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I Forge Iron

Sharpening jackhammer chisels


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Hi guys....

I have been asked by a mate at a hire company to re-shapen and harden all of their jackhammer bits and chisels.

I did a few using a big bench grinder and then heated them to cherry red and quenched them in oil and finally gave them a buff to remove the soot from the quenching process........so far so good.........

Am I on the right track???, I do not seem to be able to find any info anywhere and the correct way to do these things, can anyone here help point me in the right direction??

Cheers

Steve

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Much faster to forge them if you have access to a power hammer - although we had a local smith who did them for years with just his good right arm; you would not have wanted to arm wrassle him. The City of San Antonio would bring out a dump truck full once a month and he did nothing but forge jackhammer bits all day long. $.50 apiece in the old days - I think he was up to a dollar by the time he retired.

Your basic technique is OK but they may break without a draw after quench. Some operators will bust them on purpose so they can stop working for a while - best to leave them on the soft side.

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i do them for the local rental outfits here in Nanaimo.i dont have a power hammer,so i use a 4lber.after they are cool i grind the cutting edgethen heat,harden and temper.i usually quench them at the blue color.people are really brutal on the chisels and because of work hardening the are easy to snap so dont take the blame for that.i will redo any that might have been too hard and chipped.as long as you dont try forging them too cold,keep them hot,you shouldnt have any problems.1 inch or better tool steel is a little more fun to hammer than the mild stuff.i charge $6 for chisel and nail points,snapped off ones $10,anything over 2inches $12.once you get used to doing them it is no problem to make $50 hour.myself,i like doing them hope you will to.

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  • 7 years later...
On 10/24/2015 at 1:49 PM, HWooldridge said:

This is a 7 year old thread but I still think 200 bits a week is power hammer territory.  If this is steady work, there is no reason you can't go buy an 88 lb Anyang from James Johnson and get on with it.

yes i would love to get a power hammer. Just gotta get the process right so i can get and keep the work.  im very confused about the tempering process would appreciate a 5 minute call from anyone with good insight or on here will do also. Best i can tell get them cherry red forge quickly grind to point and quench by time its blue.  then i have also read they need to be heated to light orange and oil quenched.  any help is appreciated.

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if he says 1050 then you are golden if he says something like S7 then you will probably need to use a more complex heat treat---ie more expensive!  Tomorrow I'll probably be doing A 14 hour day in Mexico at my day job; no outside calls allowed (and the rest of this week too...)

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Yeah i saw that .  im guessing it will be 1050, i read that thread also.   what would the heat treat process be on 1050?  heat to red let air cool and grind tip re heat to orange and oil quench at blue? One of the guys said draw out steel when the guy said he was just grinding the tips heating to red and quenching at blue kinda confusing me why you would draw out steel after you already had tip ground out. 

 

 

 

Much faster to forge them if you have access to a power hammer - although we had a local smith who did them for years with just his good right arm; you would not have wanted to arm wrassle him. The City of San Antonio would bring out a dump truck full once a month and he did nothing but forge jackhammer bits all day long. $.50 apiece in the old days - I think he was up to a dollar by the time he retired.

Your basic technique is OK but they may break without a draw after quench. Some operators will bus

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Re read Grant's post.  Letting the points air cool allows the heat in the tip to soften up the shank.    I have not had any complaints of tools breaking using Grant's technique.  I have only done a few hundred breaker points as there is a shop about an hour away that sharpens bits for $3.50 and picks up and delivers for that price for large users.  I have other forging work that is more lucrative (some not so much)  so I have not chased the breaker point work aggressively. 

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.i charge $6 for chisel and nail points,snapped off ones $10,anything over 2inches $12.once you get used to doing them it is no problem to make $50 hour.myself,i like doing them hope you will to.

Glad you can make your business work at that rate, but should a skilled blacksmith be paying him/herself less than an auto mechanic or plumber?

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  • 3 years later...

Frank here at Dutchess Tool Co in Milton NY I have been re-forging bits (moil points and chisels for the past 30years it is our main part of business we do about 700-1300 per week  we use a pneumatic ir-54 with correct dies heat, hammer, grind, quench and draw is the only way to do them they do not make the ir-54 anymore fortunately i have 14 machines only 2-left in usa that i know of my every day machine was built in 1912 a and has been working at least 5 days a week since then stopped making them in 1953 Ingersoll rand does not even know they made them i called them several times and nobody knew about them amazing anyone with questions about this subject can call me at xxx xxx xxxx I might be able to help you out this is a dying business soon to be forgotten about my last competitor on the east coast just shut down no more full time guys left in it what a shame 

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We used to have another member here who had a career in redoing moil points.  I followed his suggestions when a friend of a friend broke a point on a holiday weekend and needed to finish the job---we're rural so no big cities with a chance of finding a place open...

Can you share with us what alloy(s) are generally used nowadays for them?

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