DTH Supporting Equipment

Using supporting equipment is critical to the life of your hammers.

By LaTisha Shipman

Let’s look at supporting equipment that you can consider using in conjunction with your hammers and bits.

Hammer Oiler

One of the things I like to harp on is properly oiling your hammers. A good hammer oiler is a great piece of equipment to help you to know how much oil you’re using. Oftentimes when out on a job, that’s one of the pieces of equipment that I see is out of use and not replaced when broken.

At that point, the driller will often resort to just pouring oil down the drill pipe with each new piece they put on—or whenever they think about it. Hammer oilers are not an expensive piece of equipment, so this shouldn’t be you.

It also seems hammer oilers are also relatively easy to build on your own, and something is better than nothing. One of my customers built one and it looked so professional, I actually thought there was a new manufacturer of hammer oilers on the market the first time I saw it!

Breakout Bench

Mincon breakout machine at Drilling Equipment Resources in Texas.

Another piece of supporting equipment for hammers is a breakout bench. I would especially recommend this if you use hammers most of the time. That said, I think if you hammer drill at all, a breakout bench is still beneficial to you.

Breakout benches are often upwards of $20,000 so it will be quite the investment, but breakout services start at approximately $150 and go up from there. And if there isn’t a supplier in your area that offers breakout services, there is then the downtime and cost of transport to take the hammer in for breakout.

If there isn’t a breakout service in your local area, that’s a service you could consider offering to others should you purchase a breakout machine. Turning your machine into a source of revenue will help offset the cost.

This is another piece of equipment that would be relatively easy to make yourself, thus saving some of the cost of a new one.

In our shop, we use the Mincon hammer breakout machine, which is hydraulicly driven. This machine is so easy to use, I can do hammer breakouts on my own. My favorite feature is the hydraulic arm that pushes the piston and air distributor out of the hammer, eliminating the need to try to pound those out from the top of the hammer while it’s standing upright.

If nothing is seized up, a hammer breakout on this machine takes just a matter of a few minutes to get set up and locked down. Then you just let the machine do the work. The model we have comes equipped with a small hoist and can break out up to 8-inch hammers.

I also appreciate that the hammer bench is about waist high, rather than some other models that hit you right about the ankle. This is already back-breaking work as it is; trying to do it bent over doesn’t help at all!

Shock Absorber

Drill King International’s shock absorbers.

I consider shock absorbers to be a smaller, often overlooked tool that can improve conditions on the drilling rig and end up having a huge impact. Often the driller, the rig, and the entire drill string can take a real beating from the hammer as everything is vibrating from the energy of the piston striking the bit and travelling back up the drill string.

Drill King International manufactures one of the best shock absorbers on the market. My personal customer feedback on this absorber was that it got up to five times the life as compared to another major brand.

This shock absorber is designed to go down the hole. It sits right above the hammer, thus absorbing the impact closest to the source of the vibration as close to the piston as possible.

This saves you money in the wear and tear on your rig, helps to reduce vibration travelling up the drill stem—and maybeyour feet won’t tingle so much at the end of the day. This tool can also be used in conjunction with tricones or PDCs, as it sits directly above the bit, serving the same purpose as in DTH drilling: to reduce vibration up the drill string.

Fluid Injector

When it comes to drilling additives, a good tool to have handy is a fluid injector. Matex makes a great one that can be used with rock drill oil, polymers, or foam.

The fluid injector is outfitted with a mixer as well which can be helpful as some additives tend to clump or gel. I think it would be great to control the amount of drilling fluids you’re using and then easily increase or decrease the amounts of fluids on an as-needed basis.

There is also a timer on this particular model which can be preset. The fluid injector conveniently fits a regular five-gallon bucket, saving space as it doesn’t exceed 26 inches.

Carbide Resharpening Tool

CME Blasting & Mining Equipment’s bit grinder.

As for supporting equipment with bits, I recommend a carbide resharpening tool. Carbide resharpening can extend the life of your bit by up to 30% when done properly. You should always resharpen when about one-third of the button has lost its original shape.

Too often the bits we get in are unfortunately about 60% used before they’ve been sent in for resharpening. We do our best to restore the profile, but it’s definitely more difficult and almost always leaves a flat at the top of the button, as they are simply too far gone.

There are some resharpening kits that are relatively inexpensive and extremely easy to use. My favorite resharpening machine is manufactured by CME Blasting & Mining Equipment Co. Ltd. It’s impressive, but a bit more costly. This one is on my wish list too!

Handheld Propane Torch

It’s also handy to keep a handheld propane torch on the rig so you can quickly melt out broken blowtubes (or foot valves) and easily replace them on site. Be sure to tilt the shank facing down before you burn out the blowtube. That way the blowtube melts outward, not inward, and down the borehole of the bit.

Torching is my preferred method of cutting out broken blowtubes. The other method is to cut them out with a sawzall or compatible tool, but often the cut extends into the metal of the bit. However shallow, that can create a weakness in the bit body. If the cut is too deep, it can prevent the new blowtube from being seated properly.

______________________________________________

The success of your hammers and bits can often depend on your supporting equipment. I hope you already have and use some of the equipment I’ve talked about here. Your hammers will thank you!

LaTisha Shipman is the Texas branch manager for Drilling Equipment Resources. She has more than 20 years of experience in the drilling industry, with most of that time spent working in manufacturing with DTH hammers and bits. She can be reached at latisha@drillingequipmentresources.com.