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Old hand on the dredge line gave me advice I still use

I was working a job up near Green Bay back in 2019 and this guy named Walt must have been 65. He pointed at my cutter head and said you are running that thing too fast for the material. I told him I was just trying to keep production up. He walked over and dropped the RPMs by half himself and told me to watch the slurry. Within 20 minutes my pump pressure evened out and I was pulling way more material with less wear. I still hear his voice every time I get impatient on a tough cut. Any of you older guys got a tip like that from someone early on?

3 comments

3 Comments

seanjohnson14d ago

Oh that’s a good one. My first boss on a forestry mulching crew gave me a similar talking to. He watched me bog the machine down on a heavy pine stand and just shook his head. He said I was trying to eat the whole meal in one bite instead of chewing it slow. Dropped my drum speed about 30 percent and told me to let the teeth do the work. Felt dumb at first but the machine barely broke a sweat after that. Still feel like that old guy is standing over my shoulder every time I start pushing too hard.

vera_lewis13d ago

Did you ever read that old article about how veteran loggers used to train guys by having them run chainsaws with the chain removed first? I saw it in some forestry magazine years ago. It stuck with me because the idea was the same as what that boss told you. They wanted folks to learn the feel of the machine before adding power. Sounds like that old guy you had knew the same trick. Slow down, let the teeth bite, and the machine tells you what it needs. Funny how the best lessons come from getting told you're doing it wrong first.

cameron42614d ago

@seanjohnson that reminds me, ever notice how the older guys always say the same thing but in totally different words? Walt told me to listen to the machine instead of trying to boss it around.