Thought I’d share a few pictures of my latest project(s), body hammer restorations. I started collecting old body tools about 10 years ago, everything from magic dent erasers, pneumatic pick hammers to just plain old hammers and dollies. Currently, I own about 150 hammers from Fairmount/Martin, Porter Ferguson, Plvmb/Proto, Herbrand, Heller, Bonney, Streamline, Snap-on and God knows what else. As far as dollies and spoons am guessing that number is north of 100 as well.
I start with some of the tools used to restore these body hammers. The first tool is a bench grinder with a multi-tool attachment setup for 2x48 sanding belts. Useful for dressing the working faces of the hammers, removing rust pits, dings/nicks and prep for final polishing. I bought mine from Trick Tools in Pella Iowa. I use 80, 180, 220, 400 and 1200 grit.
Always need good PPE, face shield and dust mask are must haves.
Since I have one I opted to use my SAS “fresh” air system for the vast majority of the time. Place it in a clean area of the shop and it pumps fresh air to you, only downside is that you have to drag a hose behind you.
Wire wheel. All I’ll say is that after wire wheeling a few hammer heads I broke down and bought a bead blast cabinet. A wire wheel works for cleaning off paint and rust.
