One Stop Crushing Shop

It was 2016 when we last visited Keith Maiden’s Dorset based crushing, screening, recycling and general civil engineering business, and its fair to say that on the machinery front, there has been quite a number of interesting changes that have taken place in Keith’s fleet of equipment.

Keith (64) has been in the industry since he was 18 years old, when he set himself up as a self-taught general builder, with an eye for niche projects. Small building work eventually led to him taking on more groundwork’s jobs, which suited him much better as he prefers to be outside as much as possible.

Keith also has an eye for innovative machinery and attachments which can make him much more flexible and productive in his work as a one-man band style operation. Increasingly his work on his larger projects has involved the dismantling of existing structures and recycling the materials, such as roof tiles and timber, most of which are salvaged for repurposing either on site or for other jobs.

Its when it comes to the rubble and concrete that Keith’s arsenal of equipment really comes into play, as it is broken up into manageable pieces, before it is crushed into various sizes, and finally screened to make a whole range of construction materials that can be re-used on that particular project, eliminating the need to remove any materials from the site.

 Talking about the process Keith said, “So we are able to produce concrete ballast, we can make type one sub-base material, 40mm drainage stone, and 70mm stone for roads, then once we have processed the material we stay on the site and undertake the groundworks for a new build on the same piece of ground.

We also undertake soil screening, which includes de-rooting so we are left with a top-quality topsoil product for garden levelling and reinstating work once the build is complete, so its an entirely eco-friendly operation”.

Keith continued, “So we like to market ourselves as a one-stop-shop operation, for our clients who are more often than not, self-build husband & wives, small builders or small developers, for whom we control the whole site in terms of materials from start to finish. It all works really well because as we know, the sheer cost of getting rid of any mixed waste materials in some places is extremely expensive, even around here where there are numerous old quarries it can be rather prohibitive to get rid of unwanted materials”.

The cost locally for a 20-tonne load of type one stone is typically around £600 + VAT, and in the formation of Keith’s recycled type one class material around the new building, there was already in excess of 300-tonnes so a massive saving on using fresh material from the local quarries.

“We offer our clients huge value for money with our operation, and it also helps them with the planning applications, because they gain points by having us do the on-site recycling, which is a massive bonus, in addition you are using less diesel, and you haven’t got 40 wagons going out and 40 wagons bringing in material down narrow country lanes, therefore ticking all the green credential boxes, whilst saving them money. We can probably save our clients somewhere in the region of £50,000 on larger projects, which is a massive win, win scenario”.

NEW MACHINES

During our last visit Keith’s fleet of excavators was dominated by the Japanese Kubota products, with the star attraction being the 8-tonne class KX080-4 with two-piece boom, this machine is still on the fleet with just over 5000 hours on the meter. Keith had been using Kubota’s for well over 25 years and still has high praise for them. “The 8-tonner has been really good, we still have it, and the grab attachment and the Rammer breaker, and I have to say it’s been so reliable over the years, with only one leak around the slew area in all that time and that two-piece boom is still such a useful concept.

However, during lockdown I purchased an 8-tonne Wacker Neuson machine on 600mm steel tracks, which we still have with around 2500 hours on the clock, very pleased with that machine I must say. Having had my eyes opened to the quality of the Wacker Neuson machines, I then purchased a second-hand EZ50 VDS model 5-tonner, which was followed by this EZ26 you see here today which I had fitted with a Steelwrist quick coupler and tiltrotator, so it’s all been quite a change around really”.

Last year Keith very nearly purchased a 6-tonne Yanmar that had been owner operated, but for one reason or another it didn’t quite happen, but it raised his awareness of the Yanmar brand. Following on from some research he discovered that they actually manufacture a 12-tonne class machine, which officially has an operating weight of 11500kgs.

He got talking to the Yanmar dealer in Norfolk Ben Burgess, who just happened to have 3-4 examples of the SV120 in stock. So, Keith made the long trek up to see them and a deal was struck on one. The machine was delivered with a standard Hill Engineering Tefra quick coupler, for an interim period until he got sorted with what he had in mind.

Naturally, Keith is one of those guys who is always thinking outside the box, and as it happened, he had already been talking to Jason McCullough of MPS (South West) Ltd, about fitting a Holp Rototop attachment rotation system, he had never used one, but had seen videos online of them in operation, and thought it looked like a great and although not cheap it seemed like a cost-effective idea for fitting onto the Yanmar SV120.

