Horimahakala
07-23-2005, 04:26 PM
I'm wanting to build myself a planishing hammer and I'm thinking about modeling it after the Northridge Tool "CP Style Foot-Actuated Hammer" - http://www.northridgetool.com/pages/9/index.htm
But I don't have any experience, yet, with a planishing hammer so I'm curious what others, who DO have experience with planishing hammers, think of that style of hammer. What appealed to ME was that this particular hammer uses a spring-loaded foot pedal that lowers the upper die down onto the work surface and the lower die when it's pressed down; and when the pedal is released the upper die then rises back up freeing the work to be removed or repositioned. To me this seems like a handy, accurate and efficient setup- much more so than using an adjuster like an English wheel that requires stopping and turning a wheel to increase or decrease the distance between the dies.
Am I wrong? The only advantage I can see to using a english wheel-style adjuster is that it would free the pedal to be used to adjust the speed of the hammer, assuming the hammer unit I choose has a variable speed feature.
My next two questions are:
1. Is there a set of plans out there that would help me build this style of planishing hammer or is "Bherman"'s build about the closest I'll find? His hammer seems like a much more elegant version of the style hammer that Northridge offers.
2. Can someone recommend an 'in-line' hammer (as opposed to the 'pistol' style hand-held hammers) that I can get for my hammer? I'd like to be able to work up to 16 ga CRS if possible. I'm not sure how many strikes I should be looking for per minute, but from looking at several different makers it seems that the standard is 3500-4000. I'd like to find one that is able to operate at variable speeds.
Sorry for so many questions in one post but I thought it better to include them in one rather than each one in a seperate post.
Nick Anderson
Austin, TX
But I don't have any experience, yet, with a planishing hammer so I'm curious what others, who DO have experience with planishing hammers, think of that style of hammer. What appealed to ME was that this particular hammer uses a spring-loaded foot pedal that lowers the upper die down onto the work surface and the lower die when it's pressed down; and when the pedal is released the upper die then rises back up freeing the work to be removed or repositioned. To me this seems like a handy, accurate and efficient setup- much more so than using an adjuster like an English wheel that requires stopping and turning a wheel to increase or decrease the distance between the dies.
Am I wrong? The only advantage I can see to using a english wheel-style adjuster is that it would free the pedal to be used to adjust the speed of the hammer, assuming the hammer unit I choose has a variable speed feature.
My next two questions are:
1. Is there a set of plans out there that would help me build this style of planishing hammer or is "Bherman"'s build about the closest I'll find? His hammer seems like a much more elegant version of the style hammer that Northridge offers.
2. Can someone recommend an 'in-line' hammer (as opposed to the 'pistol' style hand-held hammers) that I can get for my hammer? I'd like to be able to work up to 16 ga CRS if possible. I'm not sure how many strikes I should be looking for per minute, but from looking at several different makers it seems that the standard is 3500-4000. I'd like to find one that is able to operate at variable speeds.
Sorry for so many questions in one post but I thought it better to include them in one rather than each one in a seperate post.
Nick Anderson
Austin, TX