jesse_barnes37•2d agoProlific Poster

My first boss told me to never use a power hammer on a cold piece

This was back when I worked for a small shop in Flagstaff, maybe 15 years ago. He was an old guy, learned from his dad, and swore by hand work. He said a power hammer would just ruin the grain structure if the metal wasn't hot enough. For years I followed that, even on big projects. Then I got my own shop and a cheap little 25lb power hammer. I tried it on a piece that was just starting to lose its color, maybe 900 degrees, just to see. It worked fine, saved me a ton of time on drawing out a long taper for a gate hinge. I think his rule came from using older, heavier hammers that could really mess things up. What's the coldest you all will run a piece under a power hammer without worrying?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt_green2d ago

My uncle's old press would crack anything below a bright orange... scary sound.

evanfox2d ago

Wait, isn't that sound more about the metal being too cold? My dad's old shop had a press that would pop if you tried to move steel that wasn't hot enough, like a dull red instead of a bright orange. It wasn't really cracking the metal, @wyatt_green, it was the hydraulic fluid cavitating or the frame stressing in a bad way. That scary noise was the machine basically screaming at you to stop, lol.