Spent a full shift just trying to clear a jammed cutterhead on the Willamette job

Got a massive log wedged in the head on the Portland dredge. Thought it was a quick fix, maybe an hour. Took the whole 10 hour shift. Had to cut it out piece by piece with torches. Anyone else dealt with river debris that just won't quit?

3 comments

3 Comments

lily3942mo agoTop Commenter

Whole 10 hour shift" seems like a lot for one log. Are we sure the torches were the best call? Sometimes you can work smarter with a chain and a winch instead of just burning through it.

lewis.drew2mo ago

Understand the chain idea, but a winch can pull the whole machine out of line. Cutting it out piece by piece is slow, but it's the safe play when you're on the water.

abbyr961mo ago

Honestly, nobody's talking about the water level. On a lake or river, your machine's sitting on the bottom mud, right? That mud shifts. So if you winch a whole log out, it can suck down into the silt and make a crater under your tracks. Then you're stuck way worse off than before. Torches are slow but they keep everything stable because you're not yanking the whole thing at once. Plus, cutting piece by piece lets you see how deep that log really goes. Sometimes they're way longer than you think, like a hidden tree trunk that just keeps going down into the muck. So yeah, slow and safe beats fast and stuck on the water.