How to operate
A Digger
How to Operate an Excavator | Heavy Equipment Operator (ep. 063)
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[Music]
everyone Randy from extreme sandbox here
today we're gonna show you how to
operate an excavator yes we get a lot of
clients off the street that we get out
here just to kind of play and we teach
them how to do it so we thought it'd be
cool to put a how-to video together on
how to run one of these things now
disclaimer we are not experts at all but
we can show people and we teach people
daily how to do this so we're gonna show
you how to do it so let's check it out
so first thing three points contact any
time you get in or out of equipment now
we're today we're in a Komatsu PC 210
excavator on the controls I'm gonna go
over are going to be in the Komatsu
machine that most of them are pretty
standardized between the different
companies that make excavators but I'm
gonna go through kind of the controls on
this model whether you can run a two
thousand pound mini excavator all the
way up to a 60 tonne excavator generally
the controls are pretty standardized
there so first thing I do when I get in
put my seat belt on big thing on these
again I've shown this on other videos
there are always door locks on equipment
basically these a lot of these equipment
can be run with the door open typically
at the sandbox for safety reasons and
dust control we seal our cabs so there's
a lever right there on this basically
we'll lock that door open but we're
gonna swing it shut okay seatbelt is on
one click on these make sure my system
boots up no error messaging like that
I'll turn it on
I always let it idle up for a sec let it
run you know a couple minutes we were
running this thing earlier today now
we're gonna go over some of the controls
so first thing I'm going to slide my
seat there's always a lot of different
seat adjustments on these machines so
it's very important to be comfortable
where your eye can reach the joysticks
you're these two-track paddles are what
drive the tracks so on the machine you
know safety is always the number one
there is a safety lock lever over on the
left side that is this red lever over
here each different company has some
version this but basically when it down
nothing's gonna work in an excavator
when we flip that up that means
everything is live on the equipment okay
so in general you don't want to be you
know won't be ready to go before you
pull that back you shouldn't have anyone
on your tracks anywhere near you should
have your seatbelt on be ready to go
anytime that lock levers up again each
manufacturers a little bit different
there's some other different types but
usually it's always a lever that's gonna
block that doorway that's the big
indicator that everything is live on
there so to start with we're just gonna
go over some basic controls now the
first thing I want to tell you there are
two different types of control patterns
for excavators basically there is ISO
controls and SAE controls typically ISO
is the standard I historically have
heard people call them cat controls and
then John Deere controls not sure why
they get broken out that way but it's
also been called excavator backhoe
controls there's different types really
I'm gonna go over the controls with ISO
which is the most standard I think the
most important thing to know is pretty
much every excavator out there nowadays
the newer stuff has a simple valve that
you can change patterns whether or not
it's on the Komatsu it's actually right
behind us by the engine compartment
there's a valve you turn
I think caterpillar has something
underneath the floorboard you just turn
a valve and it basically changes it but
again these are ISO controls we were
going with that I'm going to show you
today so again you always want to be
close enough my feet are touching the
ground I got my throttle over here
climate control right there but
everything is set for me right now so if
I start with controls is to show you the
basics the right hand is your boom and
bucket okay so if I pull back in this
right hand you'll see this raises the
boom up
and I'm gonna go and throttle this thing
up too so there's a throttle now boy
well you'll see it run it at basically
idle but I'm gonna throttle this thing
up now this if you notice I turn the
throttle up but the engine you didn't
hear right away most of the newer
excavators have a auto idle so when the
machine's not working it'll bring it
down to idle so you'll see soon as I
touch this it'll go back now right hand
forward will bring that boom back down
now right hand to the right is going to
open your bucket right hand to the left
will close it so that's your right
joystick left joystick is your stick and
swing so with the left if I go forward
it's going to put the stick out
and if I pull back it's gonna bring it
back you'll notice hydraulics as hard as
I pull this that's how hard I go to be
let off quickly it stops quickly so
generally you want to be smooth with
hydraulics now our swing control so it's
left and right with this left joystick
if I go left spins left I go to the
