Will Stelter: How an Expanding Steel Clutch Works on a Beaudry Hammer

Okay, so now that we have the initial part of the clutch assembly put back together, I think you guys will have a pretty good idea of how this works. So the main components that we have here are the crank shaft and crank disc. That's what interfaces the clutch system to the linkage and the ram on the front of the hammer. Everything centers around that. Moving back from that, we have the clutch engager, which is a cast iron piece that fits around the outside of the bearing assembly inside that when you pull down this way, because of the two angled grooves, it pushes everything this way. That piece moves back and forth on the outside of the assembly. From there, we have the main clutch assembly. That is this giant piece. This is what the brake of the hammer engages with down here on the bottom. And then we have the actual clutch itself. Now, this is a solid steel clutch. It's not tapered in any way. All it does is expand, and it expands into the big inertial wheel that I'm going to put on next. But I want to show you guys the internals before I put that on. And the way that this steel clutch engages is by this piece right here rotating. So as it rotates, see that? As it rotates, it gets larger. That means you're going to have more friction on the inside of the wheel on the back. And the way that that is caused to rotate is as this plate in the front is pushed back and engages with this roller assembly, as that roller assembly rotates, it's pinned into this clutch engager. And as that twists, it engages the steel wheel.