Drying Sand for spreading

[hwp]

Deerlpope - my sand/ salt box has two compartments, each holds a little over a yard of material. I keep salt in one side and the sand/salt mixture in the other. Both sides are enclosed except for the discharge chutes. I have thought about buying straight sand rather than the salt/sand mixture and maybe that is the way to go as I could easily make a mixture of my choice as I fill the hopper. I use about a yard of salt and a yard of salt/sand most years. When I get low on either I go to my local supplier and pick up a yard and shovel it into the box. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[hwp]

BigAl - thanks for the suggestion. The tractor is an older style F2400 front mount with a Jodale-Perry cab. I take the cab off in the summer but it sure is nice to be in a heated cab when blowing snow in the middle of winter . I don't know how much of a difference a vibrator would make as there is a fair bit of vibration allready from the tractor. What I do to overcome the coning is a series of quick starts and stops. This dislodges the mixture and it flows down to the spinner but it is hard on the machine. So maybe a vibrator would help. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[hwp]

Frank - you're right about emptying the hopper after every use. I always do as otherwise it could be quite difficult getting it unclogged. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Deerlope]

My company kept about 20 yards of plain sand in a heated garage. For their sidewalks they used a drop or pokey type sander about 6' wide cause we were only interested in doing side walks.

 

[GerardC]

<font color="blue"> I thought about putting it in the oven of my wife's stove for a couple of hours but I don't think that would go over very well. </font>

Why does she have to know /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ? G

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( LB Thanks for the sugestion.
*I have been thinking about keeping a couple of tote boxes of sand/salt in my workroom in the basement of the house. It has a heated floor which would help keep the moisture content down. So I'm going to try it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )</font>
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I used to keep them outside but rain and snow would get in and it would freeze solid.
Have never had that problem since i moved them into my metal pole barn.

*Let me know if it works for you
I would not mix the sand and salt till I needed it.

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Deerlpope - my sand/ salt box has two compartments, each holds a little over a yard of material. I keep salt in one side and the sand/salt mixture in the other. Both sides are enclosed except for the discharge chutes. I have thought about buying straight sand rather than the salt/sand mixture and maybe that is the way to go as I could easily make a mixture of my choice as I fill the hopper. I use about a yard of salt and a yard of salt/sand most years. When I get low on either I go to my local supplier and pick up a yard and shovel it into the box. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif )</font>

1*I have thought about buying straight sand rather than the salt/sand mixture.
2*maybe that is the way to go as I could easily make a mixture of my choice as I fill the hopper
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1*Didn't even know you could buy it mixed.Ya learn something new every day.
Just about the time I think I know everything something new pops up.Don't think I'll ever get caught up.LOL
2*To me it's the only to go & like you said by mixing it your self you can control the ratio of the mix.
It's probably cheaper than the salt/sand mixture also.

I mix mine one part salt to 2 3 or 4 parts sand depending on the mood I'm in when I mix it.
My goal here is 3 fold Primary provide traction Secondary the ice melting factor third reducing salt cost.

Around here I can go to the concrete block supplier and get a five gallon bucket of sand for 50 cents.
A 20 pound bag of salt is about 3 bucks and won't fill a 5 gallon bucket. By mixing the salt and sand as stated It greatly stretches out how far the salt will go.

This has worked very well for me for several years.

One time I was out of sand and mixed the salt with cat litter to put on the sidewalk.
Big mistake
Worked as good as the sand except when it warmed up the wet cat litter turned to the consistency of mud and left gray foot prints where you walked.
The Wife didn't particularly like it tracked into the house.lol

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue"> I thought about putting it in the oven of my wife's stove for a couple of hours but I don't think that would go over very well. </font>

Why does she have to know /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif ? G )</font>

She would probably find it when she went to bake a cake.

 

[LBrown59]

What about cinders instead ?
Anyone here use them?

 

[hwp]

We got thumped the last coupe of days. On Wednesday we got some very wet snow and then on Thursday we got a fair bit of rain. Then the temperature plummeted. I plowed my driveway yesterday (Thursday) but the snow was very wet. Much of the time I seemed to be moving as much water as snow. It was raining so hard the water was running across the driveway. The temperature really started to drop yesterday afternoon. By this morning it was down to about -8C. The driveway had become a sheet of ice - so now I needed to sand it. As I indicated earlier, I decided to try putting some sand/salt mixture in a couple of tote boxes and put them in the basement beside my gas furnace to see if they would dry out a bit. I stuck my wife's soil moisture meter in the sand/salt mixture to try to monitor what happened to the moisture level in the sand/slt mixture - not much change in the reading on the gauge over a week. So I decided to try the "dried" sand/salt mixture this morning. Somewhat to my surprise, I worked well. The were two problems: 1) lifting the tote box full of sand to the top of the hopper is a lot harder than shoevelling and 2) two tote boxes were not enough. So I had to go back to my sand/salt box for some additional supplies. As it turned out, it was cold enough (about -8C) that the sand/salt mixture out of the bin flowed through the spreader not too badly. What I intend to do now is buy another couple of tote boxes so that the next time I want to use the sand/salt mixture, I will have enough "dried" to do my entire driveway. The bottom line is that having the sand/salt mixture in the basement for about a week allowed it to dry out enough to flow through the spreader. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif