This has been a very good thread. I have a few things I didn't see mentioned. They may possibly have been mentioned but I'm actually only half way though all the postings. Here goes;
1. I so commonly see operators "finishing" with their board rolled all the way over. Typically I do not use this practice. I do not need to see where my edge is, no need to have it rolled over. What I see happening is when it is rolled over you wear all the sharp off your edges and then have to go burn them off when you are in hard material to cut your material down to grade. This is not so much of the problem I see as to what rolling your board over does to your material. Rolling the board over does not process the material being cut. Your lows end up full of rock. Hope and pray the soils tester does not take a test in one of those rock ridden holes....you will fail.
2. If you want to carry material uphill (like wiping rock over a berm, roll the board over, the material will work its way up without falling down.
3. Know the width of your machine, the width of your cut. Width of your tire tracks. Example, If you are cutting terraces on house pads and the hinge has a 1' offset from your stake line. You can drive a straight line from outside of stake to outside of stake and use your tire track a "painted" line to start your slope. You can use this for figuring out where the crown is on a road or figuring where the crown is in a dogleg with bubble on the elbow of the dogleg.
4. When working with 2-D and 3D electronics that require cross slope, you must keep the knuckles of you loists perpendicular to the grade you are cutting. If you are articulated, your cross slope WILL be off. If using a fixed target on one side it is best to define grade under your target then freehand screeding the grade your target side laid down and use your target side as the toe for the rest of your passes. It is good to teach your scraper operator how to "read" the grade with an electronic machine. If you slip tires, you still have cut to go and the scraper should remove the entire windrow in this area. If you come off grade you are obviously low and will have to make another pass over area so the scraper should give you some fill. Teach your scraper operator to keep a consistent wind row height for you to work with. Consistency when working with electronics I have found to be the key especially on a machine with a lot of slack in the various joints and circle. Before you set your sonar depth, have a load of material on your blade. All the slack is pulled out of the board and it will cut better grade when pinging off of the wire or curb.
5. If you are running a support blade, don't let your slopes get away from you. Make sure you pull you pull your fill slopes up before the grade checker gets to them with wood. Make sure you pull your cut slopes down before your grade checker pulls his wood down also.
6. When running a support blade, it is kind of pointless to constantly keep grading road that is in good shape. It is a waste of time. Instead, spend more time on the bad areas of road. It will also give you more time to pioneer new roads to new cuts and fills should the spread have to move.
7. When finishing, go slow. It is better to cut it right the first time than to have to make a dozen passes over the same grade over and over.
8. When pulling corrections I prefer to only pull my correction areas and 1/4 them. If a light brush is needed after the grade is finished, then so be it, but wait until the grade is sold. If you constantly go over grade that will sell, you risk having to regrade what was already good grade.
9. Verify that your scraper is cutting flat. If your scraper is cutting flat and the operator chingers your grade, it was your fault. Take the opportunity to see where he dug into your grade and cut the hump out and re quarter your grade....you weren't on grade to begin with or the operator would not have under cut you (unless it is in a vertical curb or coming out of an apron or something like that) Push your bulk out of your corners and doglegs to allow the scraper a chance to set on good grade. Remember, he can be your best friend or worst enemy. More often than not, I see blade operators blame the scraper hand when it was the blade that did not give the scraper operator the opportunity to pick up good grade.
10. If cutting curb grade it is a good idea to know if the curb will be hand formed or machine laid. Typically hand formed curb you will want to undercut whereas machine curb you will want to leave about .1' high. Before you make the grade for the machine curb, scarify, process and cut all of your bones out of the material, then roll it back in and roll and cut your grade. You don't want to leave a bunch of bones in the grade. It tears up the curb machine and makes for a rougher curb for you to finish next to later. If supporting a curb crew, wipe out all of the clean out piles, green concrete at termination and if you are up to it all of the material that might have made it under the shoe of the form on the curb machine (this shouldn't happen if you cut your grade correctly unless their form is worn out and needs built up.) It is better to incorporate all this green concrete into fill instead of allowing it to line up your sub grade or bouncing over later.
11. Get your grade as close as possible before moving your material over your hubs. The more hub passes you make, the more likely you are to rip one out. I say if you don't rip some out you are not getting the grade close enough. More often than not if you are not rubbing paint off you will have a .02' (1/4") hump in the grade (which isn't bad and will still probably sell) which can start you running high between your hubs. You know if you are cheating your hubs, don't be afraid to try to screw the grade down to the top of the wood. Again, you will tear out some hubs, weather it be dragging a whisker into hard material (have your gunnea chaser loosen the material around your hubs just a hair below grade the length of the whisker and you will not tear them out in these situations) or having a stubby hub or even that the hub was driven in at an angle and the whisker was set on toward the low side. You still have to get the material down to grade.
12. I like to spin off big flat grade. How else are you going to balance grade 50' between hubs with no 1/4s? I guarantee you can do it in half the time spinning it off. Some people look at you like you are a greenhorn for doing it. Spinning grade balances the grade, aids in compaction and gives you a very good surface to work on. Some years back I had a number of rake pads in a sub division to finish. Finished over 90 pads in an 8 hour shift by spinning them off. Boss looked very differently at it after that. It is still common practice at that company today.
13. If your grade is tight when starting off, your edge grade is tight and you have a load on your board...you should effectively be able to control your grade by only moving your toe side of the board. if you are cutting deep your heel will be riding over your grade. if you are digging into you heel, you need to drop your toe side, you are cutting high.
14. I like grading my start points in reverse. It is easier to control the movement of the blade that way. The blade comes down gradually as your tires fall off of whatever it is you are cutting away from whereas you have all sorts of stuff going on if you take a dive at it with your rear tires coming off of it. If you take it forward I like to roll the board about 20% over and make sure your tires are coming off the surface square. If you are on grade you can make a quick adjustment by rolling your board up to come out of the ground or roll it down to take more cut. Just remember....every machine has its fixed points that grade is cut from. A dozer is the tracks, a loader the front wheels, a scraper the rear wheels, a grade tractor the rear wheels and your blade the rear wheels. Get set on grade and the rest is easier.
If anyone disagrees, it's Ok. Its just my opinion and things I think I have picked up over the years. Remember, everyone has their own way of doing things.
