The Results Are In…
As you may know, we run weekly polls via our socials, newsletter, and Scrap Metal Recycling Talk Facebook group. We recently asked scrappers to share their most used tools, whether for scrapping or around-the-house fixes. Here are the results:
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Magnets
Magnets should be a scrapper’s number one tool in their arsenal. Being able to tell in a moment’s notice whether a piece of scrap is non-ferrous or ferrous can save you time and/or make you more money.
Suggested Reading: The #1 Tool & Most Important Tool for Scrappers
Screwdrivers
While these may sound like a regular ol’ tool, you know that there are many different types until you have a few years under your scrap tool belt. From flat heads to Phillips head screwdrivers, we haven’t even started to talk about star ones or the various others. We always like to have a set of miscellaneous screwdriver heads like this one, so you have different options. We also suggest having the piece for your screwdriver or screw gun to switch out the bits and make your work life faster.
Impact Drill
This is a loaded answer, considering there are so many of these. Impact drills, or impact guns, can shear a bolt in half if the wrong setting is on or using air tools. These drills will help get some nuts and bolts out of rusted places or even caked on there. It is always important to try to get a drill that allows for various speeds, which will help you to control your work even better. Brands that we like to stick to are either DeWalt or even Snap-On, but Milwaukee has a good one, as well.
Wire Cutters
These are not just for stripping, but also for cutting things like ends off and many other pieces, like copper pipes. We suggest not getting the ones off of the Home Depot shelf but getting ones from a company named Greenlee Loppers. These will not only help you make more money but will be able to get resharpened multiple times over to ensure that you are cutting easily. As soon as you can start to see chips and knicks inside the blades’ cutting part, it is probably time to sharpen them.
Wire Stripper
Many people have asked us for advice on which wire stripper to buy. There are so many good ones out there, but we have tested and heard about success using the StripMeister E250. These machines have a strong motor and a good reputation. This is a great machine for an advanced scrapper, and if you are learning, you may want to visit another machine that they make called the StripMeister Original Drill Power. This stripper will require you to use two hands and a drill to strip the wire, but it does a great job.
Sawzall
We are big fans of Milwaukee and DeWalt saws. These have proven time after time to be the best and longest-lasting tools and cut really well. We have seen scrappers’ biggest complaint more along the lines of the blades put into the machines. The blades (cheap ones) will make you push the saws harder and hurt their longevity.
Crow Bar
With so many different sizes to choose from..where to begin? These come in units as small as 1ft and as long as 8ft. You may ask yourself: which size is best for you? That depends on what you are using it for and how often. Our go-to is always a two-sided one with a pry bar and a gooseneck on it. These are great bars to have, but you can always learn how to use them, from taking apart air conditioners to prying out pieces from engines.
Sockets
We should make a song to go over all of the different sockets you could have, but we won’t. From impact socket sets to hex sockets (some of the most common types), there are so many different ones to choose from that you probably want to start with the common types and work your way up to having other ones. While there are huge socket sets like this one, you can also get starter sets that you use and learn what you like. There are also all-in-one socket tools that you can try, and these may make it easier to move your scrap and take it apart.
Wrenches
Wrenches are another pandora’s box of tools that could make you go crazy (because you want to buy so many of them): patience, dear scrapper….patience. We highly recommend getting a few simple pairs of wrenches to start with and then grow your tool base as time goes on. First up, the trusty Channellock adjustable wrench. This will be one of the best tools you ever own…BUT if you are reluctant to get that one, you should try our all-time favorite one, the Vise-Grip Curved Jaw Wrench. These are great as a wrench and to secure something and lock your grip on it so that it goes much smoother.
Hammer
Thor’s hammer may be the strongest, but unless you have some extra Uru metal (fictional, so do not look for a price on it) to forge your newest tool, we suggest sticking to hardened steel. The classic handle claw hammer will or should be the first that you buy. You may want to look at some of the different lengths, as the longer hammers can be too long sometimes.
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So, you’re going to build a power hammer… now’s the time to consider where to get your parts.
The first thing you’ll have to decide is which style of power hammer you will build. There are as many designs as there are folks who build hammers, but they fall into two basic categories: helve hammers and linkage hammers.
Power Hammer Styles
Linkage Hammer
At the basic level, a helve hammer has an arm that moves up and down on a fulcrum to move the hammer head up and down. A linkage hammer uses a wheel, tire or disk that rotates and uses the rotation to move the hammer head up and down. The Little Giant power hammer design uses a linkage, as does the commonly home-built tire hammer.
The Little Giant power hammer design uses a linkage, as does the commonly home-built tire hammer. ABS master smith/BLADE® field editor Joe Szilaski pounds away with his 50-pound Little Giant. (Lori Szilaski image)
Helve Hammer
I chose to build an Appalachian-style spring helve hammer because I had access to a variety of leaf springs, and because the design is more intuitive and less mechanically precise. I figured correctly that I could build a helve hammer design from scratch, but that a tire hammer had some engineering points that would be difficult for me to figure out. If you have access to uniform steel sizes or must buy your steel, I suggest a tire hammer. I had good scrap steel and didn’t want to buy much.
