Cement Mixer plans

Why the negative rating on the bigger machine?
I may be new at this, but it seemed to make good mortar that I had to shut the machine off, scrape the sides down, and tinker with the mud quite a lot. The tractor doesn't like to shut down, much. The mouth of the tub was too narrow for efficient scraping. The balance of the beast was precarious. The only good load of concrete I made in the thing came after it accidentally tipped onto the grass and I shovelled it all back in.

The mixer seemed to turn too quickly on the back of my Ferguson TEA-20. The thing spun like a centrifuge.

I further discovered that if I kept the gravel on a utility trailer backed close to the mixer and the cement on a wheelbarrow also nearby and the water in a hose with a spray nozzle, there wasn't any downtime for one worker if I used the smaller mixer.

With the big one there was all kinds of downtime, and a lot of work climbing on and off the machine. A wheelbarrow moves a load of cement downhill quite easily. The tractor mixer was too low to dump into a barrow, and the TEA's hydraulics couldn't lift the thing if it was full. The front wheels stayed down o.k., though.

If I had a crew to keep busy, the verdict might have been different, but for someone working by himself the $150 I paid for a 20 year-old mixer was the best money I have ever spent.

Seems like the design & construction is the important part. I got an old but great shape 3pt and it is _so_ much more handy than the other 2 I have. Easy to dump into a wheel barrow, or I have been re-rocking a very old barn foundation, rocks in the bucket, cement on the 3pt, everything handy. Mine mixes great - you obviously were running at idle? :)

The newer electric ones for sale look like total junk, and the older ones are kinda heavy to do anything with, impossible to move....

Not disagreeing with you at all here, just seeing how the different designs can work differently....

--->Paul

The electric mixer is on a metal stand with small wheels and two metal ground rods fastened to the frame with bolts, protruding beyond one end to make the thing into an awkward wheel barrow. It moves around well on the flat, though it's a pain to move over any kind of obstacle because the frame racks.

This mixer hadn't spent a night outside before I got it for $150 CDN in a want ad.

Maybe I should try a different 3 pt mixer now that I have a MF35 with a good hoist, but the electric one can really keep me busy.

Hint: most quarries I have visited will sell utility trailer loads of gravel or sand for $10. loaded. 5/8" granular is what they call cement mix: just add portland and water. I just back the trailer up to the mouth of the mixer and shovel it in.

My 4 X 6 is quite heavy and with lots of air in the tires can handle 3350 lb each load: that's about 36 cu. ft. of material.

I don't know if I can shovel 3 yd per hour into a bucket.

Maybe the Ferguson 20 was idling way too fast and not letting the mix tumble. The MF35 seems able to tick over very slowly. Could be that it was the tractor, not the mixer, which caused the dysfunction.

I may just have to try it again on a bigger project.

How did you have the materials laid out? how did you measure and add the water? did you deliver the mix with the tractor or a wheelbarrow?

Thanks,

Rod