Drilling holes in rocks - Help

[seal killer]

pete and Bill--

Thank you for the tips! I'll follow them up.

--Other Bill

[pete]

LOL, unfortunately I do Bill. There were a few muskeg swamps up at Kemess Mines. Even the moose wouldn't try crossing that for 6-7 months of the year. I learned real quick to test the ground with a hoe bucket first before walking the machine anywhere when I got off the roads. Solid even dry looking crust of dirt on it, stinking bottomless quagmire under it. How they ever got that Alaska hwy built and stable enough to drive on it is unbelievable. Rumors I've heard for every turn on that highway there's a cat or other piece of equipment sunk out of sight beside that turn.

[Russ Hanscom]

Another term is geo fabric.

[warmstrong1955]

I don't think most folks know how things work up north Pete.
All the big and heavy equipment for the mines, among other things, came in during the winter on ice roads. The thaw comes early....and it's a matter of having to wait till winter, or charter a C-130. Echo Bay in Lupin, had their own 727, and that's how they kept things coming in after the road was gone. Typical of operations in Alaska too.
Lot of pictures around of the building the Alaska Highway, of swallowed up equipment. I'm sure much was deemed too far gone, and left there.
A matter of specific gravity, a dozer vs muskeg!

Other Bill

[BadDog]

Back to the topic of Rotary Hammers, you now get to delve into another somewhat contentious topic. Whether to grease the chuck/bit, with what, or not. For reference, as far as I know, they all recommend using "grease", some generically, others admonishing you to buy their expensive branded "special" grease.

I've read or been told advice to:
1) Don't use anything, run it dry, doesn't gunk up the chuck mechanism.
2) Just wipe a light coating on the bit shank each time you use it.
3) "Regular" grease will damage the chuck (rubber, seal, shroud, something...)
4) Use only the manufacturers recommended grease
4.1) It's just regular grease in a 4x priced tube
5) Get the tube, and squirt directly into the chuck opening. Inserting the bit squishes out any excess. Reminds me of the "grease ball joint until you see it squirt out the seal" advice. (not good)
6) Wipe grease around with your finger, then remove all you can so it doesn't accumulate and gunk up the chuck.
7) Probably some others I don't recall.

Me, I buy cheap black moly grease for general whatsit use, places where it's not really about long term wear or specific properties (obviously with better grades for specific important apps). I take a small dab on my finger and spread it around the shank. Clear globs from the veins and insert for use. When it comes out, a quick wipe with a cheap paper towel and it goes back in the box where I store such things.

[warmstrong1955]

In the mines, we generally used thread grease. Cheap, and we had lots of it in 1 and 5 gallon buckets for the diamond & DTH drillers, and the poor-boy long holers. I would guess that the over-priced factory SDS grease, is just cheap thread grease.
Since 'normal' folks don't have that stuff laying around, and when we didn't as well on remote jobs & such, we used anything #2 or better with moly in it, or, anti-seize, preferably the copper stuff, but not mandatory.
And....we didn't spend a lot of time frettin' about it. Grease it, put in the bit, and go do your thing.
Get done, grease it again for the next guy.

Problem with regular grease, it there's a lot of friction going on in the chuck, and the grease will get hot, and drool down the bit and go away. With moly, or anti-seize, not so severe of a drool, and some of the moly/copper/aluminum will stay where it needs to be.

FYI, 'real' rock drills, as in pneumatic, grease is not used in the chucks. On bits & coupling threads.....yes, but not always. That includes small ones like CP-9's, similar in hole size to SDS hammers, but will drill circles around any of them.

Other Bill

[Russ Hanscom]

Most interesting. I would have thought the bit spline drive would have been run dry to avoid accumulating and holding grit. Learn something every day.

[BadDog]

My thoughts exactly. Light coating of cheap moly seems good enough, particularly for "home owner" work. I have seen it get hot and liquify, but the moly should remain in sufficient quantity to protect for my needs. I suspect thread grease is similar to "open gear and chain grease". Basically a thickery body with tacky waxy feel. But that stuff isn't always handy, so moly. NLGI #2 lightly applied for the win..

[seal killer]

All--

The new Makita SDS Plus makes holes in rock. No problem.

Thank you for the help!

--Bill

[seal killer]

BadDog and Russ and Bill--

I read the "grease the bit shank" in the manual. So I took the bit I had selected over to the Komatsu, found a journal with some high temperature (I use red) grease oozing out, rotated the shank in it, smoothed it with my finger and called it good.

--Bill

[warmstrong1955]

You have the right tool now Bill!
Like I said, moly grease works better. When it gets warmed up, the grease part of the grease will still ooze out like regular grease, but some of the moly remains. Also why anti-seize works well.
Doesn't matter much if you smear some on there now & then, which is more important than the flavor.

Other Bill