I’m focusing on the upright, heavier, more efficient metal-moving machines. Even so, it’s worth mentioning the smaller, simpler but less efficient helve hammers. I came across a good example in the shop of Shawn Moulenbelt, a Michigan bladesmith who was on season seven of Forged in Fire. His hammer used various sizes of hollow square tubing, a sledgehammer head and a half-horsepower motor. He used a slack belt clutch and interchangeable die plates. His hammer was built by Rusty Glovebox on YouTube and is a solid DIY (do-it-yourself) design.
Bladesmith Shawn Moulenbelt’s helve hammer uses various sizes of hollow square tubing, a sledgehammer head and a half-horsepower motor. On the upside, these hammers are quick and fairly straightforward to build. On the downside, they’re not all that great at their one job: moving metal. Even so, a similar light use-DIY power hammer is much more efficient than your arm, and much less likely to get tired.
On the upside, helve hammers are quick and fairly straightforward to build. On the downside, they’re not all that great at their one job: moving metal. Even so, a similar light use-DIY power hammer is much more efficient than your arm, and much less likely to get tired. In my mind, if you have the time and skill to build a small hammer, you can just as easily build a bigger one. Even so, the small helve hammers may be just the ticket for your shop.
The author’s home-built hammer combines a 5-inch piece of round stock with a heavy sleeve from a “mud pump” to make an anvil that weighs around 400 pounds.
Resourcing An Anvil
There are many different things that can make a suitable anvil for a power hammer and many more things that cannot. What you are looking for in an anvil is a solid piece of steel that weighs anywhere from 150 to 600-800 pounds, which can be difficult to acquire.
Sometimes you can find solid square or round bar steel. Some folks recommend railroad axles. Others suggest forklift tines welded together. I’ve seen sections of a 2-inch square bar welded together into a solid 6×6. I’ve seen pieces of 1-inch plate welded where the hammer strikes the ends. Whatever you can find needs to be solid or able to be welded into a solid, single, massive piece, and your welder has to have the power to stick it all together. My hammer is built on a 32-inch piece of 5-inch round bar welded inside a mud pump sleeve that has a 5-inch bore. The total weight of my anvil is around 400 pounds.
What Not To Use
Don’t be tempted to think you can get a piece of something hollow like pipe or square tubing and fill it up and make a suitable anvil. Each stroke of your hammer pounds the steel in-between the hammer head and your anvil, pushing your anvil toward the ground. If you have any movement, vibration or give in your anvil, the force is absorbed by the movement and not efficiently transferred to your workpiece.
Anvil To Hammer Head Ratio
When you finally locate this difficult-to-find thing, it won’t likely be the size or shape you want. My anvil was round, which doesn’t easily weld to square tubing, for example. I had to deal with it. As noted, my anvil was around 400 pounds total weight. Yours may be more or less. You should design your hammer with a minimum 1:10 head-to-anvil ratio. Since I had a 400-pound anvil, I built a 40-pound head. If all you can find is a 200-pound hunk of steel for your anvil, you should stick to a 20-pound head or so. Design your hammer around your anvil, as the anvil is the hardest part to find. Alternatively, find the weight you need for the anvil and use the tire hammer plans.
Another consideration is the base for your hammer. I’d recommend the thickest steel plate you can find, mounted on the firmest foundation you can muster. If I could have built on 1-inch plate and bolted it to a 24-inch-deep concrete pad set into a concrete shop floor, I’d have done it. I had to make do with what I could find in my “free” scrapyard, and deal with the limitations of my shop setting.
Power Hammer Center Post
For any hammer you need a center post. The post should be heavy enough to withstand the extreme forces involved in rocking a spring arm or linkage with a heavy hammer on one end. I used a piece of 4-inch tubing with half-inch walls. Others have used thinner-walled but larger cross-section square or rectangular tubing, heavy walled pipe or sections of I beam. The tire hammer plans call for a 6-foot-long piece of quarter-inch wall and 5-inch square tubing.
Final Cut
Another consideration is the base for your hammer. The author scored some 2-inch-thick, 30-inch-round, 300-pound base plates out of the “drop” pile at a local steel distributor, along with several other potential anvils.
My power hammer has become an essential tool in my shop, to the point that I sometimes wonder how I ever lived without it. I have only begun to explore its full potential. I built it for my appearance on Forged in Fire, where I was fortunate to make the final. I was able to come home and use my hammer to build my final edged piece for FIF. I lost the contest but ultimately still have a power hammer, and I can still take pride in the fact I built it myself from little more than a pile of junk.
It may take you a few months to gather all the primary parts, or you may get lucky and find them all in one place. Next month’s article will focus on building considerations for a spring helve hammer, and later we’ll discuss the Clay Spencer DIY tire hammer.
Read More On Knife Steel:
- 3 Knfie Steel Basics
- What Are The Best Blade Steels?
- Is Steel Type Really The Most Important Factor In A Knife?
- San-Mai: Knive Steel Trinity
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