Tried a different cutterhead angle on a sand job and it changed the whole shift

I run a 12 inch cutter suction dredge on the Mississippi, mostly dealing with sand and gravel. Last week we were struggling with production, pulling maybe 80 yards an hour and the pump was surging. My old foreman always said to run the cutterhead at a 30 degree angle for sand, but I decided to try 20 degrees just to see what would happen. The difference was immediate. The pump settled down and we hit 130 yards an hour for the rest of the shift. No idea why it worked better but it did. Has anyone else played around with cutterhead angles on sand and seen results like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

rubybarnes3d ago

Bet he'd have a heart attack seeing that 130 yards an hour on his old numbers. Guess 30 degrees isn't some magic number after all.

the_dylan3d ago

My grandad used to think anything over 100 was witchcraft, still remember him muttering about "shooting from a hot stove" when i showed him a slow-mo video lol.