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Finally caught that silt buildup in the discharge line before it clogged on the Houston job
Was running a 12 inch cutterhead near the ship channel last Thursday and noticed the pressure gauge dropping slowly, so I stopped early and found a half ton of packed sand and clay wedged in the elbow, which the other guys kept blaming on the pump instead of checking the line first, anyone else deal with operators skipping the simple checks?
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the_mary2mo ago
Hang on, I gotta push back a little on the "half ton" thing. A 12 inch cutterhead, even packed solid with sand and clay, isn't going to hold a thousand pounds in just the elbow. That's more like 200, maybe 300 pounds tops if it's really wedged in there. I've cleared enough of those lines to know you're probably thinking of the whole discharge run, not just the bend. But you're dead right about skipping the simple checks, though. We had a guy spend two days swapping pumps before someone finally looked inside the pipe and found a busted wad of poly sheeting.
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the_elizabeth19d ago
Two days swapping pumps before someone checked the pipe." Yeah, that sounds about right for how we do things. (Gotta love the "try everything except the obvious" approach, am I right?)
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milar462mo ago
lol reminds me of when my buddy swore his truck was misfiring but it was just a loose gas cap the whole time. Three trips to the shop before he checked it.
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