Getting better at digging with an excavator?

[Alan Ambrose]

I can do some basic trenching with my 3T digger. A week ago we had to move a pile of soil from one place to another in a hurry ahead of a delivery and I was pleased to see that went OK and was fairly quick.

 

But the finer arts e.g. grading something level and not roughing up a level surface of hardcore when turning are evading me atm. I'm a quick learner but the kind of subtle dual hand coordination and feel are not coming naturally.

 

Commercial courses all seem to be about a week and £1K and I don't really have the time or the inclination to sit through a few days of H&S and theory. I expect if I just sat and did a whole week's worth of practice, I would figure it out fairly quickly.

 

Thoughts?

 

Here's a typical commercial syllabus:

 

• Relevant health & safety regulations
• Understanding operator’s responsibilities
• Hazards and danger in the work place, risk assessments, SSOW
• Machine type and uses, controls and safety features, SWL charts
• Use of Manufacturers information & Pre-use inspection, PUWER & LOLER forms
• Carry out manoeuvres, setting up.
• Excavating of trenches and backfilling.
• Grading out
• Loading and unloading of vehicles
• Use of attachments and buckets
• Safe parking of machine
• Theory test
• Practical test
• Course close and review

 

 

[Oz07]

I'd be inclined to just practice yourself. These courses will be box ticking exercises. A few bits would be worthwhile learning like maintenance and the limits of the machines but I'd still just learn yourself.

[dpmiller]

practice and youtube. There were some great videos from (IIRC) Volvo in the US that helped me understand some of the stuff I'd watched my groundworker pal do so delicately

[nod]

Practice definitely 

 

This time I borrowed a 5T machine equipped with gps Engineer inputs his info and just follow the screen Gives you the depths also No lines or paint to follow 

[Conor]

It's practice. I've hired machines on about 6 occasions over the last few years. So probably have about 300hours experience now. Not much, but Ive learned a lot on that time.

 

Other tip I'd add is, the bigger the machines the easier it is to operate and the more stable it is. My approach when hiring is to get the biggest machine available for the job. A 5 tonne will do almost any job on a site, as long as you have the manoeuvring space.

[gaz_moose]

I rented a 0.8t machine for 4 days and was pretty good on it by the end. For grading i had the machine on idle and was pulling the left lever (which operates the smaller bit of the arm) then with the right lever i quickly alternated from moving it backwards ( which moved the bigger part of the arm) and moving it either left or right (which does the bucket) depending if i was working up or down hill.

 

I didn't have time to practice but, You could park the machine somewhere flat, put 2 old scaff boards at the front of the machine facing away from it, then clamp them down with the blade, then practice grading on them. try to keep the leading edge of the bucket an inch from the top of the planks. Put the radio on and zone out whilst your doing it.

 

One of my initial mistakes was just trying to dig with the bucket, then i moved on to trying one movement at a time, then i realised i had to do all 3 at once.  I should have rented the machine for longer but was being a cheapskate.

 

By the end of it i was using the bucket to clean the debris off the lawn where the spoil had been after the grab truck had taken it (about 30t)

 

when digging out loads i found i would end up with a mountain of spoil infront and over the front blade. so found that when digging close to the front of the machine i could dig in towards me then pull the boom outwards as i was coming back out.

 

I drive a forklift often so i figured it would be the same as a digger.

[flanagaj]

I did an excavator course and I still was unable to grade well.  When the material you are grading is loose, eg hardcore or topsoil then it's very difficult.  If you are grading an oversite where the ground is compacted, your control inputs are felt more and you can ease off when it starts to bite.

A good exercise is to think about what is happening to the boom, dipper and bucket as it moves towards the cab.



To keep the bucket teeth in the correct position and level, you need to concentrate on where the dipper arm is in relation to the vertical.  As you swing it through on it's arc, you need to be raising the boom.  As you pass through the vertical, the process is reversed and you need to lower the boom.  All the time you are continually opening the bucket.

There is a lot going on and I spoke to an operator who owns a 14 tonne machine and he said he cannot grade at all on a small 1.5 / 3 T machine.   Probably because the action on a larger machine is just more controlled and the arc of the dipper is much longer.
 

