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Hammer hand piece
Michael Parkin -
Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 9:23am
Repousse & Chasing chasing | repousse-chasing Hi All, Have any of you tried using a hammer handpiece like the Foredom 15 to drive chasing tools? Have any of you tried using a compressor driven air hammer to do larger pieces? Their are some illustrations in the book "Moving Metal" but the descriptive text is pretty limited. This is my first time trying an entry here. I hope it comes through OK. Next time I will try posting some images.  metal moving equipment
visitor -
Monday, January 21, 2008 - 4:57pm
I agree with Warren, the foredom is pretty small. I have and a friend of mine has used air hammers with modified hammer tips to move copper sheet. We were doing it on a 1 1/4" thick slab of metal as a backup and moved the metal against it. made for some great designs. I don't have any pictures of the work he did which was the majority of the work done. I have never tried it with backed up metal but I would think it would work great. Do be sure to get a good variable "speed" unit. » reply  hmmmm... sounds like you
feorge -
Monday, January 21, 2008 - 7:59am
hmmmm... sounds like you want to do an "extra air" chase. ironically the guy to look up would be e a chase. he's from santa cruz. » reply  hand piece
B.J. Severtson -
Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 8:17pm
The Foredom hammer head hand piece is a fine tool for stippling a texture. It lacks the control and the power of an air hand piece. Such as a Gravermax by GRS corporation. These are very capable of fine chasing or repousse' since they are primarily used to do power engraving on firearms. Bright cutting and channel setting from the jewelers bench side of things. It's really a matter of scale. Fred could possibly use a Gravermax to do his highly detailed faces. But the task of a door panel would probably be beyond the scale of the tool. Brad » reply  Michael,The Foredom hammer
Rich Waugh -
Thursday, February 7, 2008 - 9:49pm
Michael, The Foredom hammer handpiece is too light weight to have any real effect on a chasing or repousse tool. They work okay for direct work with small tooling designed to fit the handpiece, but they have neither the mass nor the power to move a 1/4" square piece of steel 4" long with any authority. Short answer; nope, won't work. I use a couple different air hammers for chasing and repousse on larger pieces. I have a few of the "muffler gun" type air hammers/chisels that take standard .401" round shank tooling. My favorite one is an Ingersoll-Rand with the quick-release chuck and feathering trigger. I make my own tooling for the air chisels using cheap chisel bits from Harbor Freight Tools as the basis, with forged and/or welded heads applied to the HF tool shanks. One issue with these tools is that the tool is free to rotate ad lib, so you have to use a handle on the chisel itself to control the rotation. On some of my tooling I weld on a side handle and on others I just use a pair of Vise Grips to grip the shank. The Vise Grips that are designed to hold hex nuts are the best for this, I've found. I also have an air chisel that uses 1/2" square shank tooling that I find very handy for heavy engraving, chasing and repousse work. It uses a driver handle similar to that found on needle scalers, but has a spring chuck to hold the 1/2" square-shanked tooling. Being square shanked, they don't rotate and so are very controllable. The tool has a paddle type control, but I use a foot pedal and a flow control valve to regulate the power of the tool, leaving my hands free to guide the tool more accurately than I could if I was also trying to run the air with my hand. I sommetimes do the same with the .401 shank muffler guns, too. I make most of my tooling myself, using S-7 tool steel or sometimes 4140, depending on what is available and the type of tool. For some of the tooling I use H-13 so that I can use it on hot work without losing the heat treatment. For the hot work chisels and tools I generally make them about a foot long, to get my hands away from some of the heat. You still need pretty stout gloves, though. I know of a couple of guys who use the bigger chipping hammers for really heavy repousse and chasing work, but I've never tried one myself. Heck, I suppose you could use a 90# pavement breaker too, but I just don't do work on that scale and I doubt I could stand to run one for long anyway. All air hammers are really noisy and require that you wear good hearing protection in addition to the normal eye protection and face shield to protect against flying bits. For running the muffler guns, a pair of gloves with the gel-filled palms takes a lot of the fatigue out of running the tool. » reply  The 90# breaker hammers do
