Well I got hired to run a Cat 345 with a hammer for a local quarry. I may also get to play with a D9R from time to time. Can anyone give me some helpful tips for using the hammer. I would like to be as productive as possible and I figured you guys could point me in the right direction. Also any tips for the dozer couldn't hurt. Thanks
Never dry fire, and never use the pecker to pry. Lube the hammer every 2 hours. when i'm chiping away rock i always just take small bites and slowly work forwards or backwards chiping off the ledge i make. If you just start breaking away on in the middle of rock you usually dont do a whole lot. Ive never used a breaker for quarry work, used them for trenching, road building, house sites, etc. I'll usually break out a foot or 2, clean out the mess, then start on my next cut untill i reach the grade i want.
Just to add to Tyler's post, always fire vertically. If you **** the breaker forward or backward while firing, you can increase wear on the bushings inside. When the tip is in the vertical postion, it distributes shock loads evenly throughout the bushings.
Ideally there should be an operators guide for the hammer with the machine and the machine should be set in the correct work mode (pressure and flow) to get the hammer operating properly. Most hammers of course are significantly heavier than the heaviest bucket so you should be careful when using the stick and bucket cylinder that the rods don't violently reach stroke end which could damage the cylinders... also never operate the hammer with the cylinders at full extention (mid-stroke is best)
real obvious one, keep plenty of ear plugs with you, or get a set of ear muffs
Thanks for the help. One of the guys is going to help me a little with it, but I'd like to have an idea of what do ahead of time.
You need to beable read the rock and what I mean about that is looking for fissurs (cracks) in the rock where its going to break off in big chunks. As meantioned you need to have ear plugs or muffs or you are going to be deaf at the end of the day. You also have to run the machine with the windows and door closed. The machine should be equiped with lexan windows or some kind of window gaurds that prevents rocks from busting the windows. Depending on how the hydraulics are set up if you have a foot treadle to operate the hammer be prepared to have a sore ankle. When walking around the broken rock becarefull you don't fall the rock can be sharp as hell and slice your hand open real quick. Also try not breath the dust that comes off the hammer while breaking you can end up with sillicosis. The hammer shakes the machine pretty good so make sure the boom pins are well greased also inspect the boom for parts getting loose or any signs of cracks. Hammers are hard on hydraulic lines so keep a eye on them. What are you doing in the quarry you must be doing boulder splitting where they have rocks that are too large to fit into the jaw crusher.
I will be breaking up 6'-10' rocks into 18"-20" pieces for the crusher. The hammer button is on the right stick and there is a shield over the glass. The A/C works, so the windows will be closed all day:bouncegri
A friend of the familly bought one of the largest hammers sold in B.C. it cost over 100,000 dollars its a Stanley 12,000 ftlb breaker its on a 55 ton excavator. Each hammer bit is 4000 dollars they bent one and one broke off but when it does work it breaks up the big boulders pretty good.
Does it have plexiglass windows under the screen? I just blew out a window on a John Deere 370 while hammering rock and it had steel demo gaurds on the windows.
It had regular glass behind the guard and it was cracked. It's not my problem now though, because after doing it for a day I could tell that there was no possible way that I could take running a hammer for 12 hours a day every day. The machine had 8,000+ hours and even when I was trying to be smooth, it shook me terribly. I've run my share of annoying equipment, but nothing has ever bothered me as much as the running the hammer on that machine. They didn't have any other positions, so I'll have to find somewhere else.
I don't think I would want to run a hammer 12 hours a day either. You figure it rattles so bad it makes you sore what do you think its doing to the machine. Hammers are the worst thing for a excavator it just shakes the boom pins right out.
Just to add from what others have said. Don't hammer for more than 15 seconds continuously.
PATIENCE . hahaha Purchased my first Hammer in 1988 and it took literally years for me to realize that patience is very important. Up here in Massachusetts there is alot of stubborn rock , and to be honest - If I stopped hammering every 15 seconds I would never make any progress. When the tip of the pin gets red hot and chunks of charred metal start flying off like meteors - then I'd say you need to stop hammering for a while .hahaha Seriously - I think running a hammer efficiently takes more than most think. The machine needs to match the hammer ( fluid flow - weight compatability etc ) The operator needs to stick with DECAF !! Oh yeah and as mentioned before - ear protection and an enclosed cab are a must !!
my hammer i run for 30 seconds, i worked ona job with another guy and hed hammer for 1 minute sometimes more and i told him once but he said don't worry about it. Hey whatever it wasn't my machine. I've run my hammer for 12 hours and that blew, but i had to get the job done. A good idea for a hammer is to put an auto lube on, even if you just hook it up to the hammer you'll save so much time and money because it pumps the right amount of grease in constantly, instead of just a tube ever 4 hrs.