[Alan Ambrose]

Thanks, that's interesting - yeah, it's the '3 dimensions at once to pull the bucket on a level heading' that's stumping me.

[Conor]

The cheats way to grade is to set the bucket at the required position and track backwards. Works well if the ground is level in the direction you are tracking. 

[flanagaj]

2 hours ago, Conor said:

The cheats way to grade is to set the bucket at the required position and track backwards. Works well if the ground is level in the direction you are tracking. 

I thought to myself "What a fantastic idea!", but then realised that the theory only holds if the ground behind is level.

[Roger440]

I strapped a laser level receiver to the arm to help me with grading. 

 

 

[Alan Ambrose]

Did that help any? I see there’s some pricey magnetic ones.

Edited Wednesday at 21:41 by Alan Ambrose

[Iceverge]

Start with your tracks in line to the area to be levelled towards you, blade down for stability.

 

Extend the dipper until it makes about an 45 degree angle away from you. Have the base of the bucket open so it makes about a 45 degree angle with the ground maybe slightly steeper.

 

Lower it to near the surface of the work,  not even touching it to begin with. Pull back your left hand a small bit so that the dipper moves towards you at a steady rate (slower is better) freeze your left hand in that position to keep the rate. This is important as you want to have only one variable. 
 

 

The with your eyes glued to the eye of the blade of the bucket (this is very very important, fixate on the bucket blade) pull back your right arm to raise the boom as the dipper comes towards you. Until it makes 90 degrees with the ground. For your first few passes don’t even contact the ground. Just concentrate on getting movement parallel to the ground.

 

Remember, bucket frozen in position, slew frozen, dipper at steady rate, eyes fixated on bucket blade varying only the boom.

 

Take small bites. 30mm maybe, it’s far easier to take than replace. When you’re happy with your initial grade slew slightly left and begin the same again with about half a bucket overlap as a guide.

 

TLDR.

 

1. Steady machine with tracks and blade.

2. Retract Dipper a slow steady rate from 45deg away to 90deg.

3. Raise the boom to keep bucket blade at desired grade.

4. GLUE YOUR EYES ON THE BUCKET BLADE!!

5. Small bites.

6. Work in an arc from right to left using overlapping each bucket pass.

7. Track back and repeat.
 

 

[Iceverge]

For grading I would take 4 corner points of my work and drive pegs.

 

Run 2 string lines along the long sides say at 200mm above the final grade.

 

Then run a third string between the two others and slide it slowly towards you so the string forms a “H”. It’ll pull the long strings together but that doesn’t matter so long as it’s taut.

 

With a white marker or some paint draw a line on your bucket about 200mm from the base at approx the angle you’ll be dragging at. Try your best when grading to keep it level with the strings. Move the cross string down the H to maintain accuracy as you go.

 

I’ve had good success with this method.

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

On 14/06/2025 at 12:51, Alan Ambrose said:

...

I expect if I just sat and did a whole week's worth of practice, I would figure it out fairly quickly.

...

Thoughts?

 

Exactly.

The course you refer to is about ticks on a permit - required not by employers, but their insurance company.

 

I'm ten years in to  digging with a digga. The biggest single revelation came from the difference between a cheaper digger (that I had bought) and using a different (hired) machine - but one with proportional controls. Suddenly smoothing a dug-over surface was easier: inching a heavy weight more accurate : knocking a fence post into the ground a breeze.

 

Old, cheap machines teach you in the same way that a student-bought car teaches about driving. It's 'hard work' switching the windscreen wiper on and off when there's drizzle but no rain. Slack gearing and slop in an old digger makes everything harder. But it teaches.

 

So @Alan Ambrose  you are right, you will. 

By the way, I had a succession of mates all coming round to 'play' on my digger. So I set them some challenges ( because they'd ruin any real work) - pick up a garden gnome was fun. In a weird way 

[flanagaj]

11 hours ago, Roger440 said:

I strapped a laser level receiver to the arm to help me with grading. 

I am looking at buying one of these.  If nothing else, you could use it to simply practice pulling the bucket in level through thin air just off the ground.