Hammering Man went under the “knife” this afternoon. We removed the 48-foot sculpture’s left arm to make repairs to the gear drive mechanism that powers the popular sculpture by artist Jonathan Borofsky.

Hammering Man went under the “knife” this afternoon. We removed the 48-foot sculpture’s left arm to make repairs to the gear drive mechanism that powers the popular sculpture by artist Jonathan Borofsky.

Hammering Man has hammered smoothly 15 hours a day since he was installed at the entrance to the downtown Seattle Art Museum in 1992. He’s part of the city’s public art collection. By our estimate, he’s logged nearly 90,000 hours of hammering, only taking a break on Labor Day. That adds up to a lot of wear and tear.

See the “surgery” in progress on the Seattle P-I’s Big Blog. Brush up on your Hammering Man history here.

For now, Hammering Man’s arm will rest in the South Seattle warehouse of a local contractor. The drive mechanism is in Michigan, where it’s being rebuilt. The repairs are estimated to take several weeks. We hope to have Hammering Man back in the swing in January.