Experience of clamshell buckets?

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Robban_C
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Experience of clamshell buckets?

Post #1 by Robban_C » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:46 pm

I´m shure that Nick can tell from the subject that it´s me asking. :mrgreen:

I was looking at a job yesterday. It was a drainage of a house (basement). The usual method is as you all know to stand along the wall and dig along the wall.
But one part of one of the walls are "countersunk" (don´t know how to describe it in English) about 2-2,5 meters compared to the rest of the wall. The length of this countersunk part is about 4 meters, to small for my excavator so I can´t stand along this part of the wall with my excavator. There´s also a roof over this part to make it even more complicated.
And no, I don´t have any photos. But I have made a drawing. The black rectangel is the roof and the red line is the "complicated" wall.

I have done a similar job once. I dug that from the side of the wall instead of along it. But that means digging a much wider trench, more soil that should be stored on the site during the job, more backfilling etc. That method works but it isn´t a good method.
So my idea is to use a clamsell bucket with a rotator. That way I could dig a narrow trench and still be standing on the side of the wall.

Has anybody of you used a clamshell bucket? Is it the right method?
Any other ideas?
I guess that a clamshell bucket means less m3 per hour where a normal bucket could be used?
But in this case a normal bucket isn´t performing at its best.
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Robban_C
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Re: Experience of clamshell buckets?

Post #2 by Robban_C » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:20 pm

No answer?

Come on guys and dolls. I need your help here. Anyone with experience from using a clamshell bucket on an excavator?
Or is my drawing above to bad to understand?


An example could be GRI TGGL50 at the bottom of this page:
http://www.rf-system.se/prilhtm/pgtwentynine.html
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Nick Drew
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Re: Experience of clamshell buckets?

Post #3 by Nick Drew » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:30 pm

Robban_C wrote:No answer?

Come on guys and dolls. I need your help here. Anyone with experience from using a clamshell bucket on an excavator?
Or is my drawing above to bad to understand?


An example could be GRI TGGL50 at the bottom of this page:
http://www.rf-system.se/prilhtm/pgtwentynine.html


Sorry Robban :cry:

I cannot offer much advice on this one, I have only used a clamshell bucket during my time operating Roadrailer Machines for UK company Hydrex, and then it was just used for loading/unloading railway ballast from rail wagons.

Maybe someone else can offer advice on digging with these tools

Nick :oops:


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Re: Experience of clamshell buckets?

Post #4 by Robban_C » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:48 pm

That´s ok Nick.
Anyone else?
Or does anyone have any other ideas how to do this in an easy way?

Nick, you´ve read my description above, did it mean sense to you?
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d4c24a
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clamshell

Post #5 by d4c24a » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:38 am

hi robban i have used a clamshell once, it was fitted to a 20 ton machine used at the CITB training school at bircham newton whilst i was gaining my deep excavation ticket,it worked ok but is not good for digging a square hole in hard ground :| i dont see any reason why it would not work on your machine ,unless the ground is very hard :thumbs_up:
hope this helps thanks graham
knowing less and less about more and more until pretty soon i will know almost nothing about practically everything


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Robban_C
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Re: clamshell

Post #6 by Robban_C » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:53 pm

Hi Graham!

Thanks for the information. :thumbs_up:

About problems with hard ground:
I guess that you mean that you can´t push down that much with the machine since there is a joint above the rotator? And you can´t use tha shaft to "rip" the ground like you can on a conventional bucket.
Yes I have thought about that and I realize that hard ground will be problematic. Fortunately there are usually not that hard ground around a house.


Does anyone have any experience about volume over time related to conventional buckets?
It seems to me that a clamshell bucket is slower (otherwise they should be used by everyone) if you measure m3 per hour. At least as long as you compare a situation where a conventional bucket is effective. Right or wrong?
In this particular situation a conventional bucket is very ineffective as you have to dig from the side of the ditch.
Volvo EC45 PRO -06
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Topic author
Robban_C
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Re: Experience of clamshell buckets?

Post #7 by Robban_C » Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:02 am

Those problems are all gone as I didn´t get that job. The customer has postponed the job by a year and they have found someone else who does it 20% cheaper.
Thanks everyone for you help! :mrgreen:
Volvo EC45 PRO -06
Volvo EC35 -01
MB-Trac 800 turbo
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MF 3165, Poor Ferguson

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