Speed Borer

BBW140 For Timber Railway Sleeper

Photos show -Top left 5.5 hp Honda drill, Top Right 4.8 hp Yanmar diesel drill, lastly our tungsten carbide drill bits.

As shown above the Single Spindle Woodborer is powered by a 5.5 hp Honda engine with a 2:1 gear reduction and centrifugal clutch, or Yanmar diesel cam shaft take off-(no clutch but has throttle cut-off). The whole engine assembly is a complete mechanical drive system rotating the drill spindle at a maximum speed of 1200 rpm. The simple centrifugal clutch, spline and gear drive system is robust and reliable despite its light weight.

Spindle feed distance is 250 mm, able to take the longest of sleeper timber drill bits. Feed is simply by pulling down on a lever until the set depth is reached. Depths are easily set with the aid of the 10mm increments marked on the chromed slide. Feed return is carried out by captive external springs mounted on the lever system.

The bottom tube retains the hardened drill guides which locate the drill in the holes of a rail seat as well as keeping the rotating drill safely shielded.

Best production rates are achieved using our own timber sleeper drills which have tungsten carbide cutting edges and specially formulated flutes and clearances. These new features ensure that the drills do not become choked up with cuttings (which breaks other brands of drills) providing fast ejection of the cuttings and consequent very fast drilling times of around 2 seconds per hole.

Tungsten carbide cutting edges are made from a robust grade which is more resistant to the damage caused by rail ballast. Of course, running the drill bit into ballast will reduce the cutting edge life. The drill bits are resharpenable and in addition can have the cutting edges re-tipped with new carbides. This reduces the cost of the next edges to half of a new drill, provided that the main shank is able to be reclaimed.

These drill bits are between three and four times the cost of ordinary sleeper drills, however, if the drills last three to four times longer then the economics are proven in extra production. Fewer drill bit changes, fewer spare drills and fewer sharpenings per day of drilling. In some severe conditions, our Sleeper drill has extended drill bit life by as much as ten fold and other applications in different timbers, an even greater number of holes when compared to standard sleeper drill bits.

The whole 74 kg assembly is mounted onto a push-a-long trolley, with weights around 30kg, complete with a light tool tray for water bottles or operator “odds & ends”.

We may ask ourselves, “where is all this overseas technology coming from??” Wrong! Just another innovative product from Melvelle Equipment, manufactured right here in Newcastle N.S.W., Australia.

Buy Australian and buy world class solutions to greater production.