Small-scale safety testing of explosives and other energetic materials is done to determine their sensitivity to various stimuli including friction, static spark, and impact. This testing is typically done to discover potential handling problems for either newly synthesized materials of unknown behavior or materials that have been stored for long periods of time. This report describes the existing ``ERL Type 12 Drop Weight Impact Sensitivity Apparatus``, or ``Drop Hammer Machine``, and the methods used to determine the impact sensitivity of energetic materials, Also discussed are changes made to both the machine and methods since the inception of impact sensitivity testing at LLNL in 1956. The accumulated data for the materials tested in not listed here, the exception being the discussion of those specific materials (primary calibrants: PETN, RDX, Comp-B3,and TNT; secondary calibrants: K-6, RX-26-AF, and TATB) used to calibrate the machine.