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Saw a cutterhead rebuild at the Baltimore harbor that made me rethink my whole winter setup
Was down at the Baltimore harbor last Thursday watching a crew pull a 28 inch cutterhead for a rebuild. What got me was they had a full teardown table set up on the barge, everything laid out in order, not one bolt rolling around. I usually do the same job on a tarp in the mud with a headlamp, so it was like watching a different trade. They told me the head had 1,400 hours on it and the wear pattern was even all the way around, which almost never happens in my spots. Made me think the way you set up your work area matters as much as the cut itself. Curious if anyone else has switched to a portable bench setup for field rebuilds or if I'm just overthinking it.
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casey3421mo ago
Worked plenty of jobs where a bench setup would have been dead weight. You're talking about a harbor barge with calm water and a crew of guys. Try hauling a teardown table through a marsh at low tide with a two man crew and tell me how that goes. That even wear at 1,400 hours isn't the table's doing, it's the ground they're cutting, clean soil with no rock or rebar chewing up one side. Guys get fooled into thinking the setup is the magic when it's really just easier conditions. A tarp and a headlamp has rebuilt thousands of heads and will keep doing it. Losing one bolt in the mud costs you five minutes, hauling a table you don't need costs you the whole day.
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