Had a senior operator tear into me for my swing speed on the 6-inch dredge

He said I was chewing up the cutter head by running it too fast through hard clay. I slowed it down by half and the wear bars lasted three times longer. Anybody else get told to slow down and actually saw better numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.felix1mo ago

and yeah running a 6 inch through hard clay is a whole different beast. i used to blast through at full throttle thinking i was getting more done but ended up swapping cutter teeth every other shift. finally an old timer told me to cut the speed by a third and its night and day. not just the teeth either the whole machine runs cooler and smoother. its counterintuitive but slow is actually fast in heavy material.

the_thea1mo ago

Yeah slowing down on hard clay saves cutter teeth big time, I learned that the hard way too.