Speaker A
Underneath that tarpaulin is the power hammer that has captivated my dreams since the first day that I stepped into a blacksmith workshop at the age of 11.
Alec Steele acquires and restores a rare 1958 Massie power hammer, detailing its history, challenges, and restoration process.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Massie power hammers are highly valued British industrial heritage machines known for quality and durability.
- Restoring such a machine requires significant investment, space, and technical expertise.
- Proper installation involves heavy concrete foundations to manage vibrations and weight.
- Rust and mechanical seizure are major challenges after long outdoor exposure.
- Careful inspection and maintenance of critical parts like the ram and valves are essential for functionality.
What the video covers
- Alec Steele reveals his lifelong dream of owning a Massie power hammer, a renowned British industrial machine.
- The hammer, a 500W Weight Massie Clear Space model from 1958, was previously owned by the National Coal Board.
- The machine spent 20 years outdoors, causing significant rust and mechanical seizure.
- Alec discusses the logistical challenges of installing such a heavy and resource-intensive hammer in his workshop.
- He invested heavily in a specialized motor and VFD to run the hammer at the correct RPM.
- The restoration involves cleaning, unseizing levers, inspecting the ram and piston for rust and pitting, and repainting.
- Alec emphasizes the importance of preserving the machine’s original parts and avoiding damage during lifting.
- He explains the complexity of the hammer’s internal components and the need for careful disassembly and reassembly.
- The video highlights the historical significance and engineering excellence of the Massie power hammer.
- Alec shares his excitement and nervousness about bringing the hammer back to working condition.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the Massie Power Hammer
- 01:57Challenges of Installing a Heavy Power Hammer
- 03:36History and Background of the 1958 Massie Hammer
- 05:09Motor and Power Requirements
- 06:53Workshop Rearrangement and Installation Plans
- 08:07Initial Inspection and Cleaning Preparations
- 09:16Disassembly and Detailed Restoration Work
- 11:16Restoration Challenges and Next Steps
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
It is the exact make, the exact model. It is known around the world as the finest power hammer to have ever been produced. You could say it is the younger brother to a power hammer that we all know very well. This
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is a 500W Weight Massie Clear Space power hammer. And frankly, I don't quite yet believe it, but I am the new owner of this beautiful machine.
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I'll tell you more about why this hammer is so special in a second. For now, however, we got to get it moved so that we can start to clean her up because, as you can see, she's in rough shape. Now, this
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particular hammer spent probably 20 years in a bush, bush growing around it. It was saved from its, uh, rather organic resting spot by Norm from Vintage Iron UK. He used his hi-ab to pull it out of the bush and it was sat there because
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unfortunately the blacksmith who had purchased it with the intention of using it never got around to installing it.
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That's what's so tricky about these hammers. They are enormous. This is 5 and a quarter tons. That is 2 and a half tons. And beneath it, we're going to need 18 tons of concrete to be put in the ground for
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it to be used. And the great tragedy with these beautiful bits of British industrial heritage is they are so resource intensive to install, which is exactly why I thought that it would never be possible for me to own one.
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I do not have space, do I? Right. Make sure you don't do a wheel filter. Tell me about it. This is terrifying.
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Back we go. Good. Down we go. How much deeper can I go? You're right up.
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Right up. I'm coming to get you, Jamie. What a beauty. I think you might have bought the wrong hammer, you know.
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Why is that? I thought you said it was a Massie. Looks more like a Mossy to me.
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Oh, very good. Oh, no. Never mind. It says Massie right there. Well, when a power hammer spends 20 years growing a bush around it, it doesn't like it so much. Now, the whole thing is quite seized. For example, this
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handle completely seized. This completely seized. This fella completely seized. However, check this out. The flywheel. Ah, the flywheel does move, which is really promising. This is from 1958.
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Serial number C1788. That she's 67 years old. She was sold on the 29th of November 1958 to the National Coal Board where she presumably spent a number of years in their smithy shop. You know, mines back in the day
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would often have a forge shop so they could reforge tools, forge new tools. It's less of a common thing now for, you know, industrial places to have their own forge shop. They're usually going to send the work out somewhere else. But
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the point I'm trying to make is though she is an old girl because it is a Massie, we know that it was built right because Massie is known around the world as the finest make of power hammer. This
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model especially is the finest design of power hammer. So long as the casting is intact, the ram has no cracks, the cylinders in here are intact and not rusted, the valves aren't broken. So long as that's the case, I have faith
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that we can get it working. But what if that is the case? If it's the case that there's those types of problems, that's going to be really upsetting, especially considering all the money that I've spent on this hammer
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before even seeing if it runs. For example, over the last few days, Mrs. Steel and I have done a massive rearrange. We added more length onto this little second shop here. And right here, you will see a 30 kW, 40
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horsepower motor. That thing weighs 1 ton. That's 2,200 pounds of motor. It's actually technically overrated for the power hammer, but you'll see the beats per minute of this hammer is only 140.
