Heard a guy on the radio talking about cutterhead wear rates

I was listening to some industry podcast from last month and a dredge master in Louisiana mentioned he was swapping out cutterhead teeth every 90 hours on a sandy job. That seemed crazy low to me, but he said the sand was just eating through them like nothing. I've been running on mostly clay and gravel mixes so I never see that kind of wear. Has anyone else dealt with that fast of tooth loss on sand jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

max_brown1mo ago

Heard a podcast where a guy in Florida said his teeth were done after 60 hours in pure silica sand.

nancyg141mo ago

That "teeth done after 60 hours" story is exactly the kind of thing people just accept now. I see it all the time, like when someone shares a crazy health hack on social media and everyone just runs with it. My neighbor started drinking some weird clay mix because a guy on a forum said it cured his back pain. It feels like we've lost the line between a wild story and actual facts.

nancyjones1mo ago

Yeah, makes me wonder if the sand grain size is the real factor here. Like, is it super fine abrasive stuff or more coarse? That detail never gets mentioned.