Subject: HAMMER DIES AGAIN

From: "D. M. Dickie" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 96 08:48 PST

Thanks again to everyone out there who responded to my earlier posting
regarding flat dies for a 25# Little Giant.  The general consensus seems to
be (and I agree) that the hammer is too small to make much use of flat dies
and special tooling.  I had thought this from the beginning, but wanted the
opinions of those with more experience.  However, there have been a couple
of suggestions that I might investigate further; one being having a local
machine shop make some dies. 

This brings up another question - what would be a suitable steel for the
manufacture of power hammer dies?  Clifton Ralph doesn't mention (that I
recall) what steel he uses for forging hammer dies.  For a small hammer
perhaps something like a truck axle or a chunk from a fork-lift would have
enough mass to do the job.  What about heat treating?
If they were just macnined to shape rather than heated and forged, I would
assume they would not need any heat treatment?

Any of your thoughts on this would be of interest.

Thanks again, in advance!

D. M. (Mike) Dickie
Flatlander Forge

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From: [email-masked] (Raymond Coon)
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 10:56:08 -0800

>manufacture of power hammer dies?  
>
>D. M. (Mike) Dickie
>Flatlander Forge
>
I'm sure no expert but it seems that one of the S series steels might be
appropriate.  These are high shock resistance type steels such as those used
for jack-hammer bits, etc.  Just my guess.

Raymond Coon
Portland, OR

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 16:36:12 -0500

Hammer dies: Try D-2, that's what that steel was designed for...In fact the
"D" in D-2 means Die Steel..

DrH