California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,652
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck
- Thread starter Travelover
- Start date
mguitas
Super Member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2011
- Messages
- 8,056
- Location
- Schuylkill County Pennsylvania
- Tractor
- Massey Ferguson 1423 Hydrostat
Looks like the tractor there using up in Alaska
patrick_g
Elite Member
Concrete delivery trucks hold (depending on size)about 7-8 up to 10 or so yards. I don't think HF sells one that does even 0.5 yds.
I am on my second one of the 3 1/2 cubic feet model. They work, just don't let one fly over the side of your pickup during acceleration or cornering or both as it can be damaged beyond economic repair.
Also be careful maneuvering it so as to turn it over as it can be damaged.
I have done some fairly large projects with small mixers. You need to plan for how to handle "cold joints" as they will be inescapable except for narrow projects like sidewalks.
You can reduce a slab pour to a series of small pours and have continuous rebar running through the entire slab. If having say4x4 ft sections tied together by rebar making up your slab will work for you or a series of parallel 4 ft or smaller strips (like adjacent sidewalks) then:
Drill clearance holes in your forms to pass rebar. Drill these holes larger than the rebar by at least a saw kerf as after drilling the holes you need to rip the form down the centerline of the holes and then reassemble the form with deck screws for ease of repetitive assembly/dis-assembly.
You pour a section or a strip with the rebar "running wild" through the drilled holes. After that section has firmed up you remove the forms and set them up again one section width over and pour that section... lather, rinse, repeat...lather rinse repeat...
This method will allow you to pour large projects a little at a time so long as the finished work being in pieces held together by rebar "works" for you. It will do garage slabs, patios, etc. I haven't used it for slab-on-grade residential floors.
Here are pix of my latest concrete pours. I'm forming a retaining wall behind house but haven't poured any concrete for it yet.
From left to right the pix are:
1. Made sidewalk wider. I planned for "wall hugger" heat pumps but ended up with units requiring wall clearance so needed to widen sidewalk for ease of getting by with hand truck or cart of materials.
2. Widened apron to have pavement out to retaining wall.
3. Foreground sections are original apron. In the background are a couple sections I added (the curved one and the one to the right of the curved one. These were poured on different days.
You can use a masonry bit in a hammer drill to drill holes in existing concrete to put in rebar to "tie" the old work to the new.(dowling)
Patrick
I am on my second one of the 3 1/2 cubic feet model. They work, just don't let one fly over the side of your pickup during acceleration or cornering or both as it can be damaged beyond economic repair.
Also be careful maneuvering it so as to turn it over as it can be damaged.
I have done some fairly large projects with small mixers. You need to plan for how to handle "cold joints" as they will be inescapable except for narrow projects like sidewalks.
You can reduce a slab pour to a series of small pours and have continuous rebar running through the entire slab. If having say4x4 ft sections tied together by rebar making up your slab will work for you or a series of parallel 4 ft or smaller strips (like adjacent sidewalks) then:
Drill clearance holes in your forms to pass rebar. Drill these holes larger than the rebar by at least a saw kerf as after drilling the holes you need to rip the form down the centerline of the holes and then reassemble the form with deck screws for ease of repetitive assembly/dis-assembly.
You pour a section or a strip with the rebar "running wild" through the drilled holes. After that section has firmed up you remove the forms and set them up again one section width over and pour that section... lather, rinse, repeat...lather rinse repeat...
This method will allow you to pour large projects a little at a time so long as the finished work being in pieces held together by rebar "works" for you. It will do garage slabs, patios, etc. I haven't used it for slab-on-grade residential floors.
Here are pix of my latest concrete pours. I'm forming a retaining wall behind house but haven't poured any concrete for it yet.
From left to right the pix are:
1. Made sidewalk wider. I planned for "wall hugger" heat pumps but ended up with units requiring wall clearance so needed to widen sidewalk for ease of getting by with hand truck or cart of materials.
2. Widened apron to have pavement out to retaining wall.
3. Foreground sections are original apron. In the background are a couple sections I added (the curved one and the one to the right of the curved one. These were poured on different days.
You can use a masonry bit in a hammer drill to drill holes in existing concrete to put in rebar to "tie" the old work to the new.(dowling)
Patrick
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oldballs
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2009
- Messages
- 4,399
- Location
- Kansas...USA
- Tractor
- Kubota B2620 , Case 448 , Kubota B2650
Patrick....I'm just interested but not planning a project:
"Cold Joint" must mean concrete section that meet each other
"Lather" must mean coating the form(s) with oil
"Rinse" I don't understand......... Thanks for your experiences/know how.
"Cold Joint" must mean concrete section that meet each other
"Lather" must mean coating the form(s) with oil
"Rinse" I don't understand......... Thanks for your experiences/know how.
patrick_g
Elite Member
Sorry... lather rinse repeat is hackneyed phrase meaning to repeat a process (origin is shampoo bottle.)
Good point, used motor oil on forms to be reused is good idea I forgot to mention.
The lather rinse repeat euphemism was to indicate repeating the steps of forming and pouring sections. Once you reduce a big job (say moving a hundred tons of dirt) to getting a FEL bucket full and dumping in new location you then only have to repeat the small job until big job is done.
Right on the cold joint. If the concrete has started to set up and you pour an addition to it the addition may (most likely) act like a separate piece and not bond well to previous one. There are glues and admixtures to help bond joints but they can only do so much.
Gotta take a break... all this talk about mixing concrete, pouring it, and finishing it is making my back sore. I am using 80 lb bags of redi-mix and the mixer takes two at a time.
Patrick
Iplayfarmer
Super Member
My BIL has had one for about 5 years now. He uses it a lot. He's done a whole porch out of it, a pergola, a few sculpted benches, and I'm sure a handful of other projects that I don't know about. It's still going strong.
skspurling
Silver Member
California said:
Sorry, i stand corrected.
California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,652
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. :drink:
Oak Workbench.
I like it!
Came well organized and packaged, clear assembly instructions. The only issue was one of the supports for the top was of such dense oak that I had a hard time getting the screws to bottom in the predrilled hole, so I enlarged the hole a bit.
$149.99 on sale and using a $10 prom I found on line.
I like it!
Came well organized and packaged, clear assembly instructions. The only issue was one of the supports for the top was of such dense oak that I had a hard time getting the screws to bottom in the predrilled hole, so I enlarged the hole a bit.
$149.99 on sale and using a $10 prom I found on line.
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brin
Super Member
I bought 2 of the HF driveway alarms with a coupon for $14.95 and they work great...In the past I have used Mighty Mule and another major brand that cost much more...I use both receivers ..one in my office and one in the house and they have volume control which is nice..and just one of the transmitters outside on a tree which leaves me with a back up transmitter in the event the other one dies....If you buy more than one and want to do the same thing be sure they are both on the same channel...it is marked on the outside of the box...I got 2 channel 10's