These two machines had just been cleaned and repainted when the photo was taken. The smaller hammer is a late type 50 pound Little Giant with dovetail guides and a rear mounted wood block clutch. The larger machine is an earlier 100 pound Meyers Brothers with wrap around guide and center cone clutch.

It is estimated that the older machine has had a hundred times more use than the smaller machine that came out of a maintenance shop in a plastics factory. The older machine has some wear in the cone clutch bearing but is other wise perfect. The clutch wear not affecting the machines performance. Clutches on both machines work better with lots of oil!

Same hammer from above. A little dirtier. That's my son Patrick holding the scale stick.

This hammer came out of a friend's shop. When he purchased it the center clutch was worn out from being hooked up to line shafting that ran constantly. He kept the machine well oiled and produced a ton of work with it. He has moved up to Bradleys and Nazels now, but the old Meyers Brother still has a century or so of life left in it!

The only thing I did to this hammer was to clean it, grind and reseat the dies and shim the wrap around guide (needed less than .010" (.0025mm).