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Last week a 1/2 inch rock jammed my cutterhead for 4 hours | Dredge Operators - SMM Buzz

Last week a 1/2 inch rock jammed my cutterhead for 4 hours

I was working a dredge job on the Ohio River near Paducah last Tuesday and hit a nasty clay layer. A 1/2 inch piece of hard shale got wedged in my cutterhead teeth and stalled the whole rig. Took me and my deckhand 4 hours to clear it out with pry bars and a torch. Anybody got tips for spotting that kind of material before the cutter hits it?

3 comments

3 Comments

dylanmurray3mo ago

@nancy_ross you mentioned watching the spoil color, that's a good tip. I'm usually too busy wondering why my cutter sounds like it's grinding gravel to notice the color of the mud coming off it. You'd think after 15 years I'd learn to pay attention, but I still end up feeling like the guy who brings a butter knife to a gunfight every time a rock shows up.

nancy_ross3mo ago

Man, I feel you on that. "1/2 inch rock jammed my cutterhead" - that's the kind of thing that makes you want to throw your hard hat in the river. Same thing happened to me on a Mississippi job near Vicksburg, except it was a piece of old railroad spike someone must've dumped years ago. That tiny piece of metal locked everything up tight and we spent a good 5 hours torching and prying it out. For spotting that stuff, I watch for sudden changes in the color of the spoil coming off the cutter. If you see dark streaks or little bits of metal or glass, you know there's junk mixed in. Also, I slow way down if the vibration changes to a more rattly feel. It makes you look dumb but it's saved my ass more than once.

evan_wilson183mo ago

Had a similar thing happen up in Maine once, except it was an old rusted anchor chain from some long-forgotten wreck. Took us two shifts to cut it all out. Funny how the smallest stuff stops everything dead.