Anyone know what kind of steel hammer bits are

[GCC]

Well title says it all any one got an idea what hammer bits are made out of i have buddy whos got an 8500ft.lb breaker and every time a bit is broken its 4000 for a new one and hes willing to let me use it on a job so i thought if i make my own bit and run in the hammer and if i break it who cares and put his in when im done

 

[TrentNz]

don't beak it? they generally break when you try prying them or using them as a lever, plus I reckon it would be pretty hard to make a hammer piece otherwise everyone and his dog would be doing it.

 

[willie59]

I concur with TrentNz, proper use of a hammer chisel, straight blows, no prying, they'll last until they're worn slap out. If you snap a chisel, it's typically the operator stressed the chisel. As for making a chisel, not likely an individual can fabricate one properly, a breaker chisel is an expensive machined and hardened tool.

 

[GCC]

Well i have my own mill and my uncle has an oven and lathe so the bit is 6.5 i can buy S7 bar for 1700 and the place my uncle works has all the stuff to do it also and on breaks they are aloud to use any machines thats free i always have him take my 100mm pins when they get play and put a special coating on and lathe it back to 100mm haven't had to touch the bushing since replacing its nice to have access to these kid of thing just i was wondering what kind of metal they are made of i had a guy tell me AR400 but i dont think it would stand up

 

[Dickjr.]

Man made them so a man should be able to make one. My worry would be that the end would mushroom inside the striker and then either the hammer is ruined or you have a lot of tight quarters grinding to do. This is a good question , what type material are they made of ? Also maybe a good business to get into if you had the tooling to do it. Maybe relieve some of these high bit prices. But if your material alone is 1700, plus machining and treating the 4000g is looking about fair.

 

[d4c24a]

if its a clean break straight across then its poor steel , an angled break with signs of shearing its operator prying

 

[OzDozer]

As for making a chisel, not likely an individual can fabricate one properly, a breaker chisel is an expensive machined and hardened tool.

Sorry Willie - not correct. A local engineering guy, a sole operator, made a very nice living out of making replacement chisel bits in recent years.
Unfortunately, he dropped dead suddenly from heart failure - and his family wanted nothing to do with his business or machinery, so it was all auctioned off, and the business just dissolved.
I went along to his businesses clearance auction and scored a magnificent WW2 Landis cylindrical grinder from the sale for $300. He had finished and half-finished chisels all around the shop - and some of them were huge chisels.

As I never got to to talk to him, and few other people at the auction knew anything about his business, it was a disappointment to me. The man obviously took a lot of skills with him.
I'd presume he was using low-alloy, high tensile, heat treatable steel, that was hardened and tempered by some other business, because I could see no heat-treatment equipment in his sale.

Specialist steels such as the above, which usually contain molybdenum, manganese, chrome, nickel, and vanadium in the alloy mix, are normally readily available from specialist steel suppliers.
All that's required is the right alloy steel, good machining, precise finished dimensions of the chisels (a very important factor, as evidenced by the Landis cylindrical grinder), and proper heat-treatment, and you can produce replacement chisels easily.
The fact that this local guy obviously had quite a good little business - as evidenced by the number of finished and half-finished chisels around his shop, shows there's a good market in manufacturing replacement chisels.