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That's quite slow, and it's quite hard to find a motor that'll comfortably spin slow enough. This is 735 RPM, to make the hammer run appropriately. The actual specified RPM should be 713. And so, not only did I spend £25,000 on a motor because
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it needed to have a special bearing put in as well, but I also had to buy an £1,800 VFD to then be able to slow this down a couple of percent to get it to the 713 RPM and also start it. When things get
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big, they get expensive. And what else? The oil that the power hammer needs. Most power hammers take a few liters of oil. This one, it takes firmly 50 L of the stuff in the reservoir. That's 120 quid a jug. But then comes the
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predicament of where on earth do we put the thing? Well, we've had to do a big shuffle in here.
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How's it looking? There we go. We've freed up a whopping amount of space. And the plan is for it to go there. For it to go here, I'm going to need to cut a hole in the concrete. And since this is a rented
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building, I need to do a rather complex inertia block concrete pour in three goes to make sure that the vibrations of that enormous falling ram weight don't destroy this building. This is exactly why I've been nervous to get a hammer of
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this size in the first place, because the logistical challenges to overcome aren't massive. But I'm so excited to do it. And before we forget to talk about the enormous Pilington, we're starting with the big Massie here. We'll fill the
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workshop up from back to front. Its older, smaller brother is going to move this way a little bit. And I think that that will eventually leave space for the large Pilington right here. That is something to figure out at a later date.
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We're starting with the Massie and so we got to start digging into it. My preliminary to-do list is as follows.
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The thing that I am actually most nervous about on this hammer is the state of this ram. This ram to that hammer is ram and piston combined. On my steam hammer,
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now you remember we had this shaft perfectly ground so that we
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can get a perfect seal because it's part of the sealing component. So this is not only piston, not only the ram to provide the weight, but it spent the last 20 years sitting down getting rusty and all that rust and pitting could jeopardize
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its ability to seal well. So, I want to take the ram out and bring it in the workshop and give it a thorough inspection and clean and, uh, smooth over these parts where for goodness sake, guys, how do you mishit your keys so
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badly to strike the ram up there? Come on now. All this loose paint needs to be wire wheeled from the thing so that we can make a start on further cleaning it for repainting. We have decided on a
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color for this hammer which I'm very excited to show you soon. And these levers need to be unseized before we can even figure out what's going on inside.
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But for now, let's get this ram out of there. There's like 100 missets. How do you do this, guys? That is pitting that I am quite nervous about. That will compromise the seal when the thing is all the way up top, I imagine.
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This is the cylinder cover, and it was a bird bath for the last 20 years. Ooh, yummy.
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Oh, is this being upside down or something? Why? Why is it filled with dirt?
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That's what 20 years outside will do. I guess just dirt's all around us. That is not very good thread engagement.
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That is a very rusted thread. I'm also not incredibly convinced that's the right size. By the way, guys, if you ever come across a power hammer like this and you see a lifting eye on it here or perhaps over here, that is not
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for lifting the power hammer. That is just for lifting the cylinder covers. And I know that a few too many power hammers have been lifted by these lifting eyes. Don't do it because if you break one of these cylinder covers, that
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is a hell of a problem. And it looks like somebody at some point in time might have tried to lift this power hammer with that lifting eye because I don't think it came from the factory with that wonk to it.
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Of course, all I have are metric sockets. Come on, man. Oh, it's beautiful. That's the bloody VFD for the thing.
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It's on a pallet. Golly, the VFD is almost bigger than the motor. That's outrageous. Okay, let's have a look inside. It does appear that there'
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It definitely doesn't feel proud, but maybe it does. I don't know. It's worrying. All this is quite dirty. It's going to need a lot of cleaning, that's for sure. But there's at least no heavy scoring, scratching, no heavy pitting of
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rust, which is exactly what we like to see. Now, what we don't like to see is the fact that I only have Imperial lifting eyes. WHY DID I NOT BUY Imperial lifting eyes? LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT. Half inch British standard Witworth ALL
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THREAD. OH, IF THIS WORKS, WE'RE in business. Yes. Time to make a lifting eye.
