seanperry•19d agoProlific Poster

Saved a 12-inch cutterhead from a mud plug in Biloxi last Wednesday

We were digging out a marina channel near Biloxi when the suction dropped to almost nothing. I shut down the pump and found the cutterhead completely packed with clay and oyster shells. Took me and the deckhand 45 minutes with a pressure washer to clear it out. The old timer on night shift told me to run the pump at half speed for the first 10 minutes after a restart to let the material break up. It worked, we got back on schedule by noon. Anyone else deal with clay plugs or is it mostly sand where you work?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy15419d ago

I read about a crew in Louisiana that swore by using a thinner mud mix for the first few minutes after a restart, something about letting the clay particles stay suspended instead of settling back into the cutterhead.

eric_wright7719d ago

Joke all you want but I've definitely pulled a few bonehead moves like that myself... I remember one time on a restart I mixed the mud too thin and ended up with a soupy mess that took twice as long to set up right. That Louisiana crew might have been onto something though, keeping those clay particles floating for the first bit beats having them settle into a hard clump at the cutterhead. Still, I'd rather have a thicker mix and deal with a little cleanup than risk a jam that takes half the day to dig out.