Dead Blow Hammers-Do you Use Them????

Mostly, I use an $8 made-in-Taiwan pseudo-clone (it's made of some plastic other than urethane, but I forget which plastic) of the Compothane (now Stanley) Compo-Cast urethane-cased dead-blow hammer and love it. For some things. It works well for driving wooden pieces together when I play cabinetmaker, it works well for driving a wood chisel when I play carpenter, it works well for seating a workpiece into a machine vise when I play machinist, and it works fairly well to smack wrenches when I play mechanic. I say fairly well, because I can't hold onto the blankety-blank thing if my hand is oily . . . the knob on the end of the handle helps only a little bit. In my experience, the genuine Compo-Cast hammers are every bit as slippery.

For driving cold chisels and pin punches, the Compo-Cast steel-faced dead-blow hammer is a wonderful tool, but again, only with dry hands.

Vaughn & Bushnell has their variation of a dead-blow hammer that is real nice, and the Nupla version is ok also. Nupla also makes a handle-less version they call "The Thumper" in a couple of sizes and colors for $8 to $10 that is a champion for machine set-up work. I'd be happy with any of these, but my favorite dead-blow hammers are the ones P. B. Baumann makes in Switzerland. These guys have white nylon (?) faces and a rubber grip that hasn't slipped yet even when my hands are oily or wet.

The only problem I have with the Baumann hammers? They're too pretty to use for dirty work.

We go through a fair number of the Snap-On dead blow hammers at work. The hammers themselves aren't all that bad (although I prefer the V&B, Nupla, and Compo-Cast clone), but they sure do grow legs fast. Since the hammers I like better are available for quite a few bucks less than the Snap-Ons, you know which ones I'd choose. But I would not want to be without dead-blow hammers . . . they do indeed have their place.

John

I strightened a chrome rear bumper a few weeks ago. It did a good job, no strike marks.

For example, a 10 ounce hammer might have 2 ounces of shot that is supended when swung. Thus, your swing a 10 ounce head but 20% of the force is suspended in mid air.

Thus, the efficiency of your blow is 20% less due to s ounces being held in mid air.

The 2 ounces of shot then absorbs the rebound, nothing more or nothing less. Maybe your hammer head taps the surface again as the shot hits on the inside, but, the energy is basically gone and you have lost 20% of your effort in your swing.

Deadblow hammers are nice tools and you might prefer them for any of several features, but, the way I see it, they exist for their anti-rebound feature, nothing more and nothing less.

I don't know what Nupaflex (spelling?) or any of the others have in them but after a lot of beating with them, none have any rattle to them that would sound like shot or type of loose filling material.

I can tell you for fact that I get a heck of lot harder hit with the dead blows than you can ever get with a solid steel head. All you need do is drive some 4.5" diameter pins through a shovel bucket a few times using both types of hammers and you'll go for the deal blow every time. When you're swinging a 20 pounder full out over your head, you want to take as few swings as necessary to get the job done.

later,dave

These come in full rubber, poly-lene plastics, poly-steel faced, poly-brass and so forth. Dozens of different types, sizes and styles.

I use the medium sized steel face ones for driving punches and chisels and larger ones for driving bucket and track pins.

No matter what the type dead blow, the reason for these is not to eliminate bounce (nice secondary advantage) but rather to allow all of the energy to be transferred to the object you are hitting. Standard steel hammers hitting a punch/chisel will bounce allowing the loss of 20% to 60% of the work being applied. The dead blow will give you a solid hit using 99% of the energy to do the work.

Some one said about hurting more when you hit your thumb, yes they do! I was working on a machine in a plant some years back and was using a 3 pound soft face to remove a 1/2" thick steel plate used to hold about 20 bearings. I did not want the plate to fall to the floor so I stood in front of it to catch it when it let go. The only way to do this was to swing the hammer directly towards me. On one swing, I grazed the side of a piece of conduit with the side of the hammer. That was enough to make me miss the side piece of the machine and lay that hammer into my lower breast bone. Put me right on the floor and I thought I was going to die. 6'-2" and 245#, I can take a pretty good hit but one of these puppies will take the fight out of anyone. Don't hit yourself to begin with....trust me, it ain't no fun.

As for value, these hammers are more money but once you see how well they work, you'll rarely ever use an old iron beater again.

They are hollow and partially filled with shot that is become suspended by interia when you swing the hammer.

Hammer face hits the object first. The temporarily suspended shot hits a fraction of a second later, deading the rebound.

Whether or not a deadblow hammer mars the material being struck is a function of the hammer tip material, not of the deadblow feature.

There are several "uni-cast" models that are one solid deadblow hammer piece.

Others have a deadblow cylinder with interchangable tips.

Both are good for anti-rebounding. Some are nice and smooth or soft for anti-mar but a cheap rubber mallet will also have this feature.