Rebuilding the Little Giant Power Hammer, a DVD workshop by H. "Sid" Suedmeier

Reviewed by Pete Stanaitis
Last Revised: October 21, 2023


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New in 2008, this almost 4 hour 2-Disk DVD set is the best video I have ever seen for power hammer rebuilding. I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering buying a Little Giant (or similar) power hammer or to anyone who is considering making improvements to their own machine. Considering the amount of labor that one can put into the various repair operations and the cost of parts to "get 'er back to like new", the cost of this video is easy to recoup.

Over the last 20 some years I have helped to rebuild a few power hammers, we have held 3 power hammer rebuilding seminars at our place (2 of them were Caylor/Suedmeier workshops) and I have participated and even "filmed" a couple of times at other power hammer rebuild sessions. The tapes or DVD's that have come from these sessions are of the "humbly donated" (an ABANA term) type. The videographer often can't get the right shot, the instructor may be obscured by a large crowd, or the audio is drowned out by someone's barking dog. Somebody walks in front of the camera at THE "pregnant moment"! Your battery goes dead or you have to pee when something important is going on. Well, that's not the case here. This is a professionally produced video. The lighting is always perfect and the sound lacks nothing. It's all there.

Sid himself is the main "talent" and it doesn't hurt that his daughter Keri jumps in at just the right moment to help out or to make an important point. Captions are placed on-screen at appropriate points, as reminders, too.

Topics covered: History of the company, safety, proper names of the parts, how to evaluate a hammer you are considering buying (worth the price of the DVD all by itself!!!), disassembly, how the various styles of hammers vary from each other, VERY good detailed section on renewing all the Babbitt bearings, methods for removing up to 100 years of grime, shaft /clutch assembly & renewal of clutch linings (or clutch blocks), and overall assembly and adjustment of hammer.

Of course, the DVD's are all indexed by chapter, so if you need to get to a particular section in a hurry while the babbit is heating up, you don't have to wade through the whole video to look for it.
Several adjustment and improvement hints are included, some that I hadn't even heard of.

This video has a good balance between repair and replace, so the viewer can make informed decisions, based on their own knowledge, capabilities and access to machinery-whether to buy new parts or services, or whether to repair existing components.

Price: $99.00 for the 2 DVD set. Available from:
Little Giant Power Hammer
Attn. Roger Rice
6414 King Rd.
Nebraska City, NE 68410
Phone: 402-873-6603
Little Giant Website