and there is no visible wear.	The red outline shows where it goes on the hammer.	Deb came out and helped paint tonight. It sure makes things go faster having 2 of us working on it. I was able to keep cleaning parts while she painted what I finished. I hope she will help me more on it in the future.

Here is a funny looking little pic I did tonight. I was trying to figure out which colors to use where, and so I colored in one of the pictures I have with Photoshop so I will have a blue print as I paint. It looks like a cartoon, but gets the job done. It started out as the same pic as the center one above.

Day 14: New Processes. Saturday, October 23, 2004

Today was a good day. I tried out a new process I had read about on the net called electrolysis, and I am in love. I wish I had heard of this years ago. I'm not going to try to explain it all here. Just go to this page and check it out. If you do any kind of restoration work this is the thing for you. Here is a pic of what it looked like in action.

Here is the set up. A large plastic tub, 2 cheap battery chargers from Harbor Freight, and some scrap rebar. I ended up adding on a 3rd charger later to give it a little more umph.	Here is the first part I cleaned. It is one of the arms that connects to the actual hammer. It was totally gunked out and rusted. This is after sitting in there for 2 hours. You can see the rust floating on the top of the water. It also collected on the scrap steel.

Day 15 - ?: Small Stuff Done. Thursday, December 23, 2004

I just realized it's been 2 months since my last update. I've just been slowly plugging away on the hammer. I haven't been working on it steadily really because I have been working on wiring the shed and getting it all set up to work out of. I also ran up against the holidays.

What I have done though is pretty much finish all the painting of the small stuff. I need to clean up the body and paint it, then I can begin reassembly. I'm pretty excited about it, but I have to do some clean up around the hammer area first. We had a crazy wind storm last week and it knocked down my lift and crushed the car cover that was protecting the hammer. Here are a few pics of the damage.

I've also started working on getting power to it as well. I bought a pulley and shaft as well as some pillow block bearings to create a jack shaft for it. (Pics coming soon) I still don't have a motor or even electric run out to where the hammer is. I am hoping by the time I finish the hammer I will have most of that done as well.

Back on Track - Monday, Jan. 17, 2005

The weather has finally returned to normal for Southern California. This weekend was beautiful. Saturday was spent just cleaning up the mess from 2 months of rain, and cutting the 2ft tall grass. Sunday and Monday I was actually able to do some work on the hammer though.

I started cleaning up the motor stand and also working on the body of the hammer. by tonight I had almost half of the hammer painted. I decided to paint the side that was clan in case it starts raining again, and then I also painted part of the stand and fabricating the jack shaft I had to make to power the hammer.

I had some 4" by 3/16" C channel left over from my steel rack project. I cut a couple of 8" long pieces to use to support the jack shaft.	Here it is laying on the bench getting ready to mark & drill the holes.	I drilled & tapped the holes for the pillow blocks. Here it is clamped onto the motor stand.
Here is a side shot of it. I need to buy the triple pulley for the motor. I am going to leave as much room as possible between the motor and the C channel since I figure I will be upgrading the motor in a few months. This motor is a cheap 3hp from Harbor Freight, and I don't expect it to last more than a few months.

Woo Hoo, painting is done. Reassembly can begin. January 23rd, 2005

Because of the ridiculous number of pictures I put up on my pages I have decided to do a second page for the reassembly. This way those of you with dial up access won't have to wait forever for it to load.

Reassembly Page

Main Page

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