Cement Mixing

EddieWalker · Mar 4, 2004

I really liky WVBill's set up. I was going to something different, but now I'm leaning to his meathod.

"Dry concrete weighs about 150 lbs per cubic foot" I think you ment wet conctrete, since an 80 lb sack of concrete is one cubic foot.

I've used the cement mixers sold at Home Depot with good results. I'm thinking of buying one real soon in fact. Price is only $300.

My experience with three point mixers was on a Kubota BX22. It might of been too small of a tractor, but pouring the mixer was a real pain due to the height of the tractor. We just couldn't get it to empty.

Another advantage to Harve's suggestion of getting the gravel sand mix is the price. Here delivered concrete runs around $60 a yard, 80 lb sacks are $2.50 each, with 27 of them being $67.50 a yard with small stones. I've bought sand/gravel for $30 a yard plus a sack of cement is only a couple bucks.

I've never heard of Harve's mix, I'm more familiar with a five to one ratio. Five shovels of sand/gravel to once shovel of cement.

I wouldn't mix concrete in your loader bucket for the simple reason cleanup will be terrible. I gurantee that some of the concrete will dry in you FEL and you'll spend way too many hours trying to get it out. If you don't, then every load of dirt you haul will catch on it.

Like Harve said, use a wheelbarrow to mix small jobs, it's perfect and portable.

If I'm mixing quite a bit, I'll use a morter mixer in my half inch drill. Using a shovel to mix can get real tiring real fast.

Good Luck,
Eddie

Charlie_in_TX · Mar 4, 2004

All of the 80lb bags of concrete I have ever bought stated 2/3 cu ft. Naturally, the 'light' stuff will be different. If a 80lb bag was a cu ft, a yard of concrete (dry) would weight 2160lbs. If a 80lb bag was 2/3 cu ft, a yard would weight 3240.

When I set fence post I usually use the dry stuff. When I need a yard or 2, I go to the local rental yard and buy a yard in a trailer. If I need a few yards I call the mix in place company. I have poored 60yrds a day with them.

TWINKLE_TOES · Mar 4, 2004

Dry concrete weighs about 150 lbs per cubic foot" I think you ment wet conctrete, since an 80 lb sack of concrete is one cubic foot.


A sack of Portland cement is 94 # and 1 cubic foot. Mix Portland cement, sand, gravel and water and wait and you have concrete. One cubic foot weighs 150 #

wroughtn_harv · Mar 4, 2004

( I've never heard of Harve's mix, I'm more familiar with a five to one ratio. Five shovels of sand/gravel to once shovel of cement. )

I guess I misspoke (typed?). Five to one, sand and gravel, three one two of the other in layers with a matching shovel full of portland in between the layers.

The heaping six cubic foot wheelbarrow mix has a built in check. If you do your five to one right you will get exactly two wheelbarrows per bag of portland. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Fungus · Mar 5, 2004

Thanks for the information Harvey,

Although I don’t see myself doing it the “fenceman’s way” I’m always impressed by the ingenuity people come up with when faced with limited resources.

I have been looking for a good wheel barrel & shovel. It seems like the good things are getting harder to find. What’s a “box store”?

I looked up Stone concrete mixers and like what I see. I’m thinking about the 6 CF model because that’s what my FEL can carry.

I have a question about your 9 CF model. Can you really get a batch output of 9 CF? That’s about 1200 to 1300 lbs of concrete!

Inspector507 · Mar 5, 2004

Box Store= Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, Sutherlands

wroughtn_harv · Mar 5, 2004

Here's a picture of the mixer and the custom bucket I've built for dispensing the concrete.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/wroughtnharv/detail?.dir=/Iris&.dnm=MVC-008F.jpg

I make and sell the bucket for others in a larger size, half cubic yard capacity, for larger tractors.

MiniOaksMocha · Mar 6, 2004

A cubic yard of concrete weighs approx 3,800# to 4,000# or 140# to 148# per cubic foot wet. There is usually approx 215# of water in a cubic yard of concrete (25 gallons @8.6#/gal). If you're going to mix it yourself, I've always used the 1-2-3 mix ratio. That's 1 dry cement units; 2 sand units; and 3 gravel units. A unit can be a shovel, a bucket, or whatever you want as long as the 1-2-3 ratio is maintained. Then add water to the desired consistency wanted/needed, but be careful not to add to much which is easy to do. Mix with a shovel and hoe as you add water. A bag of Sakrete/Quikrete (premix concrete) usually is 80# and .6 of a cubic foot, which equals approx 133# dry per cubic foot. By the time water is added it get close to the 140# per cubic foot.

EddieWalker · Mar 6, 2004

Thanks for correcting me on the amount of material in an 80 pound sack of concrete.

I was at Lowes yesterday looking on the label trying to see what it contains and couldn't find it. Now I'm wondering where that information came from.

I'm also amazed at how much more expensive a yard of 80 pound sacks is compared to ready mix.

This means that it would take 45 sacks at $2.50 a sack to equal a yard. THAT'S $112.50 A YARD!!!