Recently I made this hammer for setting and adjusting my hand planes. 

 

Here are some details that you may find of interest.

 

 

“Spoon Peening” a Brass Compression Ring

I wanted to dress up the intersection of the shaft to the handle and decided to use a brass compression ring (see Red Arrow). The problem was that the compression ring inside diameter was 0.378”. This was okay where the ring actually butt against the handle but on the top side it had a little 0.023” gap. This meant I had a slight draft on the handle. I didn’t want to try to sand the shaft diameter because the problem would worse. So I decided to “peen” the top edge of the compression ring.
 

When I was a kid we used to make rings out of coins by drilling holes and then peening around the edge with a spoon. I decided to try this on the top edge.
 

Unlike making a ring, the peening would be only towards the center in order to close the diameter to what I needed. Excuse my ugly thumbs! They don't normally look like this. LOL! 

 

 

After peening carefully, the top edge was now 0.355” diameter and the bottom edge was at 0.378” inside diameter. A complete success!

 

 

Tapping the  PEX Brass Tee (The Head)
 

Next, I wanted to make replaceable head ends. I decided to make these out of 3/8”-16 hex bolts. First I tapped the inside of the Tee at both ends as shown:

 

 

Making the hammer head ends
 

I used two 3/8”-16 x ¾”L  hex bolts. I chucked them into my drill and removed most of the flats on my bench grinder.  It would have been better to do this with my hand grinder. Hand grinder discs are cheap next to wearing a bench grinder stone down and having to redress the flatness.
 

Then I finished up with a small file in my drill press. I touched up with some 600 and 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper.

 

 

On the tops of the bolts I smoothly filed off the raised nomenclature.

 

 

It’s starting to really look good now !

 

 

Brass Plating the Hammer Ends
 

Next I brass plated the steel hammer ends and reassembled.

 

 

Next I spent some time polishing up the brass tee with some Autosol. I love this stuff!

 

 

Finally, I shellacked the torrefied maple shaft and handle. Then a once over with some wood butter.
 

Here’s the final beauty!!

 

 

Thanks for Looking!

Feel free to comment, ask questions and "Thumbs Up " if you like it!

Cheers!
MrRick

 

Thanks for another fantastic tutorial!

You're welcome lew! 👍

Love seeing your creativity and workmanship Rick.

 

I was lazy...I bought one of THESE from Harbor Freight.

 

Thanks Grandpadave52! I could have bought one but heck! Where's the fun in that! Right? Glad you like it. I use it near everyday. I also can interchange the heads as long as it's 3/8"-16 threads. 

 

Cheers! 

I just barely can keep up with the stuff you do. I found a small (maybe 1.5 inch) ball peen hammer I thought was cool but it is factory made. Just keep it coming.

Thanks Gerald ! Cheers!!

13 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

I was lazy...I bought one of THESE from Harbor Freight.

 

I used a 3/4 wrench and hoped for the best........😀

 

14 hours ago, MrRick said:

Here’s the final beauty!!

 

Rick, another masterpiece, beautiful work.

Thank you so much Gunny! 

I like seeing this kind of re-purposing of plumbing fittings, I do a lot of that myself!

Thanks JWD! This one turned out rather nice. Here's another that I made to be practical rather than attractive. Some would say utilitarian. It uses a 1/2" galvanized plumbers tee with replaceable threaded Maple ends and handle. I've been using it for years. 

 

I've made stippling tools out of compression fittings and a grounding system for a large telescope building out of 1 1/2" galvanized nipples and caps.  Plumbing parts are a great resource for inventing stuff.

Those are great.  Here's one I made years ago.

 

That's nice HandyDan! What kind of wood?

25 minutes ago, MrRick said:

That's nice HandyDan! What kind of wood?

 

That's some Purple Heart.  It was plenty hard enough and I had quite a bit of it at one time.

Wow! It's not as purple as my purpleheart. Looks closer to bubinga to my eye. Good on ya!