One moment Kevin Keeney is on a wheel loader feeding a crusher. The next he’s doing light maintenance on miscellaneous equipment. Later, Keeney is returning phone calls and meeting with potential customers.
There isn’t much Keeney, the operator of Keeney Sand & Stone, doesn’t do each day in Painesville, Ohio, where a portable crushing and screening plant serves as the central system at his small, family-owned operation. Keeney’s crushing and screening system consists of a Terex Cedarapids 2540A roller bearing crusher and a 5-ft. x 16-ft. triple-deck Cedarapids El-Jay LF 5163-32 screening plant.
The equipment has served Keeney Sand & Stone well over the years, Keeney says, because the family has stuck to a strict maintenance schedule.
“I’m probably a little crazy about the maintenance on the plant because if the crusher is down or if any of our conveyors or screening plants are down, then we’re not working and we’re unable to produce,” Keeney says.
According to Keeney, his machines sit about 2,000 ft. from the nearest house and he prefers not to run the plant on Saturdays out of respect for his neighbors. Saturdays are generally reserved for equipment inspections and minor repairs, he says.
Doing the weekend work helps to maintain steady production throughout the week, Keeney adds.
“If there’s even a little cut in the belt, it’s spliced,” he says. “If a bearing is getting ready to cut loose, we put a new one on. If guarding is looking shabby, it’s fixed up. If something is looking ugly and it needs a paint job, we tend to it.
“We run all week, and we’re still doing our greasing and light maintenance throughout the week. But on Saturdays we start from front to back with everything here. That way starting Monday morning we’re able to run the whole week without minor stops in our processing.”
Keeney adopted the regimen of meticulously maintaining equipment from his dad, Dennis, who led Keeney Sand & Stone for a number of years but has since retired.
“My dad was always strict about it,” he says. “If the oil is supposed to be changed at 250 hours, it’s not changed an hour later. Whatever the fluid intervals are supposed to be, that’s when [a change] is supposed to happen. I know a lot of companies are lucky if the dipstick is checked. Guys want to go run the equipment. But if you don’t stay on top of your maintenance plan then you’re going to have different types of damage.”