Had an old-timer at the yard tell me my dredge cutterhead was too sharp last month

He said the teeth need some wear to actually grab the material right instead of just polishing it. I backed off the pressure and changed the tooth angle a bit, and my production went up like 15%. Has anyone else had that happen with a new cutterhead?

2 comments

2 Comments

willow_martin9d ago

Oh man that brings back something from a few years back when I got a brand new set of teeth on my excavator bucket and spent the first week wondering why I couldn't dig for crap. The guy running the shop next to mine told me to take a grinder to the edges and knock the sharp off them. I thought he was nuts but after I did it everything started grabbing like it should. Something about new steel being too slippery on the surface until it gets that micro rust and wear pattern going. The old timers definitely know their stuff even when it sounds backwards.

robert_rodriguez669d ago

The micro rust thing is real but it's not about the surface being slippery exactly. New steel has a super smooth factory finish that doesn't let dirt pack into the microscopic grooves like worn metal does. Once you knock that glaze off with a grinder or just run it a while you get that friction back. The old timers call it "breaking in" a bucket and they're right that sharp edges actually dig worse than slightly dull ones because they slide through material instead of catching it. Your shop neighbor knew what he was talking about even if it sounds backwards at first.