Talked to an old timer on the Mississippi job last month that made me rethink my whole approach to cutterhead maintenance

I was running a 14-inch cutter on a sand bar near Baton Rouge and old Pete comes over, says 'you're burning through teeth like they're candy because you're not matching your swing speed to the material.' He showed me his logbook from 20 years ago where he tracked every single tooth change by the hour. I always just set a steady pace and hoped for the best. Now I'm actually watching the load meter and adjusting as I go. Has anyone else had a veteran operator call them out on something obvious they were missing?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas.tyler18d ago

Yeah, same thing applies to fixing anything. Slow down, watch what's happening.

elliotadams18d ago

Solid point @thomas.tyler, that's exactly it.

jake_owens18d ago

So is the key to just stop assuming you know what's wrong and actually watch the thing work first?