milestaylor•24d agoMost Upvoted

Just realized my cutter head pitch was off by 2 degrees for the last six months

I was digging through my maintenance logs from the Green River job last spring and noticed my production numbers dropped around the same time I swapped cutter heads. Turns out I never rechecked the pitch after the swap and it was dragging the whole operation down. Has anyone else found a quick field check for cutter head angle that doesn't require hauling out the laser level?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.laura24d ago

Pump the brakes a little here. I've been in the field a long time and a 2 degree pitch error on a cutter head is usually not some huge catastrophe. You might see a small dip in efficiency, yeah, but it's not like you're suddenly digging sideways. I bet your production numbers dropping had more to do with the Green River formation being harder or maybe your feed pressure was off. Most guys I know just eyeball the angle against a reference mark they paint on the head and call it good enough for a quick check. Unless you're doing some super precise finish work, 2 degrees is in the noise.

felixfisher24d ago

Kinda funny you say that @garcia.laura, reminds me of something that happened to an old buddy of mine who works at a small outfit down in Texas. He was having issues with his cutter head, swore up and down a 1.5 degree misalignment was why his tonnage was tanking. Spent a whole weekend fussing with it, shimming everything, then finally realized his water injection valve was clogged with scale the whole time. He felt real stupid, but he still swears by that painted mark trick you mentioned, says it's saved him more than once out in the field.

miles94623d agoTop Commenter

Used to be one of those guys who'd chase alignment numbers down to the tenth of a degree, thought that was the only way to spot a problem. Then I had a similar deal with a feeder belt slipping, wasted two days tweaking pulleys before finding a cracked idler bearing that was dragging everything down. Man, your buddy's story about the scale clog really hits home, it's always the simple stuff you overlook first when you're staring at gauges. Ever find yourself doing the same kind of tunnel vision thing on a job?