David Spainhour, manager of Midco Demolition Tool Company in Dallas, TX, has had an interest in hydraulic hammers from an early age and has spent the last 40-plus years repairing, remanufacturing and selling hydraulic hammers.
Having spent nearly 20 years in the hydraulic hammer business, it was natural for Spainhour to establish Midco some 21 years ago. According to Spainhour, the industry needed a company that could take advantage of his experience level, saying that most hammer users have come to understand that there is a time when their hydraulic hammers simply need to be refurbished or rebuilt.
“We have the expertise to determine if a complete rebuild is necessary or if the units just need a basic refurbish,” said Spainhour.
Midco receives hammers for refurbishing from all over North America. The general range of hammers to be rebuilt is from 200 lbs. to 10,000 lbs.
“Since we are one of many Kent dealers, we obviously receive more Kent hammers than anything else, but we maintain factory parts for all makes and models,” Spainhour stated. “We have the rebuild process down to a fine science and with the specialized tooling and the availability of our parts inventory, we typically can rebuild four hammers per day.”
Spainhour also said that when a hammer is shipped in, the company knows that the customer is normally in dire need for a fast turnaround so it prides itself on being able to do one-day rebuilds, in most cases.
Spainhour put it quite simply when asked if there was a secret to a successful rebuild: just rebuild to the quality you would want if it were your own hammer.
The company follows a strict process that is followed before the start of any rebuild. First, the hammers are received and inventoried, then completely disassembled to the smallest item, inspected with all parts hot-pressure washed and reinspected for cracks, wear and tolerances. “Once this process is completed, we replace all worn or broken parts with brand new parts, replace all seals in the cylinder and O-ring holder including the diaphragm, replace bushings as necessary, polish the piston and inspect to make sure the factory tolerances of two-hundred thousandths is maintained,” said Spainhour.
According to Seydel Jarquin, long time employee of Midco, the company is the fastest rebuild facility of its size in the United States.
“We pride ourselves in each and every one of our rebuilds,” stated Seydel. “We make every effort to rebuild the hammers to be as good if not better than the original by using all new parts, adhering to all tolerances and never using recycled parts and re-chroming is never allowed.”
Pat Ector, who maintains the company’s constantly changing parts inventory, also is a key player in the rebuild process.
“I am the one that normally polishes the cylinders and checks for the tolerances to make sure that they meet factory specifications and I normally rebuild the accumulators and recharge the units,” Ector said.
In most cases, she is the one that does the final decaling of the finished product as well.
In order to help its customers in all aspects of its business, Midco specializes in hand-held jack and rock hammers, as well as rock drills.
“We have the expertise and have found that it was easier for our customers to bring all their hammers and drills to us,” stated Spainhour. “Evidently, word got out and there are people calling us constantly to help with their sixty to ninety pound hammers and drills. We seem to never slow down since we are one of the Kent dealers for the large hammers as well as the Solida dealer for all their chisels,” said Spainhour.
When a worn or broken hammer comes in to the Midco shipping dock, it is not allowed to leave until it is meticulously checked and re-checked for quality, fully tested on site, painted to the manufacture’s color scheme and re-decaled to look and operate just like a brand new hammer.
“I guess one of the reasons why we are the fastest in the industry for turnaround and unparalleled quality in our hammer rebuilds is that we just like what we do,” Spainhour concluded.
For more information, call 214/688-0444. CEG
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