Pro tip: check your cutterhead teeth before you start

Spent almost 4 hours yesterday on a job that should have taken maybe 45 minutes. Client called me in for a clogged suction line on a little 8-inch cutter suction dredge. Got there, ran through all the usual stuff. Checked the pump, the vacuum, the line itself. Nothing obvious. Finally realized the cutterhead teeth were so worn down they were practically nubs. Was basically trying to dig with a spoon. Nobody had flagged it in the logbook. Replaced the teeth, thing ran like new in 15 minutes. Cost me a whole day rate but I felt dumb. Has anyone else had a simple visual check save you a ton of headache?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_craig25d ago

@brooke533 your buddy's story is exactly what I see all the time in dredging work. People forget that every single edge on a cutterhead or bucket does the actual cutting, and once it's gone you're just rubbing metal against dirt. On the suction dredge I was on, the teeth were ground down so unevenly the machine was vibrating like crazy while trying to chew through packed sand. Put new teeth on and it sliced right through in one clean pass. It's wild how something so small and cheap can save you hours of frustration and a whole day's wages.

brooke53325d ago

I mean, that "digging with a spoon" line really hit home. My buddy runs an excavator for a drainage crew, and last fall he spent like 3 hours trying to dig a trench through hard clay. Turns out his bucket teeth were so rounded off on one side from hitting gravel that he was basically just scraping the ground. He said he felt like an idiot when the foreman walked over and pointed it out.

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