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Yep. Just hand filed in that radius. Took me LIKE 2 SECONDS. ALL RIGHT, let's check this fits and let's figure out how deep the threads need to go. Amazing. I can read a tape measure. This will go like this. We need
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it to be about 45 mm plus this and a washer. Total length needs to be 60 mm.
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All right. Have a look at this. Going to go like this. Washer. Bolt. Washer.
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Bolt. Big lifting eye. It's not that big. All right. Adequate lifting eye. This lifting eye is rated to All right. 0.8 tons. The ram is 280 kilos stay.
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Now, what about this little shackle? Need a shackle. Nope. Shackle won't fit cuz I don't know if this will slide through. That won't slide through. Need a smaller shackle. Where do I have shackles?
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Okay, we're in business. Oh, no. We're not. Look. Can you imagine if I didn't do that and I just dropped it?
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How much more lift DO YOU HAVE? OH, LOOK AT THAT. OH, that'll do. I think. Yeah, that's a grower, not a shower. Doing the limbo over here. Up we go. NICE AND GENTLE.
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OH, THEY'RE the piston rings. Yep. Okay, we got one piston ring. The other one's bound shut. Wa. That must have been it getting tight as it came through the stuffing box. God, that is a long way up, isn't it? You are clear. You can
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reverse. Perfect. That'll do. Thank you very much. That's a bit scary, isn't it? That thing is jammed. Making piston rings for the Massie steam hammer was one thing.
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That was a 6 and 7/8 diameter ball, but look at the size of this. Bloody hell.
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This is the old piston from my 200 weight Massie steam hammer. Compare that to the piston on the 500 weight Massie Clear Space. The piston head is a smaller diameter than the ram on the NEW MASSIE. GOD, IT'S GOING TO MAKE MY
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Massie look like a toy. Imagine if all that crap talking, the people that put a dent in it, I just dropped it right now.
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Oh, you shouldn't mishit it with a hammer. IT'S NOT NICE ON the ram. Proceeds to make it slip out of the slings. Bow breaks two piston rings.
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My parking brake won't work here, Jamie. So, could you please grab those bits of wood? Wow. Oh, boy. I I can't look at that.
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Right. So, while Jamie has a rub of the of the piston itself, we're going to have a look at these piston rings. What is really cool to see is they have a center punch mark there, which is great.
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That's the tip that we got. So, those rings don't twist inside the ball and end up fouling on the um port. But what's not great about all this is Wow, look at that. Oh my goodness. That does look lovely, doesn't it? Looks
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fabulous up here. You wouldn't think it's been in a bush for 20 years. Um, but the piston ring is jammed. While it is open here at the top, at the bottom, it's completely jammed. And the second piston ring is completely jammed in as
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well. There's no springing out with that piston ring. So, we're going to soak it all, degrease it all, put some kerosene on it. Hopefully, we can free up those piston rings. I think that anything that doesn't come off with Scotchbrite, I'm
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hoping we can do with a gentle application of an abrasive stone. Oh, that's good. Look at that.
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SH that can't be goodbye. No, that's too sad. No, it's not goodbye. It's the beginning. It's Hello. What about you're beautiful?
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It's true. Jamie, where did he pull that voice out? I was like stick blood over here. Who done hit you with a hammer where you shouldn't be hit? It was down in the mines IN THE OLD CO PIT. HE DONE BOOM
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BOOM BOOM. I SAID, "AH, NO WAY." OKAY, THEN. This is just such a special moment. The amount that I have dreamt of rubbing on a What? Cleaning it up. Loving on it. Oh yeah.
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Shorty got them apple bottom jeans. Boots with the fur. Where did that work? That the whole club was looking at her. She's on the floor.
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Ah, Brazil, Morocco. STRAIGHT TO ABA. OH YEAH. OH YEAH. She's looking good. Oh yeah.
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Have you guys seen those videos of um I've seen some videos like that. Oh Mickey I think it's time for a stoning. Sorry, Jamie. Been good knowing you.
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Okay, so let's have a see what an oil stone will do to these little high spots. Trouble is, anytime you put a dent in a bit of steel, you know, the steel doesn't exactly compress a whole lot. It just kind of moves and deforms.
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So you put a dent in, it then builds up a little ridge either side of it. And you can hear the noises, right? If I'm up here where it's much flatter, flatter flatter and then it completely changes pitch as
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we get into these raised bits. Thankfully, there's a taper here the last 3 in or so. So I don't worry here, but I do worry it's essential that it's good from this point up cuz the ram will travel up to just here. This is just
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aesthetics. Here is where it's really crucial that it's flat. And I have to say it's actually not that bad.
