My mentor's quick advice about cutterhead speed saved my last job

I was talking to an old timer named Jerry at the shop in Baton Rouge last month, and he pointed out that I was running my cutterhead too fast in that heavy clay we hit. He said it just chews up the teeth and kicks up silt clouds without gaining any advance rate. Has anyone else found a sweet spot for RPM in different materials, or do you just go by feel?

2 comments

2 Comments

christophermorgan15d ago

Have you thought about how the water table affects the cutterhead speed? I noticed on a job in the Mississippi Delta that dropping the RPM by about 20 percent in wet clay actually helped the auger clear better and reduced the mud packing on the flights. Jerry's right about the teeth wear but I also think the material's moisture content changes the whole dynamic. For dry sandy soils I keep it up around 60 RPM but as soon as the ground gets sticky I back way off and let the torque do the work instead.

sandra_black15d agoMost Upvoted

Oh yeah, does the water table just wreck everything when you're trying to keep a steady rhythm?