by Amber Birckbichler, MTT junior and Aven Fernandez, MTT senior

“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”

― Stan Lee

Have you ever wanted to be as strong as Thor? Well Machine Tool Technology has the hammer for you! Built by MTT, built well enough for Thor, himself, will be used to pulverize over 600 pounds of pumpkins at the first-ever Fall Flannel Fest at Lawrence County CTC On Saturday evening (6-9 PM), October 10th.

Ms. Cozza and the student council gave the Eagle Manufacturers the idea to make the hammer look like a hammer held by Thor, the Norse god of Thunder.

Though the handle was purchased at Ace Hardware, MTT made the rest from a block of steel from the stockroom.

The students placed the block of steel in the mill vise to start squaring the block; this ensures that each side is flat. This ensured that when Flannel Fest frolickers strike a mighty pumpkin, the hammer won’t be “out of whack.” Students then tilted the head of the mill to a 45 degree angle to ensure that of the corners of the hammer head are nice and flat with no sharp edges. It also makes it look better. They then trimmed the head back to 0 degrees. To prep for the final step, students center-drilled the hammerhead to keep the drill nice and straight. After this step, all that is left is to bore the hole to make it bigger. To fit the handle, they had to make it to size, 1 ⅛ inches. The final step was to turn the circle into an oval by some skilled hands-on work that involved moving the table over .080 and take .020 cuts until it measured .150. They repeated this technique on the other side but this time with negative numbers.

Weighing in at about 20 lbs. and taking four days to make, this hammer was the result of a lot of hard work and dedication. It will be a sure “hit” at the Fall Flannel Festival -- if you can “handle” it!