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Cyber Smiths Int.
Volume 34 - Page 16 of 37 July 7, 2004
ABANA Conference
Richmond, Kentucky - EKU Campus
The Air Hammer Conference
Anyang The smallest model. Penn Parmenter of The Ironman  graciously agreed to be photographed with all the air hammers at the conference. Penn's husband operates "The Ironman" forge in Westcliffe, Colorado
Kuhn Sold by Centaur Forge.
This conference is a sign of the future. There were no operating mechanical hammers and only a few in the tailgate sales area. Almost all the air hammer manufacturers were represented.
The BULL no longer in production. This hammer was raffled off by ABANA. Penn and Cord hope to take it home. The Big BLU Hammer our NEWS sponsor
Say-mak 60 the new larger size Turkish Hammer

Left, The KA-100 from Postville Blacksmiths/Old World Anvils
Stupid Vender Tricks. . Besides air hammers in the vendor's areas there was also hammers in most of the demo areas. Now. . this is the gripe. A number of hammers were being operated on hollow bases that are intended (I assume) to be filled by the buyer. The result was like the sound of pounding on large metal trash cans. A very fine Kuhn (known to be a smooth and quiet machine) used by the Irish demonstrators in the Centaur Forge tent was the worst. Not only did it sound horrible it was outright obnoxious and actually created noise at painfull levels. Bill Pieh was probably rolling over in his grave. Many sales were lost to other brands due to this mistake. If the machine is not ready to run, then don't run it.

Before steel increased in price Centaur used to sell the Kuhn on a thick slab of solid steel. This added to the anvil mass and made the machine very smooth. Now they provide a hollow stand to be filled with concrete. The problem is that concrete shrinks and you are back to hollow sounds. If a solid steel base is not used I would recommend an epoxy agregate (plastic concrete, epoxy, stone, steel) filled base. These do not shrink and dampen noise and vibration very well. The next alternative is a cast reinforced concrete base. If this alternative is used the hammer needs to be mounted directly on the concrete (with a wood or rubber cushion) so that when it shrinks the hammer remains in contact with the base. Note that the concrete's density can be increased considerably by using steel scrap as aggregate along with a heavy mesh of reinforcing bar.
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July 7, 2004 Edition
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