Bayston Hill Quarry/Walters

[Hammer man]

Here as promised are some pics of Tarmacs Bayston Hill Quarry,Shrewsbury.Bit of a slow week for us on the crusher.Only crushed 4000 tons & the hammers wore out on my impactor hammer!!Spent all day fri replacing them & some wear plates.Finally got the crusher to the proper crushing area this morning.About a mile & a half across the site in the photos,dodging the Walters dumpers.My legs were well worn after THAT walk We have a good few months at least crushing.I have the JCB 330 which has not been too bad after all.Its not in the same league as a Hitachi or Volvo,but its doing the job ok,but has a few issues after 4500 hrs.We also have a Volvo L120E,& the Nordberg/Metso LT1213 impactor.Have been getting 1550 tons a day so far through the crusher.
Walters have been on site for about 6 months now.Stripping overburden & landscaping the perimeter in the photos for the quarry extension.They still have about 8 mths left.They have 2 Cat 385 BLME`s,1 Hitachi ZX350/3,& a Komatsu PC210/8,a Cat D8T,2 x D6R`s,3 A40E`s,1 A40D,& 2 x A30E`s.
The 2 385`s are not fairing too well.The one in the photos had the track motor seals blow.Took about 2 hrs to strip the motor off.The working 385 is working at about 50% capacity.It has plenty of digging power,its just working at half speed with the engine hunting & hydraulics screaming.Something about valve blocks/spools or something they reckon.But they need to use it because of the other 385 being off the road.
Will add some more pics when i can.

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[argie]

Nice photos Neil, looks a bit shitty down there!

[Hammer man]

Actully tracked the crusher right across the site in the photos.A few soft spots but hard clay mostly.Theres a 4 or so inch of wet clay/gloop on the surface where we are now in the pics.The L120E is sliding all over the place.I will open the crusher up mon morn to max & crush around 200tons of big rock so we can spread it around a bit on the floor.To much fines in it at 75mm.Hopefully by the end of mon we will have the area a bit more tidy underfoot.
No luck with a visit yet Paul . But the access road around the site is good & a puplic right of way.

[BulldozerD11]

Hi neil looks lovely conditions for a bit of surgery on hydraulics.

Crushed stone obviously in short supply in a quarry, and having the right paper is more important than a safe working area round machines as any accidents are then somebody elses fault, as bit of paper deflects blame nicely

Suppose scraping 'gloop' off just opens up a new layer to turn sticky when it rains and most of it will be from the frost coming out. Take it they are not stripping overburden right down to rock yet ? or is it just trafficed in from the haulers ?

Dave

[argie]

There's a new bloke starting there soon, ex LaFarge, Jason. He used to be at Graig quarry near Mold as under manager.
The public right of way sounds good, just need to pick a dry, bright, day...........
Paul

[Hammer man]

Prior to putting the crusher as is in the pics,the D6 came along & cleaned it up.But as you can see from 45 mins of crushing & running the L120 around,its just churned in all up again.Theres plenty of stone in the quarry,but they dont want to use the good stone for haul roads & our area.The stone we are crushing is sub standard,so we can spread that around.The clay is firm,but as you said Dave,the top layer just goes wet & gloopy after this snow & freezing weather,as the water just sits on top of the clay
Walters have stripped down to the hard rock in places,so some of the site is all over the place with levels etc.They are creating a large "bund" around the site with the clay they are digging out,& stockpiling the rest for future reinstatement works.I will try to get some more pics this week.

[Neversweat]

That looks like T.C Tractors normal working conditions Just needs to rain

Steve

[Hammer man]

Well,i`m about half way through the first shot now,averaging around 1500 tons a day.I`d like to now put the crusher on the road where the PC600 is in the photos & work my way back through the shot,but the quarry are still loading away there so i`m having to high load the crusher(sat on the same level as the crusher).It is`nt ideal,but still getting good tonage through.Hopefully we will be here for months.The area/ridge that we are crushing extends for around a mile to the far end of the site & is all sub standard rock.I`m having another blast to crush,when we near the end of the current blast pile.
The crusher is eating itself from the inside out.New hammers to fit on monday along with loads of wear plates.The JCB is performing good,but have had a few breakdowns,the digger,crusher & now air in the fuel system on the L120E.
Got a nice hole in the base of the bucket now,& the side joins need some welding.The bucket base is very thin & worn,but it is double skinned.
The L120E is a 2003 with 4000 hrs,the crusher is a 2004 with 7400 hrs,& the JCB 330 is a 2007 with 4100 hrs.The crusher weighs around 42 tons.The Komatsu PC600 is the same machine as in some previous posts/pics with my Hitachi 350.
Will get some pics of the hammer change & work on the crusher tomorrow

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[Hammer man]

Well,another slow week Changed the crusher hammers & 4 breaker plates all day mon,& had to stop early thurs afternoon as i`d worn the hammers out again.Around 4000 tons this time.So half of friday down turning the hammers & replacing wear plates.
The hammers cost around £3000 per set of 4,& weigh around 320-340 kgs each.The are held onto the rotor by 3 wedges & blocks & a nut & bolt per each hammer.The crusher has its own crane & hammer cradle for doing the job.The breaker plates are the large back plates on the inside of the crusher hood,& the wear plates are mounted on the side of the hood,each held in place by 2 bolts through the hood from the outside.The breaker plates are around 160 kgs each,& i lift them in with the digger & a lifting braket attached to them.The new hammers have around 70mm of use able wear on them.I wore 35mm off them in 1400 tons on thurs.
We are losing money on this job at the moment,so they are changing crushers this week.One of our large newish Sandvic jaws is coming up to me.So we will have no more wear,so can start getting some good tonages done at last

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[BulldozerD11]

Thanks Neil for photos and informative explaination.

looks like it could be a pig of a job changing them over. Wearing them out within the weeks areal pain then. Is this very hard rock or abrasive your crushing ?

Crushing 3 days and spending 2 changing wear bits per week is a big drop in average throughput per week for the boss. So the new crusher a different type then which wears less or just bigger capacity ?

Thanks

Dave