right it spins right and I can do
literally a 360 here the machine will
not have a hard stop on this it'll just
keep spinning if you let it those are
those controls now typically we talk
about driving position for thus now our
driving position everyone's a little bit
different they also call it transport
mode ours is boom up stick with it
straight down bucket flat basically what
it looks like right here is how we drive
with them the other piece you notice is
your Square to your track so what you
don't generally want to do is be
sideways to your tracks at all because
it's very awkward when you're driving
now you can the machine will actually
operate but generally it's just a lot
less confusing if you are Square to your
tracks out there the other sometimes
transport mode you might see is when we
curl the bucket in and basically tuck it
all away now the machine is not going to
hit anything here they're designed they
have their stops in place so you can see
I can tuck this thing in really tight so
generally if an excavator is going in a
tight area you can see how I have
everything kind of compact and curled in
there so that this is the other
transport mode you might see in the wide
open though especially at our site we
generally just have these things
straight up and down
bucket flat the finally on the controls
here is these two track titles an I'm
going to go over that with driving in a
second each one of these controls one of
the track so the right one right there
and left one right there those are the
two track battles so those are all the
basic controls on the machine now let's
go into driving
[Music]
so the next is driving now there are a
few different ways to drive an excavator
for our clients out here we usually
teach with hands but I'm gonna show you
probably the most popular way that
people do in the industry is with their
feet so in general you're either driving
or you're digging rarely you're you
should be doing both so it's either
operating these joysticks or those an
expert might obviously be doing multiple
things at the same time but again if
you're just starting out always keep it
simple do one at a time my feet are on
here so now and I can keep my hands on
my joysticks I normally would for this
video I'm gonna keep them off just to
show you I'm not touching that at all
right here again each one of those they
go both directions so I am going to push
on both ball and you see as hard as I
push that that is how fast the machine
will go and if I want to turn so if I
want to start turning the left I just
let off on this left one you'll see my
right one keeps going turning me
opposite way if I let off on my right it
turns me that way
now there are on pretty much every
excavator there's some level of a speed
limiter or controller on it so for the
Komatsu there's a little button on here
and you might not be able to see it on
here I'm on low-speed where they got a
medium and a high it doesn't really mean
you're going from probably three miles
an hour up to maybe eight excavators are
not designed to go really fast they're
designed just to move to the job
wherever they need to dig and then move
so I'm gonna put it back to low but each
manufacturer usually has some level of
peace they can change so I'm gonna drive
up here and again if I want to go
backwards until I push on my heels they
go both directions so you'll see these
things are connected so you can do it
just as easily with your hands now again
just to go while we're talking about
driving perfectly acceptable
I can drive so if you see right there it
doesn't change anything right here you
know I can still drive sideways it's
just really awkward because I can't see
my track so I don't really know what I'm
doing so generally you want to have
everything nice and square and a lot of
times I just tell people look out over
their feet I mean kind of see where your
feet where the glass their lines up at
the tracks now while we're talking about
driving forward reverse doesn't really
matter if I go the other direction I
just need to know I'm in Reverse so then
I'm actually pulling on these things
instead of pushing them
okay let's spin back around so ideally
I'm gonna drive forward the best way to
get positioned for digging is really to
be straight over your tracks this is
where the machine is the most stable
you've got that base spread out the
track width spread out so in general you
should be lined up Square to your tracks
to dig again I'll show you in a little
bit you can dig off the side the
machines it's not quite as stable so
we're gonna start off square to our
tracks okay so now we're gonna go over
digging
[Music]
okay so now to go over digging a lot of
times for a newbie I recommend taking
the feet off those controls just
otherwise you might not even know what
you might end up hitting that while
you're going the other indicators if you
hear that beeper that means you're
hitting a track battle so you might even
right here I'm barely touching it the
machines it's not powerful enough to
move it but I can hear the beeper that
means that my foots on there I like to
