My old foreman told me to always run the cutter head at half speed in rocky ground, but a new guy said full power is better.

We were working a stretch of the Ohio River last fall, pulling up a lot of broken limestone. The foreman's way kept the teeth from chipping, but it was slow. The new operator, Jake, said he'd always run full power and just check the teeth more often. I tried his method on a small section and we finished that cut a day early, but we did lose two teeth. Who's right here? Is saving time worth the extra wear and tear?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivershah11d agoMost Upvoted

Used to side with the foreman until we had a deadline on a dredge job. Running slower saved the teeth, but the cost of an extra day's fuel and crew time was more than a set of new cutter teeth. The math changed my mind.

the_barbara11d ago

Oh man, I read a whole thing about that exact trade-off.