everyone at some time has done something stupid and right after you say to yourself, what was i thinking? I was milling down a city street and milled right over a manhole that i painted out, was looking right at it, new it was there, and for some reason just spaced out and chewed it right up. Ha, i felt like an idiot.
After being in milling for 10 years now, I have always had a great deal of respect for these machines and the damage they could cause you if you got tangled up in one if you lost your concentration. well, last august I had my "blonde moment", got in a hurry and stuck my foot under the endslide/side plate to clear out material with the drum running...hence my username. spent a couple days in the hospital. Everyone has bad days and stupid mistakes, including me, that was just my worst and hopefully my last. It has definitely renewed my respect for mills.
worked with a company in Fort Wayne, Indiana that was lime stabilizing the ground and hit a 12 inch gas main, not a good day.
hmmm....theres so many....where to start... While trying to get turned around in Providence RI, the third Wirtgen I had ever run back in 2002, I was always taught on 4 lane roads you do not need to tie up the whole road to turn. So I cut into the close lane of on comming traffic and backed up, I didn't take into consideration that the swing ratio on the conveyor of Wirtgen mills isnt very good, I clipped a utility pole and almost took it down.:O I got a hard learning up there, some of the streets we were milling were less than 12ft wide, we had all trailer dump trucks to work with but we got through it
We've laid a Roadtec RX50 over on its side.....twice. /facepalm. On one job I was running in a small town, a utility contractor had been through just before us and patched over a blow off valve. 20' geyser on Main St after the CMI hit it. Whoops.
PR1000 - trying to figure out why the drum wouldn't engage for 15 minutes (the 3412 engine wasn't runing)
HAHA...wow...
Dumbest for sure... Too run a milling machine ahead of a concrete widening/slab pour for I-385. It was horrible to use a mill to cut subgrade in dirt then bounce back to asphalt. Over and over and over....
Going to work for a company I was told 12 years ago wasn't worth a hell, DUMB!
We have a RayGo Gator with a 8V92 Detroit in it. It's really supposed to be a reclaimer for dirt but we put an asphalt drum under it and we've acutally been using it like that for 10 years. I haven't operated more than a couple hours on it so i can't say that i have any personal screw ups but the first guy we ever had operate it would always always always hit manholes. It seemed like every street he did he would take out a couple of them. And every time he would hit one it would snap both of the drive chains on the drum.
I am reminded of a chip seal company chipping the wrong road by mistake, it was done before anyone from the county noticed. lol
When I first started spraying tack in the early 90's. I was told to spray an area from here to there......Well the foreman never told me to stop at the bridge deck that was in the middle. Being a newbie I sprayed across the bridge deck. ointhead
So me and this fella are running a W2100 in North Scottsdale last friday, end of a 14 hour day he says too me "thanks for sticking around till the end today". I'm like *** is this dudes problem? They put a machine on the lowboy without a washdown. I couldn't even being to list all the work that W2100 needs, half a day in the shop would get it to decent shape most likely. So earlier this well trained Wirtgen operator cut right through the crown of the road at full width 200ft from a main intersection, dug a few holes 25ft ahead and behind of that screwup because he would forget to cut the switch back on after shutting it off. Turning around at one end of the job where the mouldboard had grabbed some dirt he won't even look in my direction and cuts the tracks HARD in the dirt making a mess of it....This is all on city streets work too... It was kinda funny on that pull when he went into the crown at full width, The front track gets too the yellow line and I motion to cut the machine straight and go from there, He ignores me, I bring both sides up a little bit and walk over to the paving supt who is standing not far away and start to discuss how to fix the mouldboard digs into the dirt.....we have a 30 second convo and I see his eyes lighting up as he watches the path the mill is cutting...He starts running towards the mill with both fists in the air screaming STOPPP!!!! It was actually hilarious.
Oops... Last night coming into a 4 lane intersection with the belly dump squeezing over to aviod the cones I lost the painted skip line, so I stayed with the permanent white skip lines....when the truck pulled away I wound up 3 ft off the painted line.... I was king screw up last nite
setting down the drum of a 500 with both rear legs up well above the pavement- then engaging the drum- luckily nothing was behind me just a little scare.
Haha...oops and weee
Years ago (1998 or 1999) when I was at the Miller Group in Atlanta, they had a Roadtec RX60 on rental from Roadtec because they had so much work. Being I was the only one with any Roadtec experience they made me run it more often then not. MIller were hardcore CMI people and swore they would NEVER lower themselves to Roadtec. We were excavating on SR 19/41 just south of Atlanta by the speedway, I'm backing it up and loving the fact it has a rear steer lever mounted on the backside of the operators console so you really don't have to turn around much after you get the front tracks straight....except to watch the boom just miss a utility pole....oops.... But getting back to the beginning of the area being removed I get lined up while the groundman gets the water truck and pulls it up behind the machine. We load up with water and disconnect, walk towards the joint. lower the ass end to zero, flip switches.....why isn't it coming down? Without shutting the switches off I peek over the side and see one of the skis is jammed in the up position and while I'm looking at it...it lets go...before I can reach the auto's the machine just instantly falls to the ground. I'm on my @ss on the console being thrown around while its traveling backwards on the turning drum....missed the front of the rented water truck by less than a foot when the engine finally stalled/stopped. Groundman nearly had to go to the hospital from laffin so hard...I had to go change my pants.
