Just realized my cutterhead bearings were shot after a job in Mobile last month

I was running a 12-inch cutterhead on a project in Mobile last month and the vibration got worse every day. Finally pulled the shaft and found the bearings were completely pitted, probably from water ingress I ignored back in April. Anyone else had bearings go bad faster after running in heavy clay for a few weeks?

2 comments

2 Comments

caseywest25d ago

I had a set of bearings go bad on a 10-inch cutterhead back in 2017 after three weeks in some nasty Florida clay. The shop guy said the clay packed in so tight it basically cooked the grease out.

caseywest25d ago

The "cooked the grease out" part really got me, I used to think bearings just wore out over time.