pull them off and I think for a new
operator it's best to do that
so now hands on joysticks we always
start extending the stick out you know
generally the further away from the
Machine the less trouble you're gonna
get in so it's always good for a new
operator to start further away so I'll
put the stick out bring it down and then
I usually stop foot or so this is where
we want to look at our teeth or on the
bucket now we have dirt buckets here
there are a lot of different types of
buckets or attachments on here some you
won't have teeth you'll just have a
smooth edge that's usually for digging a
foundation where it's not going to break
up the ground but it really the concepts
are all the same so if I always err on
the side of out a little bit you don't
want to go in you don't open your bucket
all the way right away because right now
you'll see I would actually hit that
joint that's connecting the bucket not
necessarily gonna hurt the machine
probably not great for those joints and
everything in there so you're gonna pull
a bunch of material right in there so in
general that's too far open the opposite
of that if I go in too far curled I'm
not gonna get much of a scoop because
the bucket snot is curled partly so
again there's a happy medium between
having them out just a little bit then I
push it down right there all you got to
do then is curl right hand left
now you'll see it kind of got stuck this
is where you start pulling back on your
boom at the same time and that'll raise
it while curling in so right now it's
curled you see it's stopped all the way
raise it up a few feet above the ground
then with my left hand is my swing
control obviously don't want to dump too
far from the pile in general you're
gonna be back filling that later so it's
got to be somewhat closed and then open
that bucket up now the key again when
you open it ideally just open it - the
material falls off a lot of new
operators as they're open they keep
going and you'll hear that that's the
hard stop the machine is designing it's
designed to stop on its own again not
great for the machine so in general just
opening it off where the material goes
out in tone and it's done that is the
first one I had so if we go to the same
spot generally you want to push down
hard enough now this machine it will
lift up the boom cylinder will lift up
this entire machine so if I keep pushing
right hand forward right now you're
gonna see my entire tracks look raised
off the ground in general you don't want
to do that you want to keep your tracks
flat on the ground so if you start you
want to get to that point where you
almost feel the tracks lifting but not
quite because that means you're putting
enough downward pressure to get you know
all that pressure is going on those
front on the front of the bucket to get
a full scoop now that I'm there again
curl it up it's gonna get stuck again
you don't if I just pull back in the
right hand right now here's what's gonna
happen it's gonna raise up my buckets
not curled all the way so I'm gonna lose
that material that's why it's important
to curl while I do it so if I do that
again
caryl stuck and I'm gonna pull back
slowly now depending on the size machine
you're running when you do that little
piece and start pulling back you might
feel the back of your excavator pick up
a little bit there are large counter
weights behind us there and that's also
why I'm digging straight up my tracks
I'm most stable obviously if you feel
your machines still starting to tip
maybe you got to open the bucket not be
quite as aggressive obviously safety is
key there our machines again we run come
on sue PC two tens roughly 26 tons these
machines are very stable on a flat
surface generally the larger the
excavator the safer it is just because
you've got a larger base so you know
most people think that a smaller mini
excavator is safer and I would actually
say the opposite is because it's a
smaller machine it doesn't have as big a
base on it so sometimes you get more
trouble on a smaller machine than a
bigger one raise that one up and again
dump it there now when we train again we
try and do one thing at a time to really
keep it simple but the other piece we
want to show is using the stick a lot of
people when they're digging whether
you're digging a trench or just moving
they want to go straight to the track
piles to back up to get dig closer
understand a lot of these machines they
have roughly a 20 to 30 foot reach to be
most efficient you don't want to have to
move the tracks every time you're trying
to go so that's where the stick comes in
but as you see as I pull the stick in it
also brings it down so this is where
you're using both joysticks I have to
raise the boom up stick in but then
again I can't go in right there I want
to go with the teeth straight down I'm
gonna extend it out so I can get into
that accursed hole I had
and then I curl that one in
same thing raising it up sometimes again
we teach our clients and curl it all the
way but as you can see some of that
material will actually fall over the
back of the bucket so for an operator
