Dead Blow Hammers

[EdK]

TomG,

I was watching one of your carriage stop project videos and you made the comment that you don't like dead blow hammers. Could you please explain why you dislike them? I'm just curious.

Ed

[PixMan]

I use mine a fair amount. Tapping parts down in the cheap Chinese milling vise that'll soon be replaced by my soon-to-be rebuilt Kurt D60. I also use it on my lathe when I need to true up a part in the 3-jaw chuck on the rare occasions that the part isn't running straight. Works like a charm!

I know Russ doesn't use one on his Kurt D675 and D688 vises because they force the parts down without a nudge.

[TomG]

It's not that I dislike them Ed, it's just that a ball pein is always in reach and works just as well, in fact better on a rough surface. Ball peins are generally smaller so it's easy to get your fingers on a part so you can feel when it seats on the parallels. I either use the edge of the peining end or the ball so it doesn't bounce the work. The exception is on finished parts where I just use a nylon tipped hammer.

I have used dead blows for forming sheet metal and they work great. I also helped out an assembler at work who was having trouble getting double strikes while finish stamping parts, so I got them a dead blow for that.

I'm just not the guy that has to have a lot of special tools when the traditional ones will get the job done just as well and take less room in my tool box. I still regret the day I purchased my Blake Co-Axe indicator. By the time I get the damned thing out and crank the mill table down to use it, I can have the part indicated with a dial test indicator and be making chips. Maybe I should just dump it on eBay and buy something more useful.

Tom

[Arbalest]

It's funny how most folks think all dead blow hammers look like mallets. I have a Snap-on dead blow Ball Pein hammer I bought many years ago when I was a mechanic.

[Highpower]

Years ago I took part in a marketing/focus group that was looking into the feasibility of producing a new dead blow carpenters/claw hammer. It had a hole through the side of the hammer head with a split line running to the top that looked something like this:

   
(Sorry for my poor PhotoShop job...)

They had sample pieces of wood (pine 2x4's) with a few common nails sticking up out of them. Just barely started into the boards. A demonstration was given using an everyday claw hammer. Just lightly holding the hammer by the handle, the weight of the hammer alone was allowed to fall and strike the nail head. It was not swung with any force. The hammer head pretty much just bounced back off of the nail head.

This was repeated with the new prototype "deadblow" hammer of the same weight. The hammer head fell and struck the nail head, sinking it into the wood farther without bouncing back. Then we were all given the chance to try it for ourselves and got the same results. We were set up with more boards and nails and told to try it again but using normal swings like you would when hammering in nails.

I have to say I was quite impressed with how much more easy it was to fully sink the nails with a lot less effort and fewer swings of the prototype hammer. It was also pointed out that we had far fewer divots in the wood when using the new hammer. The "regular" hammer would bounce off the nails and wood leaving "double strikes" on the woods surface.

Discussions were started about if we thought the hammer was weak or thought it would break easily from the modifications etc., etc., then we were presented with another model that had a firm rubber plug molded into the hole in the hammers head.....

All in all it was an interesting evening, and I've been waiting ever since to find them being sold somewhere and purchase one. It doesn't look like it ever got past the design stage though.

I have a number of the plastic mallet type dead blows and use them quite often. My favorite dead blow is still a lead hammer. I can get some serious licks in without destroying the item or its finish. I just used one a few days ago to straighten out an old abused Colt revolver frame and never scratched the bluing.