Subject: Treadle Hammer Building Workshop

From: [email-masked] (Clay Spencer)
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 22:23:49 -0400

We have  built from 15 to 24 hammers in the Treadle Hammer Workshops which
I have led.

It takes close to 40 hours to make one hammer and you get some increase in
the efficiency by building a group. This includes buying the material and
parts. Prior to the final assembly weekend, some of the group must cut all
pieces to length, drill or punch holes and do some subassembly work.
Usually we do the final assembly in a long weekend starting on Friday
morning, working til about 10PM, and usually loading finished hammers
Sunday after noon.

The pieces which are more difficult to find or make are:
1. Hardy holes, 1" square through 3/4" mild steel. They can be punched with
a 70 ton press or drill 1" and drift to 1" square, cut slightly undersize
with tracer torch and drifted to size or drill 1", mill corners and file
inside corners.
2. The spring links with 1" round stock (with 1/2" hole through) welded to
each end. You can buy springs with eyes rolled on each end (this adds cost
but saves assembly time).
3. The solid anvils, 4", 5" or 6" square or round, 250 lbs., minimum.
Several times we were able to buy stock from steel mills as scrap, or used
steel anodes from aluminum melting operations.

The shop or work space has to be fairly large. Each hammer requires a
minimum of10 square feet free floor space, 15 sq. ft. is better. In good
weather, a lot of work can be done outside or under tarps. A level section
of concrete floor is almost a necessity for the initial fit up. A steel
plate could be leveled and used.

Band saws, drill presses, hand drills, chop saw, angle grinders, angle wire
brushes, belt grinders, forge and anvil, hand trucks, oxy-acetelyne or
oxy-propane welding torches, three welders (stick and/or MIG ), some method
to load the hammers into trucks are required. Usually at least one portable
welder is brought in by someone in the group or could be rented.

Nice to have equipment includes Ironworker, punches for up to 1/2" through
1/2", 70 ton (plus) press, milling machine, tracer torch, an overhead
crane.

My fee is a hammer plus lodging (and mileage if it is more than 300 miles).
The shop owner and the guy who rounds up all the material get a hammer at
no cost. All the costs are added and split by the rest of the participants
so it is better to have 20 or more. Depending on what material you can get
donated or buy at scrap prices, especially the solid anvils (4", 5" or 6"
square or round, 250 lbs., minimum), the cost usually runs $250 to $350 per
person.

Clay Spencer
Treadle Hammer Man
Editor, The Bituminous Bits, the Journal of the Alabama Forge Council