Finally got the swing right on the old 8-inch cutterhead after a month of fighting it.

I had to choose between running it at 12 RPM with a high load or dropping to 9 RPM and accepting slower progress, and going slower actually let me chew through the clay shelf without a single stall last Friday.

3 comments

3 Comments

mary83615d ago

Yeah, that "just letting the machine grumble through it" line from charles326 really hit home for me. I had a similar situation with my 8-inch last spring where I kept trying to muscle through this hard packed gravel bed and it would just kick back and die on me every time. Dropping from 10 RPM down to 7 RPM felt like a huge step backwards at first, but after that first smooth pass I realized the slow grind was way better than fighting it for hours. It's funny how counterintuitive it feels to go slower when everything in you wants to push harder, but the clay doesn't care about your hurry. That steady pressure without the violent shaking is what saved my bearings too, olivias88 is right about that part.

charles3263mo ago

Yeah, I had the same fight with a stubborn seam last year. Ended up backing my feed rate way down and just letting the machine grumble through it at its own pace. That slow, steady pressure got it done where forcing it just dug me a deeper hole.

olivias883mo ago

Wait, you were running it at 12 RPM before? That's wild. I can't believe it didn't just shake itself apart. My old rig would have thrown a bearing in five minutes trying to push that hard into clay. Slowing down is the only thing that works sometimes, even if it feels wrong.