it's kind of a delicate balance here we
were just trying to keep as much
material in that bucket
so you see how that buckets a lot closer
now this bucket will I can curl it all
the way up here and get this thing right
in front of me you see how close that is
in general these buckets are not going
to hit you in the cab there are stops
built-in but two things first of all the
materials not secured in there so as you
notice that it kind of jumped out there
so depending if you had rocks or debris
that stuff can come up on your tracks
anything like that if there were some
accessories like thumb there might be
other things if there's not the standard
bucket but generally they're not gonna
hit it now with that said that's the cab
this thing can absolutely hit my tracks
so you see if I go off the corner here
you can absolutely hit the corner of
your track see I'm touching it right
there forever to uncurl I'd actually put
my corner of my track so that's also why
I said in the beginning distance is your
friend the further out you are away the
less trouble you're gonna get in because
this thing will absolutely hit your
tracks if you let it now
I'm gonna curl my bucket so if I just
extend it without curling my bucket
you'll see it'll start tough because I'm
not making adjustments gonna start
falling so I'm gonna curl it as well
and ideally you want to have one dirt
pile you don't or if you're doing a
trench it might be a roll of material so
the who's ever coming in to backfill
later has that clean area to fill so I'm
gonna dump there so those are basic
controls you know some of the more
expert I'd say for an opera it's been
doing this for a while they're doing
multiple so you can see I can do
multiple cylinders I can be spinning I
can do all these at the same time the
Machine capsule II do it and after
you've gotten a lot of stick time you'll
be able to get better at that so but I
always start peeling just do one motion
at a time figure out what each cylinder
does on this thing you know if you know
the different components you'll start be
able to pull those together so with this
one you know an expert is generally
pulling the boom in the stick in and
curling they're almost doing three kind
of scraping it up towards you so that
looks kind of like this so if I'm
pulling both my cylinders in and I'm
curling my bucket you'll see how I'm
getting a nice full and I'm kind of
scraping nice and smooth like that
instead of just doing one now I can do
the same thing going out and I can put
it right there
so that's where you really want to
practice and get proficient in doing
multiple motions on here so I can scrape
it pull it right in and this typically
is how someone trenching would do a
trench right out in front of them and
again depending on what grade they're
going to they would always start at max
reach get as close you know within a few
feet of their tracks
and then that would be the time where
they would back up because then they're
gonna start it all over again so I would
push back obviously I'm looking where
I'm going backwards you've got mirrors
on the machine and I can start that all
over again that is the basic dig
controls there so at any point if I were
to park it we generally just want to try
and put our buckets flat to the ground
we usually touch it if you leave the
bucket up in the air they can settle so
you want to have that and put block
lever down but that's everything with
digging so now let's talk about
backfilling
[Music]
okay so now we dug the trench dug the
hole now let's just go over backfilling
you know for backfilling obviously a
bulldozer is great for backfilling
that's generally what its gonna come in
and do it but it's not realistic devil
bulldoze are in every jobsite you know
you take the tool you've got out there
you know excavators can be used to fill
just as much so with that you know part
of it's just the opposite is you're just
taking scoops out of the pile now the
biggest thing people want to do it right
away is they want to use the side of the
bucket well couple reasons that's not
great so if I do this first of all
you're gonna realize really quickly
there's not a ton of lateral force on an
excavator you know in general that
lateral swing is just designed to move
the tool it's not designed to actually
do moving material so that's the first
piece the second it's not great for the
bucket you know there are the pins that
go in there if they're they're meant to
go this way straight through towards the
machine if you have that twisting force
on them it's not great for your machine
usually you only do that at the very end
and that's we're gonna kind of get a
great if there's this much material
which again is not much here I'm still
gonna try and just scoop through it
using my same thing I just did on the
first one I may try and you see how I
swing a little bit while I'm in it so I
can drag a little bit over but in
general I'm using the bucket curl
because that's gonna use the most
now here's really important run
basically trying to scrape up I don't
want to create a new hole so I'm trying
