Changed my mind about using the old cutterhead on the Lake Erie project

We were about 200 yards off the breakwall near Cleveland when the whole rig started shaking like a washing machine with a brick in it. I shut it down and found three of the old teeth had sheared clean off, jamming the works. My lead told me to just swap the teeth, but I insisted we pull the whole head and put on the spare we had. Took us six hours, but we ran smooth for the rest of the week. Anyone ever have a cutterhead failure that bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

davidh882mo ago

That's a solid call pulling the whole head. Used to think swapping teeth was enough until a partial fix cost me two days on a job. Your six hours was way smarter in the long run.

patel.leo2mo ago

Honestly davidh88, those two days might have been worth it if the partial fix saved you from a full head rebuild later.

michael_jones17d ago

You ever have one of those moments where you realize you've been doing something the hard way for years? Totally changed my mind on this after a similar call went south on me. @patel.leo probably gets it - sometimes the full swap is just peace of mind.