Hammer upgrade time!

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays. Baffled? Intrigued? Charmed? Discuss here.
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fungus
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Location: Valencia, Spain

Hammer upgrade time!

Post by fungus » Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:55 am

I've just been upgrading my hammer again and thought you might be interested...

All you need is a couple of lead diver's weights (they cost a couple of $$ each from sports store), a hot glue gun and some string. A hot air gun is useful if you've got one.

Step 1) Glue the weights to the side of the hammer. If you have a hot air gun heat the whole thing up so the glue really sticks well (gluing onto a big piece of cold metal isn't ideal...). If you haven't got a hot air gun don't worry, the glue is mainly there to stop the weights from rattling, the real strength is in the string.

You can use other types of glue if you want to (eg. epoxy resin) but hot glue makes it very easy to take apart when it's time for another upgrade - just heat it up and the glue will melt.

Step 2) Bind the weights tightly with some string to make the whole thing really solid.

That's it!

Here's some photos...

My girlfriend's hammer is on the left and is now 5kg (11 pounds). Mine is on the right and is now 7kg (15.4 pounds).

Image

Image
Last edited by fungus on Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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phayze
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Post by phayze » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:08 am

I love to see modded hammers. :D
1 Picture = 1,000 words
0:01s Video = 30 pictures
therefore, 0:01s Video = 30,000 words
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reinhard
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Post by reinhard » Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:40 pm

I am interested.

They certainly are beautiful!

I'd be scared the weights would come flying off, but I guess you've been doing this for years now with no terrifying incidents.

For those who aren't familiar with fungus's history of modding hammers, here's a link he posted way back in 2007:

http://biggerhammer.bravehost.com/

Reinhard
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fungus
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Joined: Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:31 pm
Location: Valencia, Spain

Post by fungus » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:08 am

Never had a problem with the weights coming off (yet!) The old zip-tie upgrade always felt as solid as a rock.

I used string this time because it's prettier. That string can probably hold 50kg (100 pounds) with no problems. Six strands on either side of the weight means it would take way more than half a ton of force to break it.

I could put more turns on there but ... I'm not too worried. :D
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sporkfancier
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Post by sporkfancier » Wed May 12, 2010 9:50 pm

Very nice! I'm from the school that just buys heavier hammers. I now own an 8-lber (which I admit I never used, it's my partner's), a 10-lber, a 12-lber, and a 14-lber (which I use now). I'm expecting I'll start jonesing for a 16-lber in a few months, but I'm fine for now. It does take some sleuthing to find the right weight--my dad ended up finding the 14-lber at Liquidation World (sort of like a clearance hardware store) randomly. Made for a nice birthday present!
Shovel glove? Isn't that the size of prophylactic I use?
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fb22
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Joined: Mon May 03, 2010 4:53 pm

Post by fb22 » Fri May 14, 2010 4:40 pm

As an alternative, you could also decrease your leverage by moving your hands closer together on the handle. I imagine that this would allow more "modulation" of effort contrasted with increasing your hammer size.

I say I imagine, because for the time being, I'm using kettlebells.

Cheers!

-Frank
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