chumduffy playday June 9 and 10 Smethport PA

Neil,

If I recall correctly, Chum has an 80D Northwest shovel that beckons me. I hope to transition quickly from the dragline at Santa Margarita last week to trying out running a shovel this week. That will be a first for me. Looking forward to meeting some new friends and renewing acquaintances from times past. I will be attending on Saturday the 9th.

Can't wait! See you there!

JanM

Ah that'll be it Jan. Looking forward to seeing you throw some big loads. I'll see if I can back something underneath to receive it.

Anyone that attends should anticipate having a great time. The entire Duffy family are wonderful folks, and Chumbly has quite an assortment of iron to operate. One of these days I will venture East for his playdays.
Thank you for sharing Neil, and the Duffy’s for being such great hosts. One day I might be able to provide a play date as well. JM

I was out in the area last weekend and see Chum is busy as I passed several of his trucks out on the road in different areas of PA.
I hope all that attend have a great time and good weather!
One of these years I'll get my calendar dates correct so that I can attend!
Jeff

Great day at Chum's today. Caught up with Jan and Vivian first and then Chum, Jamie, AJ and their new little one (almost 1 yr old). Didn't get many pictures as we were too busy trying to run everything available!
Jan and I rolled down to the bottom end where there was a 2U and 435 scraper, and a 14A and 80 scraper sitting there idling. So we took one each! Then we swapped, and then I got on Chum's 36A with tilt blade, and then a 16 grader showed up courtesy of Gary so Jan gave me a refresher on that and then I proceeded to try to smooth the area out with .... limited success : ) That grader is a beast - as Jan said, a bulldozer on rubber. The controls were nice and tight and I imagine they felt like what brand new knuckle-busters would feel like.
Anyway, there were a couple of very interesting new pieces there. Chum picked up a 9A which is the same serial # prefix as the Antarctic units of Glen's as I understand it, and this is the designation given to govt. 14As. Engine was stuck so Chum's son James was busy freeing it up. Couple of pictures - I didn't realize these things were still running main springs. Also got some shots of an Oliver - can't remember what the model was but it was a big one with a 6-cyl Hercules with Ricardo combustion chambers, and a double drum CCU from Heil

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Jan and I visited Chum's play day yesterday (and he's there again today) and I had a question for the operators amongst us that I completely forgot to ask Chum before I left.

Once dumping (spreading to the skilled I guess : ) is completed, is it expected that the operator will feather the ejector back to the rear and feather the apron down? (I set the apron about a foot open anyway for the next load) Reason I ask is because I was trying to do that yesterday and wasn't always able to time it right so it returned a bit hard, and also because it seems "rough" for the ejector to clang into the rear end of the scraper body. Is it hard on the return springs or other components? Seems like one of those soft close features would be good and maybe that's how modern scrapers are designed.

I'd like to be invited back so I don't want to ruin Chum's equipment (or anybody's for that matter) with sloppy operator skills.

Jan and I visited Chum's play day yesterday (and he's there again today) and I had a question for the operators amongst us that I completely forgot to ask Chum before I left.

Once dumping (spreading to the skilled I guess : ) is completed, is it expected that the operator will feather the ejector back to the rear and feather the apron down? (I set the apron about a foot open anyway for the next load) Reason I ask is because I was trying to do that yesterday and wasn't always able to time it right so it returned a bit hard, and also because it seems "rough" for the ejector to clang into the rear end of the scraper body. Is it hard on the return springs or other components? Seems like one of those soft close features would be good and maybe that's how modern scrapers are designed.

I'd like to be invited back so I don't want to ruin Chum's equipment (or anybody's for that matter) with sloppy operator skills.

[quote="Neil"]Jan and I visited Chum's play day yesterday (and he's there again today) and I had a question for the operators amongst us that I completely forgot to ask Chum before I left.

Once dumping (spreading to the skilled I guess : ) is completed, is it expected that the operator will feather the ejector back to the rear and feather the apron down? (I set the apron about a foot open anyway for the next load) Reason I ask is because I was trying to do that yesterday and wasn't always able to time it right so it returned a bit hard, and also because it seems "rough" for the ejector to clang into the rear end of the scraper body. Is it hard on the return springs or other components? Seems like one of those soft close features would be good and maybe that's how modern scrapers are designed.

I'd like to be invited back so I don't want to ruin Chum's equipment (or anybody's for that matter) with sloppy operator skills.[/quote]

Feathering is the way to go but it sometimes it is hard to do until the rust and the boogys, that seem to grow when the machine sets for a while, get worn off the brake drums. Usually after a few loads they lower quite nice provided the CCU's are in reasonable shape and properly adjusted.

Hi Neil.
O-I-H has it right but there is another consideration too in just how freely the cable drum rolls when the brake is released. I was running one yesterday for a while that had about the free-est running cable drum that I have ever encountered - release the brake and both ejector and apron were right back in under a second - try feathering that.

Just my 0.02.