Keith takes up the story, “Just last year I purchased a second-hand SMP tiltrotator for a Kubota with a selection of really good buckets on S45 pins, and it just so happened that Jason also had a Rototop that had been made for a Kubota for S45 pin pick up, now I have a very good engineer who I know who helped to convert  it to fit the Yanmar, all through clever engineering, turning and bushing, with no cutting or welding, so it could if need be at a later date, be converted back to fit a Kubota.

So, as I say, that machine is using S45 pins, and another good friend of ours Simon Hewitt at Titus Attachments over in Northern Ireland has made us a huge range of buckets to for the machine, including a big grader, Scandinavian style general purpose bucket, riddling bucket and a set of pallet forks too, which are all top-drawer quality”.

Keith appears to have been blown away with the Rototop concept. “I can honestly say that I hadn’t realised just how effective pure 360-degree rotation is, it turns that 12-tonne machine into something that you could use as if it was a 5-tonner, even more so with its strong and powerful off-set boom function, you can work right alongside yourself all in a very controlled and precise manner, and it really compliments the German built Yanmar helping to turn it into hugely productive machine”.

The SV120 draws on its longstanding German heritage formerly being a product of Schaeff and later Terex, before ending up in the ranks of the Yanmar range of excavators following the company’s acquisition of Terex back in 2016.

Power on this conventional tailswing machine comes from a well proved 4-cylinder, water cooled, Deutz TCD 3.6 L4 diesel engine, which offers a power output rating of 85kw (116hp) @2000rpm, and its neatly packaged on the offside of the machine under a full-length gull wing style bonnet which pops up to allow superb access to the whole engine and components for daily checks and regular servicing alike.

Keith is quite clearly impressed with the German built excavator, “It’s a powerpack of a machine, it will pick up 5 tonnes close in and its only 100mm taller than our Kubota 8-tonner, you can just get on with the job, its effortless for this machine. And yet, one of the great advantages is, our haulier who has a category 2 low loader he can take this machine, and our new Komplet mobile crusher which weighs in at 12-tonnes on one load with a combined weight of a little under 24-tonnes, which is a very cost-effective way of moving the machines around”.

Perhaps surprisingly on this machine, Keith didn’t opt for a two-piece boom which he has found so favourable on previous machines, instead this unit features the standard mono boom option. In this configuration maximum dig depth with the 2350mm dipper stick is 4900mm, while maximum reach at ground level is 8510mm. The offset boom angle is 54^o both left and right.

Talking about the crusher, the Italian built Komplet K-JC704 is one of his latest additions on the fleet. Powered by 55kw (74hp) Stage V emissions compliant engine, the machine features a 680 x 400mm jaw crusher, with a CSS (Closed Side Setting) ranging from 20mm to 80mm, and is capable of producing up to 80-tonnes of processed material per hour in favourable conditions.

Being a one-man-band style operation, it was interesting to see Keith operating the machine remotely from the cab of the Yanmar, this gives him the flexibility to be able to work alone without having to employ anyone else to run the crusher, a great all-round solution for his business model.

Keith is still running his 5.5-tonne McCloskey Kompaq vibrating three-way screener that he had just purchased brand new back in 2016 when we last visited him, which he reports is still going strong and performing well.  

We caught up with Keith on a private site on the Dorset coast not far from the famous 11^th century Corfe Castle, one of the earliest castles in England, which was built by none other than William the Conqueror.

The private client is an entrepreneurial type of guy who has lived on the site for a long time, and had been trying to get planning to convert an old poultry shed into a dwelling for many years, eventually he was granted the planning. The old shed was originally built on an old quarry, so it required a lot of extraction of unsuitable material from the floors and the building needed to be underpinned.

Keith has been undertaking the rubble crushing and screening of the arisings from the excavation work, and will be returning to the site in the spring, when he will be excavating for a new dedicated driveway with car parking in front of the building which offers stunning views out to the sea.

Overwhelmingly Keith’s innovative views on how to do the job single handedly have to be admired, and its always interesting to see what he is going to do next in terms of kit purchases and streamlining his operation for the better.