All excellent points. Thank you very much! I admit that my electrical engineering knowledge could be written on the back of a postage stamp in quite big letters, but my fiancée's old flatmate Tim apparently builds and flies multi-rotor helicopters (I intend for both to be team members, assuming they're willing, of course). He can handle that - I have a pronounced spasm in my right arm, which I fear will not mix well with soldering irons, TIG welders, or precision cutting equipment. =]

Thanks again for helping me out. My overall plan is to follow maddox's advice and disembowel the demo hammer accordingly, then shock mount it as well as I possibly can, The central idea behind the weapon is to couple active damage from the hammer strikes (the 230V hammer I've been looking at strikes at 2000bpm) with the sheer amount of strikes through the metal chassis of the target spreading vibrations through the bodywork and knocking stuff loose inside. Hopefully it won't also deafen everyone in the building, but who can say? =]