Old hand told me to run my cutterhead slower in heavy clay. Wish I listened sooner.

Been running a 10 inch cutterhead on a small project near Mobile Bay for about 4 months now. An old timer I met at the yard, name's Jim, kept telling me to drop my RPMs in the thick stuff. I figured he was just set in his ways and kept pushing it harder. Burnt through a set of teeth in about 6 weeks and had to pull the whole head to replace the shaft seal from the vibration. Finally tried his way last Tuesday and the material actually moved better. Less bogging, less chatter. Any of you guys run slower in clay or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosew3727d agoMost Upvoted

Learned that lesson the hard way myself on a job down in Georgia clay. Running slower keeps the teeth biting instead of just rubbing and cooking themselves off. Jim was probably trying to save you a headache, but sometimes you gotta wreck a set of teeth before the old ways click.

noah91727d ago

Isn't it funny how hard lessons always seem to stick the best?