Initial review of the H.B. MACHINE fluted hammer

[splattttttt]

As with most stuff I make, price will depend largely on how much of a PITA they are!   

It's all about attitude. Just a few scented candles burning, soft Sinatra music, and a nice velvet outfit and fuzzy slippers, then hit the switch  >

[Have Blue]

So, anybody have suggestions for removing cutting oil stains from a velvet smoking jacket?

[Ed]

Are you sure those are cutting oil stains?
Michael, I have one of your fluted hammers that I wont need anymore. Let me know who to ship too if need be.

[Have Blue]

Well, my fixture for the hammer milling now has TWO snapped off 4-40 taps in it.  Here I thought I'd improve things a little by deepening the screw threads a bit (I had to grind down the clamping screws to keep them from bottoming otherwise) and was rewarded with that lovely crackling sound of a tap giving way after a short while.

On the plus side, this means that it's full speed ahead with building the EDM attachment for the mill...

[NS Pumper]

I would be interested in these if you jut need to replace the hammer with the current one.

[Have Blue]

I would be interested in these if you jut need to replace the hammer with the current one.

Yes, it's just a drop-in.

[greenmtn]

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on these.  I am a pretty big fan of the old ones and imagine I'll switch all my "Phantom based" Nelsons to these ones.

It would be interesting to see what somethign like this would do to a Rainmaker.

[cjottawa]

Well, my fixture for the hammer milling now has TWO snapped off 4-40 taps in it.  Here I thought I'd improve things a little by deepening the screw threads a bit (I had to grind down the clamping screws to keep them from bottoming otherwise) and was rewarded with that lovely crackling sound of a tap giving way after a short while.

On the plus side, this means that it's full speed ahead with building the EDM attachment for the mill...

Have Blue: how are you doing the milling?

The setup my friend used to do this:
- "shaft" made of brass stock with a threaded hole in the end, inserted into the hollow section of the hammer
- a bolt inserted through the hole at the back of the hammer with washers to protect the hammer, threaded into the hole in the brass shaft

That held the part while milling the channels at right angles.

[Have Blue]

Have Blue: how are you doing the milling?

The setup my friend used to do this:
- "shaft" made of brass stock with a threaded hole in the end, inserted into the hollow section of the hammer
- a bolt inserted through the hole at the back of the hammer with washers to protect the hammer, threaded into the hole in the brass shaft

That held the part while milling the channels at right angles.

Roughly the same idea - a central shaft runs through the hammers, and screws clamp the shaft to the fixture base (small 4-40 screws, hence the snapped taps).  The sear slot of each hammer fits over a central ridge on the fixture base for alignment.  The fixture will hold 5 hammers at a time - I can just kick in the X-axis powerfeed and tinker around with something else while a slot is milled.

[Keebler]

at the risk of sounded completely noobish whats this bounce in the hammer everyone is talking about? is it possible that the flutes will cause uneven wear and tear where the fins rub the inside of the body? not sure if that would be a factor at all. either way im very interested.

[bluefish]

Michael, are these available for sale yet, or are you still in production stages?

[cjottawa]

at the risk of sounded completely noobish whats this bounce in the hammer everyone is talking about? is it possible that the flutes will cause uneven wear and tear where the fins rub the inside of the body? not sure if that would be a factor at all. either way im very interested.

When a heavy hammer impacts the flange on the powertube, pushing the powertube back and opening the valve, it will be pushed back by a combination of air pressure behind the valve and the valve spring force.

The problem arises when the heavy hammer doesn't come to a complete stop after the valve is pushed shut. The hammer "bounces" off the powertube flange and main spring force pushes it AGAIN against the powertube flange, causing the valve to open a second, third, forth time, wasting air. A lighter hammer helps reduce this tendency.

Uneven wear is possible but it shouldn't be an issue. There's not a lot of friction between the hammer and body and the surfaces are quite hard.

[Have Blue]

Michael, are these available for sale yet, or are you still in production stages?

Not even in the production stage - right now I'm in the "swearing at the fixture" stage.  I could start running them off on the mill, but it would be a slow one-at-a-time process and not at all fun.

I think I now have pretty much all the parts ordered to get the EDM built, at least - I just need it to work well enough to burn out the taps, then I can continue onwards.

[bluefish]

I thought you were kidding about the EDM...

[Have Blue]

I thought you were kidding about the EDM...

I wish I was, but it's something I've wanted to build for years.  Fortunately, I can run it in a 'cheap and dirty' mode to get the taps burned out without having to worry about the finer points of the system.