Shoutout to the old timer in Mobile who told me to run the cutter head slower in clay

He said 'you'll get more done with less wear if you drop to 8 RPM in that gumbo'. I was on a job near the bay and the clay was clogging everything. Tried his advice for a day and the pump stayed clear. Saved us a bunch of downtime from cleaning jams. Anyone else have a trick for heavy clay bottoms?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice_mitchell1mo ago

That's a solid tip about the slower RPM. I'm curious about the pump staying clear though. Did you have to change anything else, like the slurry mix or the amount of water you were adding, to make that work? Or was it literally just slowing the cutter head down that fixed the clogging all by itself?

maxw341mo ago

My buddy Mark in Tacoma had the same pump clog every other day. He dropped his cutter head speed to 280 RPM as a last ditch fix. He told me he didn't change the slurry or water mix at all, just that one setting. The pump ran clear for three straight weeks after that. The slower cut just made smaller chips that moved through the system easier. It was a simple fix that saved him a ton of downtime.

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james_ross11d ago

Mark's fix proves @alice_mitchell right. Just the RPM change.