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How much is it eaten up by the gasket though? Well, that's that's the trouble, isn't it? Ideally, you want the gasket to have such a nice perfect steel on on gasket interface. Anytime there's a pit or a bit of rust, it's hard on the gasket to
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take that up. There's going to be some degree of leakage. Perfection would not be this. What is tolerable? I don't know.
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That is about 10 times better than I thought that ram would possibly be able to look after I saw the condition it was in earlier. All right, let's flip it over onto the next side. But first, oh yes,
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cheers mate. Cheers all bean. Oh, that is a spot. Element is just my favorite drink. Full stop. If I could only have one drink for the rest of my life, it would be water. If I could have two drinks for the rest of my life, the
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second would be Element. This is their sparkling electrolyte drink. It's got 500 milligrams of sodium, 100 milligrams of potassium, and 30 millig of magnesium. All the electrolytes you need to replenish what you sweat out. There's a growing body of research that suggests
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that more salt is what you need, not less. Let me tell you, when we are sweating away in the workshop with the forge running, there's nothing quite like it to quench your thirst and replace those electrolytes. And of
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course, they do electrolyte drink mixes like this. Phenomenal limited edition lemonade and iced tea. I've only got four sachets to show you because I drank all the other ones. It's so good. Not only does it have all the electrolyte
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goodness, but got 50 milligs of caffeine from black tea extract to give you a little boost of energy alongside your electrolyte replenishment. So, please go to drinklnt.com/forge where when you use code forge at checkout with any purchase, you'll get a
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free sample pack of an additional eight sticks. That's good for both new customers and existing customers. All right. How about this?
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Mhm. While you crack on with that, should I have a go have a look at those handles?
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Sound like a plan. So, we've got a lovely diagram here that shows us what the hand lever should do. In upright position, it holds up the ram. Second position, it then squeezes the ram down to grip. Third position is a neutral
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position. And then between position four and position five is where we're going to be doing our automatic blows. But then to control by foot, place hand lever in notch one. So what should happen is I should be able to do
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something to this hand lever and then push it from notch one all the way down to notch four. And then I should be able to twist this to then let that sit on the top of the treddle in order for us to actually run
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the treddle. But absolutely nothing is moving. It's all seized. So, let's see what on earth is going on, eh?
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All right, let's let that penetrint soak for a bit. Back to the ram. Oh, and look at this. While we've been working on it, that penetrating oil has done its magic. And we've got our top piston ring out. Wait, this is just
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going to need a clean up to get the nastiness off it. But check this out.
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The actually the inside of it has a radius. Instead of it having a square back, it's got a rounded back. Does that not look a huge amount better than it looked this morning? I didn't think it'd clean up that well. I'm still completely
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baffled by how these chisel marks ended up on it. It's not just missed hammer blows all over the thing. Completely smashed to pieces. If anybody knows anybody that worked in the forge of the National Gold Board after 1958, please
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let me know cuz I've got questions. A few mis hits around the key. I can understand. But here on the side, how give you a healthy coat of oil while you go to bed for a little while. See if our
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penetrating oil has worked as magic. NO. RIGHT. Let's open this up. That might give us some access to the inside.
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You got it? Well, to my knowledge. You know what I should do? I should put a screw back in. Sod's law. I'm going to break it free and then drop it. Oh.
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Oh, and that's what we like to see. IT'S GOT OIL. OKAY. SO, OH, we see some things. Notably, a lot of rust. A lot of rust about despite the presence of that oil. But this linkage is connected to
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that handle and our treddle arrangement. Then these bars bring it up to this valve chamber. That is the beginning valve piece. Now the valves on these hammers are effectively it's like a dozen little mini piston valves. There's some really complex valving going on.
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It's going to be exciting to dive into. Hopefully for the pleasure of it and not because there's a lot of problems that we need to work out and parts to remake.
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But when I see the amount of rust in here, that gets me worried. I mean, look at this up here. That is meant to be a smoothly machined surface like a perfectly ground valve face like the piston valve we did on there. And that's
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got a really healthy coating of rust. And I think that's why the handle isn't moving anything cuz it's bloody sealed in with rust.
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Oh no, that is jammed. All right, valve. No move. Pull. This thing is a beast. Oh, now I'm just bending it. Great.
