steve.h
Fire Starter,,,,
- Messages
- 347
- Location
- swindon sn4
Hi guys, I am a keen hobby blacksmith, I want to make my life a little easier so want to build a power hammer/press. My problem with the power hammer is I live in an association terraced house in a quiet village, I dont think the repetative thuds of a power hammer will go down well with the neighbours and if there are more than a couple of complaints the association will make me stop working in my shed.
So my thought was some sort of power press, so searching the interweb for ideas I came across the electric log splitters, so the idea is to build some sort of stand for the smaller horizontal log splitter to make it vertical then make a base/anvil to bolt on to the splitter part of the machine with some sort of fitting to hold different shaped dies etc as well as making something to fit to the ram end to do the same.
I will need to find an old secondhand splitter as money is as ever very tight, so will a 4 or 5 ton electric/hydraulic splitter be much use, I want it to be able to do the donkey work when drawing out etc as well as wanting to be able to try my hand at make some pattern welded billets for knives.
I was thinking I would need to replace the "power" button on the splitter with an on off switch as you normally have to press the power button with one hand and with the other hand pull the ram lever, obviously this is for saftey, but I need hands free operation, so replace the power button and then make a foot pedal to connect to the ram lever, The splitters automatically return to the start position when the lever is released, so it should be quite simple to operate by simply pushing the foot pedal to bring the ram down onto the hot metal then release, move the hot metal and press the lever etc.
So what are you guys thoughts on this, I think it will be safe enough, obviously I would over engineer the stand/anvil etc as well as the welds, will the 4 ton be enough or will I need more power, I have seen an 8 ton splitter that uses a 3kw motor compared to the 1,5kw of the 4 ton but budget is limited, most of the stuff I do is around 1/2 inch bar, the pattern weld billets would be larger but thats about as big as I would need. Has anyone else made a press out of one of these...
any thoughts on this would be most helpful.
Cheers.
Steve.h
So my thought was some sort of power press, so searching the interweb for ideas I came across the electric log splitters, so the idea is to build some sort of stand for the smaller horizontal log splitter to make it vertical then make a base/anvil to bolt on to the splitter part of the machine with some sort of fitting to hold different shaped dies etc as well as making something to fit to the ram end to do the same.
I will need to find an old secondhand splitter as money is as ever very tight, so will a 4 or 5 ton electric/hydraulic splitter be much use, I want it to be able to do the donkey work when drawing out etc as well as wanting to be able to try my hand at make some pattern welded billets for knives.
I was thinking I would need to replace the "power" button on the splitter with an on off switch as you normally have to press the power button with one hand and with the other hand pull the ram lever, obviously this is for saftey, but I need hands free operation, so replace the power button and then make a foot pedal to connect to the ram lever, The splitters automatically return to the start position when the lever is released, so it should be quite simple to operate by simply pushing the foot pedal to bring the ram down onto the hot metal then release, move the hot metal and press the lever etc.
So what are you guys thoughts on this, I think it will be safe enough, obviously I would over engineer the stand/anvil etc as well as the welds, will the 4 ton be enough or will I need more power, I have seen an 8 ton splitter that uses a 3kw motor compared to the 1,5kw of the 4 ton but budget is limited, most of the stuff I do is around 1/2 inch bar, the pattern weld billets would be larger but thats about as big as I would need. Has anyone else made a press out of one of these...
any thoughts on this would be most helpful.
Cheers.
Steve.h