Buying used hammer
Hello all,
I need to buy a hammer in the 1000-1250lb range. I cant justify buying a new hammer ($21k+, depending on options like auto-lube). I am torn between a reconditioned hammer (~$11k+, depending on what options I choose like number of tools but autolube is not an option on recons from Okada) or a used one from a rental place like that pictured ($5-7k). I know that rentals are beat up and that I would need to rebuild it soon. Obviously this route has a lot more risk as I could be buying a hammer that is so far gone that it cant be rebuilt/could be dangerous to run. I am pretty set on Okaka (top 60 specifically), they have been the best hammers I have used other than Epiroc, but I cant find recon'ed or used Epirocs as easily. If I bought used, I would use it for a few months then rebuild myself later in the year when we slow down. We are doing about 1-2 jobs a month that would require a hammer, and really only smaller parts of the job would need one. Most of our concrete demo is slabs/sidewalk that dont really need a hammer at all but we keep running into parts of a slab that are unexpectedly thick and heavily reinforced (24"+ with #7-#8 rebar sometimes). The rental costs and time wasted picking up/dropping off a rental hammer are starting to add up. Anyone had success buying used hammers from a rental company/auction? Should I just go with a recon'ed unit? I have been able to get service records from the rental places so that will be taken into consideration. Most have had the bushings replaced at some point. Thank you for your thoughts.