Cement Mixing

Fungus · Mar 3, 2004

I have a few projects that require some cement. Most of the projects can’t be reached by a truck and or I don’t need enough to justify one.

So I’ve been thinking about a cement mixer and would like to make about 6 CF at a time – about how much my FEL will carry. I then had a brain fart & thought what about mixing it right in my FEL!

I’m thinking with a little hydraulic power from the tractor I could come up with an action to mix it. Has anyone else thought about this?

Harv · Mar 3, 2004

I don't have any ideas on how to do what you ask, mostly 'cuz I'm hydraulically challenged myself, but you might want to double check how much your FEL can handle.

Dry concrete weighs about 150 lbs per cubic foot, as I understand it, and a wet mix would put you well over half a ton. Might just mean you mix a little less at a time. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

SPIKER · Mar 3, 2004

not sure, but you can buy a nice 1/2 or 2/4" heavy duty slow drill and mix it !. like the drywallers do their mud.

I know Harbor Freight has a cement mixer in the catalog now too. both types, stand alone and big drill type.

Mark M /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

rockinmywaypa · Mar 3, 2004

Have you seen those 45 gal barrels with the clamp on lids. drill and bolt a couple light angle irons inside and insert ingredients and roll around the driveway. You could then probably carry it in the bucket to where you want it.

yooperdave · Mar 3, 2004

There are concrete mixers that are supported by the 3 point hitch and hooked up to the pto.

You could put bags of cement in the bucket, and mix it up behind the tractor.

Good Luck

Yooper Dave

Inspector507 · Mar 3, 2004

My tractor is pretty small...A NH TC18. I didn't have enough need for a 3PH mixer and from what I've read my tractor may be too small to get the hopper to dump effectivly. I bought the electric model from Harbor Freight, about $170. I can move it where I need it, bring the bag mix to it in the FEL. Mix, dump...I'm happy /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Spencer · Mar 3, 2004

A TBN'er named Neal who goes by the username ns_in_tex came up with one method of mixing cement on his FEL. Here is a link to his thread.

Strange, cheap, concrete mixer

Fungus · Mar 4, 2004

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, concrete is heavy stuff. My FEL is good for 1000 lbs so 6 CF shouldn’t be a problem.

I have looked at the 3-PT mixers. Not a bad concept but most posts about them have been negative. I may revisit this approach.

Most cheap mixers only handle a bag or two. When you start getting into mixers with capacities of 6 CF (9/12 CF drum) the price ranges from $2,500 to $4,500 – eek.

I was just thinking of way to do it right in the FEL. The barrel idea is creative. Perhaps I could make a lid for my FEL that has some paddles welded onto it. Load in the components, shut the lid and roll it back & forth?

Still thinking …

wroughtn_harv · Mar 4, 2004

You can do it for small projects, three yards or less, the fenceman's way.

Get a good six cubic foot wheelbarrow. A good one, one of the blue ones at the box store that cost eighty dollars or so.

Put in five shovel fulls, I use a square point, of sand and gravel. Your supply yard usually will have what they call "remix". Remix is when they take even amounts of concrete sand and gravel and remix them. Some of the better supply yards will have two varieties of remix. One with three quarter rock and one with pea gravel. You want the three quarter.

If you can't get remix get even amounts of rock and sand. Again, I recommend three quarter unless you're cementing in posts where there isn't much clearance, then "peemix" is appropriate.

You can put in three sand, two gravel one layer and then two sand and three gravel the next. After you put in your first layer lay down a layer of Portland Cement. Try to layer out the cement as a layer, even as possible.

Another layer of aggregate, layer of portland, layer of aggregate, portland, and so on. If you're not familiar with moving a wheelbarrow then I suggest starting off with half wheelbarrow loads and then go heavier as your skill increases. A decent, not necessarily moral but decent, fenceman will grab ahold of a heaping wheelbarrow and put it where it needs to go and need only a bucket or two of bad words.

I use a D handle round point shovel. In fact I have one shovel usually on the trucks that will get somone slapped if they use it for anything but mixing. It's kept clean because if there's dirt or dried cement on it twenty six times that amount of new cement will stick to it when mixing. That's a bad word generator of the dimensions usually reserved for rude drivers.

Since a fence man has to sometimes do this all day long he's usually learned to let the shovel do the work. That entails using his whole body and not wearing out parts like arms and back.

When you get the wheelbarrow next to the place where you want concrete and not layers of sand, gravel, and portland. You take your roundpoint and make a bowl at the front of the wheelbarrow in the mix. Fill this bowl with water. Gently mix the materials with the water until you have concrete. If you've done it right you will have a couple of shovel fulls of concrete. Dispense this. Put more water, not too much, and repeat. Repeat until the wheelbarrow is empty.

There are some common mistakes made by rookies. The most common is trying to mix the whole wheelbarrow at once. That's twice to three times the work. Another is not using the front of the wheelbarrow and shovel together as a team.

The leading thigh should be put against the front of the wheelbarrow. The shovel is brought to and up the front of the wheelbarrow taking advantage of the contour. Shovel is then pushed backwards giving the material an additional stir.

When this is done properly the rookie will hurt all over that evening. There won't be any of this "leg hurts", "back hurts", "gut hurts", or even "head aches". It will be "I hurt all over more'n anywhere else."

I occasionally do it this way these days. But most times I get out my nine cubic foot Stone concrete mixer and the custom concrete bucket I have for the tractor. Even though I'm almost fifty six years old I can still put five, sometimes six yards through the mixer and into postholes in a day.

I'm not getting better as I get older. But I do think about it more. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

WVBill · Mar 4, 2004

(I messed up the attachments link... See end of post)

I bought an inexpensive electric mixer from Tractor Supply but instead of mounting the "head" on the supplied stand, I mounted it in my FEL bucket.

Raised it up to the level of my pickup truck bed, dumped in the sacks of Quickcrete without lifting, tipped the bucket back, plugged it in and added water. When mixed, unplugged it, drove to where I needed the 'crete and dumped the bucket/mixer. Drove back, repeated. I had made a set of light duty "forks" out of 2 x 4's a couple of years ago following an idea someone else here on TBN posted. The vertical portion of the fork wedges up against an angle-iron lip I put on the top edge of the bucket. They're surprisingly strong and I've used them to move a pallet with a couple of concrete blocks on it (my loader capacity is only 550 lbs).

Anyway, being wood, they made a good and easy base to attach the cement mixer head to. They can't tilt out from the top because of the lip and I threw a chain and chain binder around the horizontal wooden cross member I attached to them and up around the back of the bucket to the top lip. This keeps the whole thing from sliding out at the bottom.

It worked quite well except that the length of the forks meant I had to dump the concrete from about 18". If I'd shortened the forks I could have laid the concrete down with much more accuracy.

By the way, the hose reel on the loader arm is there for when I put my sprayer tank in the FEL bucket and drive around the property to spray. It's just held on by a pair of "U" bolts so I take it off after spraying season.

Here's some pictures.
Pictures from previous post

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!!!