Good Excuse To Buy An Air Hammer
Jun 30, 2010
We're starting to see a few soybean platforms in the shop for annual service. Soybean platforms, specifically the poly skid shoes that mount on their lower surfaces, justify owning an air hammer.
If you've ever laid, kneeled or crouched beneath one of those platforms and smashed your fingertips while using a hammer to install a new set of hammer-rivets---you'll appreciate what an air hammer equipped with a rivet-setting bit can do. Rivet-setting bits have concave tips so all you do is place the hammer rivet in the hole where you want it installed, press the concave tip against the rivet's head, firmly press it into place, and hit the trigger, "Braapppt!" and the rivet is firmly installed. An air hammer with a rivet-setting bit makes installation of poly skid plates on big bean platforms almost fun.
Top-of-the-line air hammers sell for a couple hundred bucks. Economy-grade air hammers retail for less than $100 and are probably sufficient if you'll only use them a couple times of year.. Even if you only use that air hammer once a year to install hammer rivets on soybean platforms, an air hammer is worth the money. And if you have other equipment or applications that use hammer-rivets to hold low-friction poly in place, then owning an air hammer and a rivet-setting bit is a no-brainer.
