47-59 home made portable planishing hammer build

[dsraven]

has anybody ever built their own portable planishing hammer that is light enough to use by one's self, by an old guy, who has had 4 rotator cuff surgeries......?
gotta planish my roof. not looking forward to that actually, lol.
I have seen the ones built by fischer, japhands, make it custom. nice but this will be a one time use so not willing to spend that much coin.

[franken]

My first thought is harbor freight, but for whatever reason their site is oo braindead to allow me to look at one. I can write a review though...
I'd ask do you really want to stretch the crap out of the metal of your roof?

[dsraven]

I have cut the roof and extended it. sorta like cutting an egg in half and adding a flat belt to the middle section. now I need to planish the seams to get things flat and looking good without any oil canning, which it has currently. I mig welded it but that was before I got my tig welder. I may cut the forward seam and redo that with, possibly, a flat backer behind it. I'll have to practice my tig welding skills before that happens though, haha

[dsraven]

I need to build something lik this

https://www.trick-tools.com/ProLine-...-Planishing-Ha

[leegreen]

I was lucky enough to inherit my father's Watervliet, I don't know where he acquired it, but he was into airplanes and involved in the local experimental aircraft association, so probably a connection there. Edmonton has EAA, you might ask around.
If you google you will find pictures of the shapes of hoops they made for these, similar to trick tools. the pipe is 1 5/16" OD with a wall thickness of 1/8" . You'd loose some effectiveness making a long oval hoop, but moving the metal slower is probably an advantage for what you need to do. Your neighbors will love the noise.

They have large diameter pistons and can run on a low pressure, like 20 PSI, lower pressure lets you take your time.
I have not used it on a large flat panel like a roof, but is sure smooths out a fender quick. You could easily overdue it and make a bubble.

I would not say my hammer is light, and neither of the hoops I have is roof length. I think you'd need a helper or something rigged up to hang it from, bungees or something

Post pictures, maybe we can help. A backer would make it a lot harder to move the metal around after welding.

[dsraven]

thanks LG. I'll hafta check out the EAA in edmonton when I get a minute. kinda busy around here right now, there's a daughter's wedding in 2 wks.
I thought about the backer being a hinderance after the fact. I am thinking of cuttig the seam because I am not happy with the original mig weld, i was too hasty when I welded it and it got sloppy. when i cut that there will likely be a wider gap than normally accepted for tig welding. maybe i try just cutting through the sloppy spots and re-mig those areas, gring smooth and planish.
I was pretty frustrated yesterday after doing some work on the roof. I have an oil can effect on the section in front of the forward seam. i worked on it, and worked on it, then gave up for the day. as I was closing the door of the shop the roof went BONG! as the oil can section reversed itself, just to get my goat. haha
I'll get there one way or another, maybe I have an extended cab rag top or a T roof, lol.

[leegreen]

in another thread you mentioned having a fulcrum in door frame and and anvil on a bar. that sounds useful, just keep hammering along the seems to stretch them out.

with good reflecting light you might try heating along the seam a bit with propane torch, just to see which way the skin moves. If heat makes it better you need more stretching. If heat makes it worse you may have over stretched already. This is not easy as the problem area can be far from the oilcan

Do you have shrinking disk? Heat shrinking with gas torch works well to remove extra surface tension but will need planishing later (or filling)

[57tailgater]

You may be able to follow some of these videos on youtube. I am not very knowledgeable in this area but what he does seems to be a very good design. Maybe worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqxfX6kBRM

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by leegreen

I was lucky enough to inherit my father's Watervliet, I don't know where he acquired it, but he was into airplanes and involved in the local experimental aircraft association, so probably a connection there. Edmonton has EAA, you might ask around.
If you google you will find pictures of the shapes of hoops they made for these, similar to trick tools. the pipe is 1 5/16" OD with a wall thickness of 1/8" . You'd loose some effectiveness making a long oval hoop, but moving the metal slower is probably an advantage for what you need to do. Your neighbors will love the noise.

They have large diameter pistons and can run on a low pressure, like 20 PSI, lower pressure lets you take your time.
I have not used it on a large flat panel like a roof, but is sure smooths out a fender quick. You could easily overdue it and make a bubble.

I would not say my hammer is light, and neither of the hoops I have is roof length. I think you'd need a helper or something rigged up to hang it from, bungees or something

Post pictures, maybe we can help. A backer would make it a lot harder to move the metal around after welding.

I googled that and all I got was a pretty town in New York state.

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by 57tailgater

You may be able to follow some of these videos on youtube. I am not very knowledgeable in this area but what he does seems to be a very good design. Maybe worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqxfX6kBRM

I watched most of that video and then searched for his "Merch" site and his stuff is beyond spendy. https://www.japhandskustoms.com/shop?page=2

Some real interesting things but way beyond this old man's budget as a hobbiest.

There is a guy on Ebay who sells a pre bent frame but it is rather spendy too. Then you have to buy the pieces for it.

The better deal might be from Desert Hybrids on Ebay who sell a kit that can be used as a portable unit or clamped in a vise https://www.ebay.com/itm/12568649465...Bk9SR8DYuuqpZg

[mr48chev]

Desert hybrids also has a lot of the pieces to make your own planishing hammer or English wheel in their Ebay store. https://www.ebay.com/str/deserthybri....m3561.l170197

[leegreen]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

I googled that and all I got was a pretty town in New York state.

