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That sticky clay layer that ate my whole Tuesday shift
I was working a small harbor job near Port Townsend last week, clearing silt near a boat ramp. Everything was fine until I hit this dense blue clay layer about 8 feet down that just would NOT break up. My cutterhead kept bogging down and I spent almost 5 hours just trying to get through 3 feet of it. Had to call a buddy who runs a bigger rig to ask if he'd dealt with this before. Anyone else run into surprise clay layers that mess with your flow rate?
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paige1666h ago
Ugh man that blue clay is the worst. I've hit it a few times near Bainbridge and it's like trying to dredge concrete. What worked for me was slowing my swing speed way down and making real shallow cuts. If you try to hog through it your cutterhead will just lock up. Also keeping the suction running a little higher helped break the seal it creates.
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lucast815h ago
Bet the clay composition varies by depth more than people realize.
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torres.blair4h ago
My buddy Jake was working on a job down near the Mobile River delta last year and hit this patch of grayish clay that was so dense his auger literally stalled out twice. He said it felt more like drilling into wet concrete than soil. He had to switch to a smaller bit and basically let the cutterhead just tickle the surface for about 20 minutes before it finally broke through. When he pulled the core sample, the clay was layered with little shells and stuff, which he figured made it bind up worse than the pure stuff you get inland. He still talks about that job like it was a nightmare but it's kind of funny now.
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