"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote in message
om...
"Bushy Pete" wrote in message
...
I want to make a roller for a 55 gallon plastic barrel to mix up potting
soil. It doesn't have to be huge, and it won't be turning a lot of
weight.



Let me recommend another method. I'm sort of an expert in another field -
pyrotechnics - on the principles and practice of ball milling. Ball mills
and drum mixers have a lot in common.

The "slump angle" of potting soil - especially bearing peat - is very
high, causing you to have to move a lot of weight on the up side of the
mixer. This would require a pretty stout motor, or a large gear reduction.
Even surplus, such motors aren't cheap. However, mixing soil doesn't
take much time, or many rotations of the drum. Because of that, consider
this:

1) fix some "lifter bars" inside the barrel at as acute an angle to the
rotation as you can muster... something like the beater bars in a concrete
mixer. About 30 degrees off parallel to the long axis of the barrel.

2) rotate the barrel with a simple crank. Make the handle as long as
necessary to give you the leverage to easily move the barrel with a full
load.

You mix quickly by rotating the drum first one way for a while, then in
reverse for a while.

With the lifter bars, you can thoroughly blend a 50lb batch of soil in
about thirty seconds. Unless you have a physical disability, it won't be
hard work, and it'll be a LOT simpler than rigging a motor drive to a
mechanism that might get ten minutes work in a month.

It'll also be a lot easier to load and unload if you fabricate a door in
the side of the barrel, rather than having to remove it from its mounts,
and loading through its lid.

LLoyd



Never thought of a door. Great idea! With a door, it could be totally
horizontal. I could pop the door off, and rotate it until all the material
fell off into a hopper. I could position the vanes so that it brought the
material to the center.

I have had three shoulder operations, and open heart surgery. I don't want
to crank anything I don't have to!

Hence, the lazy man's motorized version.

Steve