I don't have any good pictures of my hammer, but if you google 'watervliet tool planishing hammer' there is quite a bit on places like hamb, jalopyjournal and metal shaping forums

only picture I have

[leegreen]

I'd like to see pictures of what dsraven is dealing with.

Planishing hammer excels at smoothing curved surfaces. Or making flat surfaces curved. You could certainly use one to smash a welded seam to stretch it back out. It may not be the tool for chasing an oil can

making yourself a simple english wheel in the form of a long reach clamp with a couple bolts welded on the end holding bearings for anvils would be a pretty quick build of a linear hammer for chasing welds across a roof

A shrinking disk might be useful for shrinking high spots

[dsraven]

sorry guys, I will get some pics but my honey do list and other doc appt's etc have me running.
I believe the weld is going to need a little work first, then planish it to stretch the are so it will match the size of the forward area of the roof. a little more crown is needed.
I think i will likely build a single use planishing hammer out of stuff I have laying around. maybe not a nice looking unit, but fnctional enough to get the job done. lol.
I'll try for some pics tomorrow, I have some "house: work to do first (garage door painting, new weatherstripping and bottom seals on 3 doors) of course the parts I need for the house are across town. an hour each way. the good part is that princess auto is on the driving loop, lol (Canada's versio of Harbor freight)

[greg_h]

I enjoyed this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqxfX6kBRM

[mr48chev]

I've about come to the conclusion that the most productive way is buying an inexpensive unit and fabbing your own frame or modifying the frame. Searchng for parts to build one from scratch Runs the tab up to a have to use it to make money level and not a home hobby guy level.

This one Amazon looks exactly like the inexpensive but 80 dollars more on Ebay.

[mr48chev]

Handheld on Amazon. The price might be friendly in Canada If they import it directly to Canada from where it is made.

[dsraven]

i have a floor model like that one pictured
that handheld unit is $440 cad on amazon.
gonna build one

[vics stuff]

I purchased a Carl Fisher Japhands hand held plannishing for a project of mine. I know these units are spendy but his product is real nice. I felt with just the one roof job , I could have paid for his tool.
Vic

[Getter-Done]

I plan to build one also.

I did buy a radius checker and a floor model hammer when it was on sale.


I will use this part as a pattern to hold the dies.


Link to radius checker : https://www.amazon.com/MetalAce-Acry...8279418&sr=8-5


I snuck at work and made some of the radius dies that was not included with the hammer.

[dsraven]

nice work.
wish I had a lathe...

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by dsraven

nice work.
wish I had a lathe...

For most things we want to do we don't need a big lathe. When I was teaching I had a South Bend or Atlas (can't remember) lathe that the school probably got at govt surplus that didn't have a lot of tooling but the kids and I could make things with it and the main thing it got used for was modifiying mopar flathead six cylinder valve guides ( there was a box with a couple hundred in one of the storage cabinets) so that they fit the sandblaster cabinet and worked as a nozzle for it.

My buddy has all the machine and metal working tools one can imagine but his girlfriend is always dragging him off somewhere.

[leegreen]

I've wanted a lathe since grade 8, never made it happen.
not so much the money now as the space to put it, and a realization that the projects I am thinking of would need a large lathe that would mostly be in the way

looking at getter-done's nice dies, I was thinking you could probably make a good enough for the occasion one off die with the right sizes of round stock, a welder, a grinder, some patience and acceptance that you will not be producing ron covel quality work with the result.
it is just the center of the die that needs good finish, the rest is just clearance.

[dsraven]

I plan to fab up a unit sorta like fisher's but will use the air hammer from my floor mounted unit, along with the upper hammer die, and for the lower die i will use something shop made with a larger radius than the ones from my floor model unit. prolly use a large bolt for the base of the lower die and weld someth2ing on top of that for the actual die. it's been nice weather here so actually getting some needed outside work done before the cold and wet comes. also we have a wedding in a week so the wife has me sprucing things up, lol.

[dsraven]

ok, I have pics of my concept.
frame is made from 3/4 black pipe I had laying around for bracing the cab and some steel scraps.
the hammer die is made from an old air chisel that I cut off and welded on a flat piece of trailer spring, I had laying around, to act as the hamer face. polished up not bad.
the lower die is another chunk of trailer spring welded to a 7/8 bolt.
the lower tool holder is 1/2 of a lovejoy flexible coupling for a 7/8 shaft that I cut the "wings" off and welded to the black pipe, and it has allen head set screws to help retain the lower die. I may try to cut a groove in the die shank for an O ring instead if it works out. the die sits on a thick 7/8 hardened washer so as to help with deformation of the tool holder.
I fabbed up the hinge parts and used a turnbuckle from princess auto to act as an adjuster. not sure how much pressure is required to do the planishing but if it is more than the 3/4 black pipe can handle, and still stay straight, I may have to run a length of flat bar down the outside of the top and bottom runners. it's a fairly small job to do the roof so hoping it lasts long enough, lol.