What’s the biggest steel stock I can forge under a Sahinler Air Hammer?
There are many variables that affect this equation: Shape of the dies ( flat vs. different radii), heat of the material ( is it yellow hot, or orange?), composition of the material ( A36, 1050, 1090, stacked billets, non ferrous), initial profile, ultimate desired profile. The nice thing about an air hammer is that the blow is self adjusting to the thickness of the material, backed by an air cushion. So there are no springs or retainer arms being threatened when you stick a piece of 3/4″ x 6″ in edgewise! I have forged 3×3″ A36 with the LDC50 dies successfully, drawing 24″ square tapers from 12″ of stock in 2 or 3 heats. The hammer doesn’t mind at all, but it’s a workout for the arms! If you’re forging tool steel that will be heat treated it is recommended to not plan on forging larger than about 1 -3/4″ square, as you want to be sure to forge deeply and not just forge the outside of the bar, which can result in a tunneling effect on the grain structure, leading to internal cracking du
