scratched ram

[dukduk]

i scratched up my ram shaft while changing hammers....not that bad but is it gonna hurt it?

i was using a strip of rubber and a pair of vice grips to hold it, the jaws cut right thru the rubber... i tried to smoothen it out with some 1000 grit:notsure:

[El Pirata]

Visegrips? Whether is will effect your performance depends on where the scratch is located. If it's really small and near the hammer you might be ok. If it's larger then it may not be ok. Best advise is to try it and see.

[hasatimmy]

polish it out with high grit sand paper. if there are reasonably deep gouges use 600 first then 1200 to finish it off. if you have 1000 grit just use that for a while. just grab the hammer *(with your fingers..) and turn clockwise while holding the paper to the shaft with the other hand...

i polished mine out like this and its uber-pretty now. i'm not sure if it had any bearing on performance, but its pretty...

[Bigal1]

in general, vice grips= bad

[rix123]

...Ai adai lahi-hu...

..as stated before the location of the scratches on the shaft will determine the extent of the effect as that will determine how deep into the ram body the shaft moves during cycling..

...what that means is how many internal seals and bearing surfaces the scratches will cross during the cycling... for the seals you may see shorter life spans requiring replacemant more often. for any "bearing surface" (not ball bearing), the shaft scratches could also gouge and/or score the surface it rides across, increasing "friction" which will hamper cycling optimum and possibly increasing surface damage that will accerlerate seal damage...also, understand that depending on the depth of the original scratches and how much metal you had to remove from the shaft diameter to "smooth out" the surrounding area could mean that when that part reaches a seal, the sealing will not be as efficient due to a "smaller" diameter shaft ...

..recommendations? observe it for a while to see what effects may or may not occur before replacing...