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Oh, we're getting some movement. That lever is now moving. Oh, that's good. We got something free. Right. Here's what I'm going to do. With only one handle loose, and this is all obviously attached to that valve system, I'm going
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to see if I can get above the valve system now and pull the valve out from the top. One. Or if we can't do that, pour an absolute boatload of kerosene down and let it sit for a little while.
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Oh yeah. Oh, THAT'S SUPER SAFE. OH, LOOK AT THE RUST. NO. OH, NO. Go get a bucket of kerosene, shall we, Jamie?
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Is that moved at all? Nothing. When Alec bought this, he was like, "Oh, it just needs a lick of paint." But I think it needs more than a lick of paint currently.
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I think it needs a lot more than a lick of paint currently. This is almost like you picked up like the Titanic from the bottom of the ocean. You're like, let's just rebuild it. You might as well just started from
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scratch. Now that we've detached this, it does actually answer a good question about whether it's the fact that the valve is seized or slash and it's this handle that's seized. Given that the handle is definitely not moving now, still we know
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that it's the case that both the valve and the handle are seized. OH, WHY? ALL RIGHT, it's been a few days. It is still completely seized and neither I nor the camera can see anything because I put the hammer in a spot that now has the
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sun directly behind it. That was smart. See if we can fix it with a top hole in.
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There we go. That's way better. Whoa. Watch the tripod. Tripod. Is there any difference in the camera?
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I don't know. No idea. Oh, maybe I'll just have to wear sunglasses and then describe what's happening to the camera.
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Just do a podcast on the restoration. Good idea. Since it's still seized, I'm going to get these two plates off so that we can hopefully get some more uh penetrint deeper inside the valves.
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Tada. Can you see anything in there? Oh boy, that looks very rusted in there.
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And look at how much junk and crap is inside it. That's all going to need to be cleared out. Imagine if that gets sucked up inside it. That's going to ruin stuff. All those flakes of rust.
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Oh boy. Oh, there's just so much rust in here. No. Why? Oh, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. Have a look at that. This is going to be a long two-day restoration project. I think everything's going to need to come
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apart. Guys, I put a little sling through the top of this valve and I'm now going to try and gently pull the valve out. I'm basically at this point 100% certain that this needs to be a complete nuts and bolts restoration.
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Everything has to come off. You'll see that this the upper portion, this is called the standard. It is separated here and bolted to that. That lower half is called the base plate. You see, once we separate it, it's probably not going
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to sit vertical, which means that now's my best opportunity to get that valve out. before we start getting all the other components separated. Hopefully, I don't break anything. I'm hoping that the weakest link in the chain is that
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little climbing sling that I put up there and a knot that will hopefully roll before we do too much damage elsewhere.
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Oh, come on now. Just need you to pop free. There's a little bit of tension on it. Not much. Woo! It's starting to get tight.
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Wa! It's starting to roll the knot. See if we can. OH, NO WAY. YES. LOOK AT THIS. COME SEE.
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COME SEE. IT just poured out oil. WE DID IT. YES. COME ON, BABY. LET'S GO.
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OH SHOOT. I think I'm the max height of this forklift. The handle has some movement. Big improvement.
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Look at you go. Yeah, baby. I love to see it move, but I hate to see how bloody rusted it is.
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This is like one of the most critical parts of the whole hammer. And it is horrifyingly corroded.
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We're out. Holy crap. It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
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Oh, that's seen better days. That is not how a valve looks like when it's brand new. M.
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Oh boy. Oh, please no. I thought genuinely now I thought this was just going to need like a coat of paint and cleaning up the ram and it was going to be good to go. I really did not think
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this was going to be so involved, but I hate to say it in a certain sense. I love to say it because I do really enjoy doing these things, but I also like forging things. So, I'll say I hate to
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say it, but I think we're staring down the barrel at a very, very intense few months of machine restoration. Again, this looks really bad. So, needs to be completely cleaned. Unfortunately, it needs to be completely disassembled, which is a real problem cuz all the
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settings of distances was done at the factory and perfectly tuned. When we take it apart, it's going to be a nightmare to get it back together. All these parts need to come off. Absolutely everything needs to be stripped from it.
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We've got to separate the upper standard from the lower base plate. Buckle up, boys and girls, because it's going to be another long one. Thanks again to Element for sponsoring the episode. Go to drinklnt.com/forge.
Speaker A
Bye-bye.
Topics:Alec SteeleMassie power hammerblacksmithingindustrial heritagemachine restorationpower hammer restorationBritish engineeringblacksmith workshopheavy machinerymetalworking
