joel_martinez•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Tried a 10-inch cutterhead vs a 12-inch on a tight channel job last week

I was cutting a new channel through some compacted silt in a narrow marina slip in Tampa. My usual go-to is a 12-inch cutterhead, gives me the volume. But the slip was so tight with pilings every 8 feet I couldn't swing the bigger head without bumping into stuff. Swapped out for a 10-inch mid-job and man, the difference was wild. The smaller head let me get in there and trim the edges clean, plus I didn't have to keep backing up to reposition. Took me about 2 hours less than I budgeted. Anyone else find a smaller cutterhead actually works better in certain spots?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew_reed621mo ago

Yeah but did your production rate drop with the smaller head though? Sometimes you lose so much material movement that the time savings gets eaten up.

shanelee1mo ago

Is it really that deep though? Probably just needs to dial it in a bit more.

annaw731mo ago

My buddy Jake swapped to a smaller head on his Tormach and said his cycle time actually went up at first cause he lost so much movement. He ended up having to bump the RPM way higher to make it work, but then the tool started chattering like crazy.