I'm glad you seem to have worked your way into a lifetime supply of machines to fix (although it looks to me like HARD work) but I'm left with a question. Namely, are these machines WAY underdesigned, or do the operators abuse them by running them until they nearly fall apart?
Tim
This one and another of the big grinders are 30 years old. These have 25K lb mills driven with a twin turbo V-12 Cats, cranked they're over 1700 hp burning 75+ gallons an hour, grinding 1000 yards an hr. (all 8 grinders have twin turbo V-12 Cats)
They have 8 grinders with 5, 3 - 4 man grinding crews. Five grinders running every day, 2 being touched up and pulled to the next job, one in the shop being rebuilt, Can take a year or so to rebuild the one in worse condition. The smallest grinder weighs 40 tons, the rest go from 45 ton to 55 ton each. The grinders get pushed hard, they the employees) work 50 hrs a week. Engineering wise they are built solid and are maxed out on weight. 1/2" AR ((3/8" backer) plate in the shute under the mill is a consumable on these machines. It can last 2 years as long as the mill doesn't let go of something or they stick a grappler in the mill.
The 3 ribs in the shute were 1"" AR.
They have been replaced 4 times in this grinders life, I'll be repairing these in this run. Were not changing them this time, this also isn't the worse I was talking about.
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There is a lot more insight I could give you on these machines but I've posted a lot of it already. Just the vibration these machines put out is intimidating with the mill balanced. Running 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week is hard on them. But thats also why the cost 1 mil to 1.7 mil a piece. lol
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