Vent: A job on the Mississippi near St. Louis completely changed how I check my cutterhead

Honestly, we were pulling up a lot of weird, twisted metal and old cable that had been down there for years. My foreman, a guy named Carl, told me to stop the pump and just look at the teeth for five minutes after every two hours of runtime. Ngl, I thought it was a waste of time. But after we found a piece of rebar that had cracked three teeth and nearly wrecked the drive shaft, I do it every single shift now. Anyone else have a specific schedule for cutter checks on tough material?

3 comments

3 Comments

jason_stone595d ago

Why stop the whole pump just to look at it? That seems like overkill when you could just listen for a change in the sound. I'd rather keep the job moving and fix things if they actually break.

the_robert5d ago

You ever think that sound change means it's already breaking?

derek_lee5d ago

A worn bearing can seize and cost ten times more than a quick check.