Unpopular opinion: most guys on here are way too careful with their cutterhead clearance

I watched a guy at the Port of Savannah spend 45 minutes setting his drag arm clearance to 1/16th of an inch when the material was pure sand and clay, then he still blamed the dredge when the pump clogged up two hours later - has anyone else seen this overthinking kill production on simple jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

willow1143mo ago

Damn, an hour on drag arm clearance in pure sand? That's insane.

kaiharris3mo agoMost Upvoted

Forty five minutes on drag arm clearance in sand and clay is wild. I watched a guy on a job up in the Columbia River do the same thing, he had a dial indicator out and everything on a straight silt bed. Meanwhile the rest of us already had the cutterhead moving and were pulling material, he's still fiddling with shims. Then his pump cavitated inside an hour because he was so worried about the clearance he ran the drag arm too high. Some guys just get stuck in their own heads and forget the material tells you everything you need to know. Let the dredge work, it's a shovel not a watchmaker.

-1

max4152mo ago

Hang on though, you're mixing up two different things. Drag arm clearance and pump cavitation aren't really connected like that. If the pump was cavitating, it's more about suction issues or speed, not how high the arm is set. The clearance is about keeping the cutter teeth from digging into the bottom, not the pump.