Bashin', smashin' and balling!

[bobcat ron]

I got sent out to a demo job this morning only to find out the early bird got the worm, or in this case, the 2 ton demolition ball the crusher operator gives us to play with:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t178/rdj07/th_Pictures741.jpg (http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t178/rdj07/?action=view&current=Pictures741.flv)

[Wolf]

Cool pictures and video. That's an interesting way to go about it. Do you like it better than a hammer or breaker?

[euclid]

looks like a lot of extra work IMO

[redline]

must admit I have never seen that done before!!!

is it a steel ball or what is it made of?

[bobcat ron]

That ball is made of lead with an outer shell of steel, it's faster (and "tons" more fun) than a hammer, which would also raise the cost of this type of work we always do, the crusher runs at $250 per hour, 2 excavators at $120 each, that's $490 per hour, dairy farmers have big pockets, but not that big.
The crusher can only handle 24" pieces, so downsizing is much faster for faster crushing.

[bear]

I guess that's one way to do it. does look like fun. Ever have the ball roll away?

[bobcat ron]

I guess that's one way to do it. does look like fun. Ever have the ball roll away?


Yes, right up against the track, with the idlers in the front (lucky me) what a hell of a THUD! :D
I've also just let it roll into the bucket after releasing it with the thumb if I have to carry it around with me to another pile, man that puts a big dent in the bucket too!

BTW, we never, ever use the wide clean up buckets for demo work, we have always use the toothed, but this case was different as there was only 1 toothed bucket available as the other 2 were getting repaired.

[redline]

what weight is the ball?

[bobcat ron]

what weight is the ball?

2 tons, give or take, the 320 has a hard time lifting it to full reach. :D

[redline]

thanks for the details

[Turbo21835]

Done that plenty of times. I worked for a demo company that doesnt believe in hammers. We used one small ball, and two large ingots. The ingots were around 8-10,000 lbs. I could throw the ball around no problem. The ingot was tough with the 320clu, but you could do it. Most of the time i used it to break items that contained non ferrous metals. A lot of welder transformers from auto plants were my primary used for it. It would crack the cast aluminum case, and i could get at the copper windings on the inside.

We also used them to break concrete. It works decently. But it does throw debris all over the place.

[AtlasRob]

There is at least 1 quarry in the UK that uses the same idea to break oversize rock. I read an article about the alteration they did to the bucket to keep the ball central for more control.

[carlsharp]

A company I used to work for used a a JD450 trackloader with a 4-n-1 to pick up a ball and break up concrete slabs. This pre-dated hydro hammers. The bottom of the radiator shell had a big dent from the occasional bounce.

CS

[euclid]

After reading the different inputs I see it makes sense other than bounce damage. Which makes me wonder how far out do you keep the boom to help prevent the inadvertant bounce back into the cab?

[bobcat ron]

We've never had bounce back, only run aways into the tracks, most of the concrete will break easily if it's benn smashed like that, or we just put it on a pile labeled "un-bustable".

[stretch]

Blaschak Coal in Pennsylvania has a steel block that they pick up with the Marion 7450 and drop it on large boulders before digging them up.

[Dozerboy]

Cool never seen a ball like that I have just use the thickest chunk of concrete I could lift.