roketman21 Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Whats the best mallet for ramming? I have seen a lot of talk about rawhide mallets but wanted more input before purchase. I have been using a rubber mallet but there is a lot of bounce. Thanks for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 This was just covered a couple weeks ago in another thread but the skinny is that the use of "soft" materials act as a shock absorber, leaving you with a soft fuel grain. Even bounceless hammers give softer grains since it is the act of consolidation that only a proper shock from a solid faced hammer can give that makes for a solid fuel grain without damaging the paper tube. A steel mallet works the best but introduces the possibility of sparks and will destroy tooling very quickly. Brass hammers work well too but also mushroom rammers quickly. Nylon, Delrin and other hard plastics have the hard face with no ability of mushrooming the rammer face but lack weight. Rawhide hammers allow for a solid face, good weight and durability. Depending on the rocket being rammed, a #2 rawhide mallet may be a good choice. -dag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roketman21 Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Thanks I looked but couldn't find a thread specifially about mallets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkokpyro Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 (edited) double posted Edited July 20, 2012 by Bangkokpyro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkokpyro Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 (edited) Garland make very nice leather hammers, heavy, durable and non sparking. The one pictured has a 2 3/4 inch face and weighs about a kilo from wolter pyro tools about 60 US if I remember correctly. Edited July 20, 2012 by Bangkokpyro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Agreed, Garland makes the best rawhide hammers but a good hammer can be had for 1/2 the price from Harbor Freight. -dag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nater Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Just to clarify Dag's post. Garland has a Number 2 (#2) mallet that is too small to be a good choice to ram rockets. They also have mallets that weigh 2 pounds (2#) and work better for ramming. Good thing rawhide mallets are handy around the house. The #2 one works great to when you want to close up sealed bearing cartridges after repacking them and when you need to tap bearing cups and races into bicycle frames. Care to guess how I figured this out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_au Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 I have a lead faced steel mallet that works fairly well. It started life as a normal steel mallet and one of the machine shop guys at work was nice enough to mill a decent sized chunk of metal out of one face (as you can imagine a steel mallet tends to be fairly hard and difficult to anneal so I suspect it took him a little while). I made a couple of small indents around the rim of the hole with a hand drill to give it some grip and then filled it with lead. It works well, nice and heavy, no bounce, won't damage the rammers and when it gets a bit beaten up just hit it with a blowtorch to smooth it out again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 Just to clarify Dag's post. Garland has a Number 2 (#2) mallet that is too small to be a good choice to ram rockets. They also have mallets that weigh 2 pounds (2#) and work better for ramming. Good thing rawhide mallets are handy around the house. The #2 one works great to when you want to close up sealed bearing cartridges after repacking them and when you need to tap bearing cups and races into bicycle frames. Care to guess how I figured this out? Sorry, got the # & # all confusilated! -dag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nater Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 It took me a while to figure it out. During build days everyone one kept making fun of my small mallet. Even Ned got in on it. I kept thinking to myself that I bought the #2 everyone is always recommending. I blame Garland, for not being considerate of the special needs of the rocketeer when naming their models. If they had a picture of Barney Rubble ramming a rocket on the label, we would know which one to buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WSM Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 Whats the best mallet for ramming? I have seen a lot of talk about rawhide mallets but wanted more input before purchase. I have been using a rubber mallet but there is a lot of bounce. Thanks for any help. The best mallet I have for hand ramming is a #3 iron clamshell type with rawhide inserts. It's the only mallet I have that rammed a 1# rocket so tight I needed to use a hydraulic press holding the base so I could muscle the rocket off the spindle!!! My friends call it a "Barney Rubble" hammer, and I've damaged a few tools with it. None-the-less, it can really pound a rocket tight! WSM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagabu Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 The best mallet I have for hand ramming is a #3 iron clamshell type with rawhide inserts. It's the only mallet I have that rammed a 1# rocket so tight I needed to use a hydraulic press holding the base so I could muscle the rocket off the spindle!!! My friends call it a "Barney Rubble" hammer, and I've damaged a few tools with it. None-the-less, it can really pound a rocket tight! WSM I think this is an appropriate time to use a completely juvenile and off color reply. 'That's what she said!' -dag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nater Posted July 23, 2012 Share Posted July 23, 2012 I think this is an appropriate time to use a completely juvenile and off color reply. 'That's what she said!' -dag Since the thread has turned this way, you should have seen my wife's reaction when she asked what I was doing a few nights ago, and my reply was "polishing my spindles" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyroAce Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 It was discussed briefly here on page 2: http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/topic/7006-good-bp-based-rocket-fuel/page__st__20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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