Vulcan Offshore Tips: Introduction and Index

More details on the repair, maintenance and operation of Vulcan hammers can be found in the Vulcanhammer.info Guide to Pile Driving Equipment.

Tip Number	Title (click on title for tip you want to see)	Corresponds to Onshore Tip
001	Head Gasket/Single Acting Hammer	1
002	Ram Keys Too Tight	8
003	Tightening the Packing Gland	10
004	Removing Broken Ram Point	24
005	Stripped Thread Repairs	30
006	Broken Stud Removal	31
007	Steam Chest Valve Liners	34, 55
008	Vari-Cycle Hammers	37, 56
009	Compressed Air Velocity Fuse	38
010	Outboard Bracket Shims	40
011	Assembly Procedures (Fastener Torque)	42
012	Stud Installation (Tap-End Studs)	43
013	Trouble Shooting	12
014	Bushing Replacement	27
015	Piston & Rod Installation	50
016	Serial Numbers	35, 52, 57
017	Product Bulletin	44, 54
018	Dovetail Repair	36
019	Bar and Suspension Head Dimensions	–
020	Cushion Pot Dimensions	59
021	Pipe Cap Dimensions	–
022	Hammer Center of Gravity	–
023	Lubrication	5, 67
024	Replacing the Packing	–
025	Slide Bar Gripper Modification	–

Your Vulcan Offshore Pile Hammers will give you better and more consistent service if they receive good maintenance on a continuing basis.

These initial Vulcan Offshore Tips and subsequent issues should provide valuable assistance in repairing and maintaining your hammers. Consult them frequently.

Keep downtime to the minimum.

Background

The exhortation above graced the original table of contents for the Vulcan Offshore Tips. The tips were the offshore counterpart of the more extensive Onshore Tips.

The idea of the Vulcan Tips was to provide practical maintenance information on a periodic basis to the end users of Vulcan equipment. A great deal of information was conveyed with the tips; some of it was later incorporated into the Vulcan Field Service Manuals.

The Offshore Tips were first issued in the mid 1970’s; the last tip mailed out was in 1985 and the last one to be prepared was in 1993. The graphical quality of the tips was, to say the least, elementary; in putting these tips on the Web, we attempted to retain this quality in order to give you a feel for the original. We have also made every attempt to replicate the information in the Tips. However, when we feel it is helpful, we have added notes at the bottom of the tips in italics concerning subsequent developments that are important in understanding the contents of the tips.

“Take a tip from Jess Perry…”

The caricature on the left side of our banner above also appeared with the original Offshore Tips. However, the character depicted was very real; Jesse H. Perry was Vulcan’s Manager of Engineering Services from the mid-1960’s until his sudden death in July 1983. As has been the case for nearly twenty years, this Web version of the Vulcan Offshore Tips is dedicated to his memory.

To be a successful field service man requires a unique combination of personal and technical skills. A Vulcan field service representative had to:

Be very knowledgeable about the equipment and its application;
Be willing to travel extensively, frequently in unglamorous places (oil is always found in places like this) and be gone for extended periods;
Balance the best interest of his customer (the offshore contractor,) the owner (the oil company) and his employer (Vulcan.)

No individual that ever held any field service position at Vulcan was as capable of doing all of this as Jesse Perry, and this webmaster still counts it a privilege to have worked with Jesse both in the office and the field.