to move material without
going below the surface where I don't so
it's kind of a finesse thing we have to
pull the boom up and stick in at the
same time and try and swing over and
then I dump it out try one more out here
this is what really takes lots of stick
time to get really good and proficient
at doing both movements the stick and
the boom at the same time with some
bucket curl
you generally want to start out at the
farthest point you can because then I
can just back up to get the closer part
so you'll see some of the first spill I
can't reach so I'll actually drive
forward just a little bit so I can get
out beyond that little Ridgeline there
pull that in and start swinging now
there wasn't we didn't have a ton of
material here now to finish this off
this is where we transition now to using
that side because we're not actually
moving a ton of material I usually tell
people get the bucket the teeth flat to
the ground you want to try and use that
you don't want to go in like this
because you're not gonna you're just
gonna basically create a slope and you
don't want to have it curled all the way
because you're gonna see it's gonna
concave through and it's gonna create
kind of a circular so what you want to
do is get your teeth flat to the ground
so a lot of times I'll touch it make
sure it's good then you just raise it
off and then you can slowly start
swinging through if it goes great
sometimes you just have to pull back on
it I'm gonna go forward a little bit
more so I get that outside edge
like that and again if I overshoot that
a little bit pull that material in a
little bit and then I could just use
that stick to get close or distances
here
so you'll see I'm roughly getting in and
I want to be careful how close I get I'm
still in a good distance here and if it
were to stop I would just pick up in the
Boomer right now right now it's able to
move all this material and I'm just
shaving layers off here and then I can
back up
now once you get to the end here you saw
kind of how I was curling up towards me
the other thing you can do is use the
back and kind of rake it away from you
or so if you have material that's too
close you generally want to have your
bucket open like that you don't want to
go into this with your bucket curled all
the way because you'll see on the back
there it's that same joint there this is
not great for the machine because you're
gonna get all that sand material
whatever you're doing right into the
joint where that boom cylinder bucket
cylinder is so the ideal way I have that
bucket open all the way that way you're
just using the bottom of the bucket and
this so if I push it just straight down
you'll see it's not kinda sticks not
gonna go anymore that's where you have
to pull the boom back and then as it I
can push that boom and kind of push
material away from a little bit
these are the things they're a little
bit more advanced that guys have been
doing this for years there's a reason
they're so good as they do this and they
get the feel of it it's because it's
tough to keep that bucket nice and level
at the same time you're adjusting
multiple different components and then I
can come through and use the side of the
bucket and to try and finish it off if
there's material left
not perfect but for short amount of time
not bad so now again to park it usually
we park it with the bucket flat there's
a lot of different ways you can park the
machine the key though is being square
here tracks a lot of times I see new
operators might Park like this something
like that the big difference here and
you'll see it from the outside is to get
in and out of a machine generally
there's a step on the tracks if I open
the door right now you'll see them off
to the side and it's kind of awkward you
know a lot of times getting in and out
of machine it's usually where people
have dumb slip-and-falls that's really
get injured so that's why it's really
important you either want to be square
like this or for anything I hare the
opposite direction because that actually
opens up that step just a little bit
more for me but our machines are large
enough if I just goes square it's gonna
when I open the door I'm gonna have a
nice in and out of the machine and I
just set the bucket flat nice and flat
everything is stable in the machine from
there remember you always want to
deactivate that safety lock lever so
that's this red lever again whatever
machine you're in is gonna have some
parking brake lock lever on the side I
pull this up and now it's down
everything is safe in there okay then I
usually turn my throttle down and we let
our machines cool about a minute or two
is what Komatsu recommends you don't to
leave them idling very long or let it
run for a little bit and then we'll shut
it down
okay and then three points of contact
step-step can lever to release doors
right there Oh
hopefully you guys had fun watching this
episode of how to operate an excavator
please comment below if you're an
operator have a lot of stick time give
us any tips and tricks you might have
again we are not experts so thanks a lot
for watching
take care
