Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Gastineau
...I have been reading up on helve hammers, planishing hammers and reciprocating hammers....
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Welcome Ken,
Just a point of clarification. The correct term is reciprocating MACHINE. They are not hammers and have no provision for storing/releasing energy. Tim Doty gave a great example..."Hammers HIT, reciprocating machines PUSH". If you start getting die to die contact with a reciprocating machine, loud, expensive things start to happen.
If you have an opportunity to get down to North Alabama, stop by for a shop visit and I can show you some of the various machines.
I have a local artist friend (Barb Lawrence aka Copperetta on the site) who works in copper and makes the most amazing copper art. Several years ago she was out and we were talking about how the group build reciprocating machines were just too big for her work. I had a momentary brain storm and came up with this:
http://allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=2494
It's been several years now and Barbmax is still going strong. I'd think something like this would work well for jewelery.