Thanks for sharing, milling drum. The truth will set you free! One of these days I might share my best screw up. It's been years, but I'm still not too keen on telling the tale.
Working for a big milling operation like that, it didn't even rate as a big deal too them. They wanted to get rid of that machine ASAP. After we ran the S@@T out of it pretty much all summer day and nite, Roadtec rented it out to East Coast Milling in Florida, they ran it 3 hours and the lower conveyor belt split right up the middle for a few feet.....That amused me very much Come on Bro, tell us your sins hahaha....I've got PLENTY more too add when others fess up some more
After milling from about 6pm to 6 am I drove to pickup our hydraulics field tech to help troubleshoot a pump that wasn't working on a recycler. I managed to change the rotation of our spare pump by about noon the next day and install it only to find out the POS still didn't work.... I had changed the wrong pump (there is 3 of the same model/size) the one i wanted was on the other side of the engine. Usually I am a bit sharper *** slept 2 hours and back for some more work
Hi everyone. I was pretty excited when a friend told me about this site. I figured a good way to start out would be to admit the dumbest thing I have done with a mill. A few years ago I was doing a mill and fill on I-75 in Dayton Ohio. I was a little nervous since this was my first night job and that area Rt 4 and I-75 was know for crashes. Anyway when it was time to start I had the crew set the machine in the cut and go. As usual as soon as that 800-7 was tearing up the road I calmed down. Then the paving foreman came up to me and asked if I was sure that I had started in the right spot. I had backed the machine up past the beginning of the job to the wrong bridge . I learned not to get nervous. And to look for an arrow painted on the road.
Hahahaha thats hilarious. Seems like these days they usually just argue as to where to start and then don't tell you until after your 400 ft down the road they wanted a taper (ramp). Good one.
BTW a big Welcome to 76 Milling. Glad to see you are enjoying this website!
Well not our mill but our sub's 2100 blew a conveyor swing cylinder yesterday (I should have took a picture but I was too worried about production), it blew hydrolic fluid everywhere. Had to drain both and push the conveyor straight with a backhoe then lock it down with a chain binder. It sucked in the turns but for a quick fix on a saturday with no parts availability it did the job. Get-R-Done mentality I guess.
You gotta do what cha gotta do to get r done
No parts huh? Must have been a Wirtgen, all the American made mills are pretty easy to get parts for or....they usually carry a few goodies with them...the mill subs.
Think the strangest thing I've done with a mill is excavate a football field with a 525 cmi so they could install fake turf, think we ate two drum bearings on that job but the drum sure polished up nice! Also I've used a w1200 to grind stumps at Stanford U
Wirtgen and on the weekend.
This is really a dumbest action. Nobody can think till this point. But for sure it made me laugh for a long time, even I am laughing right now. ____________________________ Skip Hire Dublin
dumbest mistake we were milling city streets in albq new mex and there were burried grenades everywhere(manholes) WELL WE HAD marked most of them out, and were were just running around with the mill and trimming them out. I would just pick the front legs up a little and hit 3 od's to got to the next one. well I passed over one with the od's on, and forgot the moldboard is still close to the ground if you dont lift up the ass end. well with 3 od's on and you grab the manhole with the moldboard it really messes it up. Took two days of welding and heating it up to get it semi strait. It was never the same. Luckily we live by the motto what happns out of town stays out of town and I never got in trouble.
I got ran over by a belly dump trailer we had just loaded...He was moving on an angle when the cab passed me I had 4 feet but when the trailer came by it ran over my left foot and ankle and my right leg right above the ankle...it still hurts like a bitch standin up on the mill for 12 hours but I sit as often as I can. freakin blind ass truckers
Hauling five full length logs to a spot with an older 680 backhoe. All chained up to hoe lifted logs on one end. I was reversed in seat, machine in gear and running the hand throttle...hit a dip in ground and over goes machine on side. Other than dumping 25 gallons of fuel, pride was hurt. A neighbor farmer had a skidder and hooked winch over rear tire, and uprighted it for me...not a good day.
Well At times you have to wonder, they sent me to run a mill that has a stripped engine oil plug. The mouldboard looks horrible from all the oil leaking down on it and then obviously you check the engine oil because you have to run it all day like it is. Seems like this type of thing is ok for some.... http://youtu.be/SEn2XHQS7y4
You use less water when you throw a little oil in the mix.
Just think of what I've shared with you recently Andoman, it almost makes this stuff look little league. hahasha Ya@oil, helps the teeth rotate too