Appreciation post: the old timer who schooled me on cutterhead maintenance
I used to think running a cutterhead dry for a few minutes before shutdown was no big deal. Just a little spin to clear mud, right? Then last Thursday at the yard, one of the guys who's been dredging since the 80s, Frank, watched me do it and said 'that's how you cook your bearings.' He wasn't mean about it, just matter of fact. He showed me how even 30 seconds of dry running can pull water out of the seals and let grit work its way in. I always heard the rule about packing bearings with grease every 50 hours, but I never connected the dots on why dry spinning is bad. Now I always make sure to let the cutter sit in the water for a full 90 seconds before I power down. Has anyone else had a junior moment like that where you realized you'd been doing something dumb for years?