How to Cure the Bang Tap Blues and Powerhammer Tooling and Techniques

The Powerhamer cycle: How to cure the bang tap blues

Everyone that has run Little Giant power hammers or the other derivations designed by the Meyer Brothers such as the Murry and Moloch trip hammers knows they can be very quirky. When out of adjustment, worn or run too fast they go into a spasmotic cycle popularly known as the "Little Giant Hula". The ram goes up when its supposed to go down and down when its supposed to go up! Every part moving to extreames but not doing any work. The "hula" is the worse case but almost every Little Giant suffers from the "Blues" at some point. There have been many explanations in the past but Dave Manzer is the first to have studied the problem seriously. Dave has taken a scientific approach to the problem using strobe lights and high speed photography. He is the first to correctly explain in detail the dynamics of the Little Giant and why things go wrong.

This video explains Dave's methods, conclusions and solutions to the problems. He shows how you can tune up your Little Giant so that it performs better than from the factory and at least as well as any other mechanical hammer.

Among other things Dave points out that as-built, Little Giants have design flaws that are easy to correct. He also points out examples of construction flaws that lead to erratic operation.

Professionally produced DVD videos with chapter index.

Power Hammer Tooling and Techniques

This video picks up where Dave left off at the end of his first video abave and shows us simple tooling and it's uses. I reviewed the original VHS version of this video, it's now available in DVD only which is handier to rewatch, or find different techniques. The DVD also has a table of contents.

Done in a no nonsense straight forward method he shows the tool, explains how it works, and then shows the technique in use. Every tool is well explained, with drawings when needed. The drawings aren't as well done as the ones in the first video, but they are clear, concise, and explain Dave's point. With simple tools, a well tuned powerhammer, (and a skilled operator) Dave shows the versatility that a powerhammer can bring to any shop.