Dead-Blow Hammer Recommendations Please

All, I'm looking for a small dead-blow hammer for tapping work down into my milling vice. It's an SX2P with a small vice, so I want something small enough to tap down pieces up to a couple of inches wide.

Any recommendations? Thanks.

Why is a dead blow hammer needed for that job?

It's not a big mill, so the parts are going to be pretty small too. I've been known to use the hammer end of a large screwdriver....

Make one ? Pour lead into a vessel to cast a head. Machine from copper or nylon bar. Just a thought. Small THOR hammers are available with hide/copper faces for about £10. Noel.

Edited By noel shelley on 01/03/2023 11:54:01

Block of wood?

Brian

I have a small Thor copper hammer, works well for that purpose. As Brian just said, block of wood. When I was using machines in a factory many years ago, I had a large block of copper for that use. Think it was about 2 ins. sq. x about 4 ins. long with a mass of burrs on each end.

John

During my Toolmaking career I mainly used a piece of roughly 11/4" diameter x 6" long copper for knocking down aided by a block of Tufnol to protect the work as required. Both now still in use in my garage workshop.

Tony

lookup Nylon Hammer on any of the internet sites.

I use a lead fishing weight. When it gets too distorted I'll melt and tecast

I've got a small copper/hide hammer, but assumed that for tapping parts into the vice, a dead-blow hammer might be better. Just from what I've seen recently on YouTube videos on model engineering (especially squaring / seating blocks for further machining).

A hide hammer is pretty dead, as in no bounce nor dents. That said look-at-me-tube would know best.

I can see why a no-bounce hammer might be better. If the work is on parallels, however, it should be possible to check that they are trapped - QED.

I sometimes find that even a tap to seat on parallels results in one or the other being loose. It's often the case where I'm going back and forth with ever lighter taps to get things seated firmly. I'd assumed that some bounce caused by the rebound of the part from the parallel might be eliminated with a dead-blow hammer.

How many of the posters who have suggested nylon hammers, screwdrivers, lumps of lead, politicians' noddles and so on have actually twigged that none of these is actually a dead-blow device?

How many know but have chosen to ignore the difference and thereby the OP's question?

How many of the readers who come here to learn will go away thinking that there is no difference?

I think we should be told.

George

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Quite so, George

I had not contributed, but:

I use a cast-Aluminium, Lead-shot filled, Nylon-faced hammer.

MichaelG.

For small work you can get dead blow drifts, basically a dead blow hammer without a handle and in smaller weights.

Not tried one as a Thor copper/hide jobbie has always worked for me on the odd occasions that I bother to knock the work down. Most of the time I don't bother but the engines all seem to run OK.

The lump of lead or other softer metal and the copper/hide hammers have been used for years and obviously work, the plastic lead shot dead blow hammers are just something new.

.

I’ve had mine for at least forty years … and it’s a cheap clone of the original

MichaelG.

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Ref. https://www.thorhammer.com/thor-history/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 01/03/2023 16:59:22

But you just said yours was aluminium

Aluminium with Nylon faces

It’s the lead shot type that I assume is a dead-blow hammer, with reduced rebound. That’s what I want advice on. Thanks.

.

**LINK**

https://www.thorhammer.com/product/20-1010/

… or if you need something smaller, make your own

MichaelG.

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Ref. https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DGB1238652A

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ERRATUM : I have just discovered that Thor uses Steel Shot

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 01/03/2023 17:39:09