I have a job where I need to break 1500 cy of ledge without blasting. I have a few 7,000 to 10,000 lbs hammers but just seeing what everyone else uses in other parts of the country. Obviously the larger the hammer the faster it breaks. This is extremely hard granite rock.
Hmmmm I wonder is it coarse grained or fine grain stone we had some of that fine stuff in Galway once and wound up putting barrels of water near the excavators so as the chisels could be cooled ,evil stuff to break ,impossible to make a shelf ,up to that job grainless sand stone was the most difficult thing I had broken , all the dam chisel would do was punch holes uuuuugggghh.
Its hard granite alot of time we just make stone dust. Atleast you can punch holes in it. Anyone have experience using the expanding agent stuff.
There's always feathers and Wedges
http://plasmablastsystem.com/Plasma_Blast_Home_Page.html
I specialize in non-explosive rock removal. Expansive mortar and hydrauilc spliters would do the trick. You just need to drill lots of holes and know what your doing. More info please, is trench work or big open cut where you can work multiple faces; is there a face how deep of a cut do you have to make? In my area hammers are useless only good for very weathered rock. Pm maybe i can help
Its a knob sticking up and its 150 x 50 area with an avg cut of 4.5 feet and the deepest is 8. I looked into bristar and it was really expensive and I needed alot of it.
I come up with 1250 CY. You need about 3850 holes drilled and 500 box of EM. Why cant you blast? By the way what does blasting go for in your area? around here it is about $90 CY. This based on a 1 3/4" hole drilled on a 16"x16" pattern avg. 4.5' deep
Blasting typically is done on a 5x5 pattern or 6x6 with either a 3" or 4" inch hole. It goes for around $30 a yd. The project has some neighbors who dont want us to blast. I hope they realize a hammer is way lounder and causes more vibrations for a longer period of time. Plus there are about 200 house to do a preblast survey on.
If it is granite, you will only make dust with a hammer - you are right. I use a Darda 12 - it is air over hydraulic. The thing about the splitters is that they are the perfect compliment to a hammer because they actually work BETTER in harder rock. Conversely - the hammer works better in softer rock, where the splitter only breaks small pieces and you get very low yield for each drill hole. The harder the rock, the bigger the chunk you will break off with the splitter. You really must know what to do though - you must face it the right way, and always elevate the tool off the rock.....or you'll be sorry. I would probably use both - start with the hammer up top where the rock is oxydized, then use the splitter as you get into the hard stuff. We deal with this stuff every day in Southern New England - I get a good laugh when I drive by a Cat 345 with a 10,000 pound hammer in the SAME spot every day for a month - making SMOKE.:lmao You just know the GC is getting screwed, or he is stupid.
I found a 15,000 lb hammer for $28,000 a month. The only problem is you need a PC600/Cat 365 to use it and I cant find one that is plumbed.
i agree 100% with you. Hammer.s are good for soft very fractured rock. You would be suprised what a hydraulic slitter or expansice mortar can do i will fracture the rock and then you can clean it up with a lot smaller hammer.
What brand expansive mortar do you use? I can get a track drill with a 2" bit for cheap money. The mortar was 50,000 dollars for enough to do the yardage above doing it at a 2'x2' pattern.
All you need is 1/34" bit, bro - trust me.