Gene Olson -
Friday, February 8, 2008 - 10:01am
The 90# breaker hammers do work. We used one to shape some 1/4" plate, but it is kind of hard on the body if you are standing on the work. I did a little of it and my guy did most of it. His comment was that his feet tingled every time he even thought about the project, and that we weren't going to do one like that again. See Rich's comment above about the gel filled gloves. They are a good idea!! They can reduce nerve damage. We shoed have had gel sox. Gene Olson » reply I got to thinking about that
Rich Waugh -
Friday, February 8, 2008 - 6:22pm
I got to thinking about that after I posted it last night Gene, and it occurred to me that for using a big breaker hammer it would be really nice not to have to hump it around. I've used them too much for breaking pavement and I really hate the noise, vibration and weight. For doing metal forming, I was thinking it might be good to have an overhead hoist to sling the hammer from so all you're doing is pretty much steering it while letting its own weight do the work. That might cut some of the vibration, too. For the feet, I'd use two or three sets of gel-filled insoles in my boots and then put down an anti-fatigue mat to boot. That buzzing feeling in the feet is really no fun - I'm not surprised you turned over the task to your employee, I'm only surprised he didn't walk out on you over it. (grin) There might be nastier jobs than running a breaker hammer on metal, but offhand I can't think of one except maybe being a skindiver for Rooter Rooter. » reply This is the project we were
Gene Olson -
Friday, February 8, 2008 - 7:06pm
This is the project we were working on back in 1989?
It was done of Silicon bronze for a sculptor in Duluth, MN. It is part of a fountain. The pieces were spun but the radius was pretty much un-spinable because the springback angle was greater than the angle that needed to be formed. You pushed it down and it popped back unchanged this continued until you got far enough out so that you were pushing down far enough to make the bend set and stay at which point it made a kink or in this case a ring of kink. We had to even out the areas between the rings. Now older and wiser, I wouldn't spin it. I would do it on my English wheel. Here it is, February. Last year Maslowski, his cousin Cary and I went in together on a big project that we built in my shop. A year ago yesterday, he went over to sit in his truck and warm up his hands, (it was -15 out) no more than sat down, had a heart attack and died. Boom . . . gone at 56. This is what we were working on. http://www.mettleworks.com/jobs/QBP/Qbpgraphic-log.html
Gene Olson Sculptor Elk River, MN » reply  That outdoor wall sculpture
webminster -
Saturday, February 9, 2008 - 12:27am
That outdoor wall sculpture turned out amazingly beautiful! This must be the largest wall sculpture I've ever seen. I'm amazed at just how large scale you have been able to go with your studio workspace and tooling. Kudos to you and this wonderful wall art! » reply  Gene, Very impressive. It
Fred Zweig -
Saturday, March 15, 2008 - 7:20pm
Gene, Very impressive. It takes much time and skill to coordinate such a massive commission. Were you required to hire a structural engineer and did you get any hassles from the building inspectors? My hats off to you. Fred Metalsmith » reply Thanks Folks
Michael Parkin -
Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 10:19am
Hammersong I really appreciate the information you provided. I finally got a small compressor (if I earn it, I'll move up to a bigger one) and an in-line air hammer from Snap-On. I think it will do the job for now. Gene, I am mightily impressed with your big wall mounted piece. Amazing!! I have started a blog at silverworker dot blogspot dot com to begin documenting my work. If you are interested, have a look. Right now it only shows small pieces, but as I get to bigger things, I will put them there as well. Meanwhile, I need to spend a little time figuring out how to make better use of this site here at ArtMetal. Michael » reply Fred, I sent drawings
Gene Olson -
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - 11:23am
Fred, They okayed it. Gene Olson » reply |
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ArtMetal
air hammer
Michael,
On the foredom not sure if would have enough power to move the metal the way you want to do for repousse. Never tried a foredom but I have tried the little electric chiesel hammers and they just buzz.
I have used an air hammer for doing some repousse and chasing. Just rough work but it works if you have the proper air hammer. You need one that has a feathering type trigger so you can vary the hammer hits.
There a few metal artist that use the air hammer for all of their work.
warren
http://www.metalrecipes.com