Salem Straub
Cast Iron
- Joined
- May 22, 2012
- Location
- WA, USA
Well, I had enough of trying to track down hammers, afford them, dicker over price, lose deals from distance and competition... so I contacted my friend Larry Langdon and sure enough, he had a good project hammer to sell me.
It's a #9 Beaudry Champion, the slack belt type, the 300 lb. model. It needs dies and a sow block. Overall it's not too badly worn but has a good surface rust coat from sitting idle in a warehouse in Seattle for decades. Larry threw in a jackshaft setup including 7.5 hp 1100 RPM 3 phase motor, a big flat pulley he fabricated for it, the right 3-groove sheaves to achieve speed range, and shaft and bearings so putting together the drive tower should be relatively simple.
I got a monster sow block from some old steam hammer with it too, which he'd found and been saving as a starter block to shape a smaller sow for the Beaudry from. That's the most daunting part of the whole project, it's a lot of metal removal but I have no doubt it'll get done in the end.
I drove over to southern Idaho Memorial Day weekend to get it, 1200 miles round trip and 48.5 hours total.
Here's some pics...
You can see the big sow block in the pics, it needs the top and bottom dovetails cut off, and then cut into a round disc 10" thick and 16.5" wide. I have ordered a #7 cutting tip and am reading up on severing heavy sections, I have a very good old oxy-ace book from the 40's that deals with that stuff. Then I'll have to grind it nice and flat on both top and bottom and machine in dovetails that match the hammer.
I've wire brushed a good portion of the frame, and am soaking everything with penetrating oil- the first thing I'll do probably to get into it is fabricate a treadle, that I know I can do easily enough. Then it's the sow block...
I have just managed to source some used dies from a similar hammer, with slight modification they will work. 4" wide by 11" long by 2" outside the dovetails! Oh I can't wait to slap some hot steel between those big glorious flat dies and whale away...
I'll post more when I've made some meaningful progress towards getting it running!
It's a #9 Beaudry Champion, the slack belt type, the 300 lb. model. It needs dies and a sow block. Overall it's not too badly worn but has a good surface rust coat from sitting idle in a warehouse in Seattle for decades. Larry threw in a jackshaft setup including 7.5 hp 1100 RPM 3 phase motor, a big flat pulley he fabricated for it, the right 3-groove sheaves to achieve speed range, and shaft and bearings so putting together the drive tower should be relatively simple.
I got a monster sow block from some old steam hammer with it too, which he'd found and been saving as a starter block to shape a smaller sow for the Beaudry from. That's the most daunting part of the whole project, it's a lot of metal removal but I have no doubt it'll get done in the end.
I drove over to southern Idaho Memorial Day weekend to get it, 1200 miles round trip and 48.5 hours total.
Here's some pics...
You can see the big sow block in the pics, it needs the top and bottom dovetails cut off, and then cut into a round disc 10" thick and 16.5" wide. I have ordered a #7 cutting tip and am reading up on severing heavy sections, I have a very good old oxy-ace book from the 40's that deals with that stuff. Then I'll have to grind it nice and flat on both top and bottom and machine in dovetails that match the hammer.
I've wire brushed a good portion of the frame, and am soaking everything with penetrating oil- the first thing I'll do probably to get into it is fabricate a treadle, that I know I can do easily enough. Then it's the sow block...
I have just managed to source some used dies from a similar hammer, with slight modification they will work. 4" wide by 11" long by 2" outside the dovetails! Oh I can't wait to slap some hot steel between those big glorious flat dies and whale away...
I'll post more when I've made some meaningful progress towards getting it running!