Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill it

I should be able to put in

60 litres of ballast (6 x10 litre buckets)

10 litres of cement

approx 10 litres of water

20 loads would give me about a cubic metre

Does this sound about right?

On Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:02:42 +0100 Tmc wrote :
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half
fill it

I should be able to put in

60 litres of ballast (6 x10 litre buckets)

10 litres of cement

approx 10 litres of water

20 loads would give me about a cubic metre

Does this sound about right?

It's a long time since I've done this too, but with my Belle Minimix I
just used shovelfuls as my measure. There's not too much point in seeing
how much you can get in the mixer at any one time since the limiting
factor is you shovelling, and a half-full drum mixes a lot more quickly.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on',
Melbourne, Australia www.greentram.com

On Jul 11, 10:02 am, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill it

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is
not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light
enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

In message
,
Matty F writes
On Jul 11, 10:02 am, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill it

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is
not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light
enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

How much concrete can you sensibly get in your wheelbarrow? One and a
half loads may be less efficient than a reduced mix.

Watching a groundworks contractor do some underpinning here the
technique was as follows..... empty first mix to barrow and park out of
the way. Bucket of water in mixer followed by 20mm ballast and cement.
Wheel barrow to site and pour. Back to mixer and add water as required.
Empty mix to barrow and repeat.

regards

--
Tim Lamb

"Tim Lamb" wrote in message
...
In message
, Matty
F writes
On Jul 11, 10:02 am, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill
it

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is
not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light
enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

How much concrete can you sensibly get in your wheelbarrow? One and a half
loads may be less efficient than a reduced mix.

Watching a groundworks contractor do some underpinning here the technique
was as follows..... empty first mix to barrow and park out of the way.
Bucket of water in mixer followed by 20mm ballast and cement. Wheel barrow
to site and pour. Back to mixer and add water as required. Empty mix to
barrow and repeat.

regards

--
Tim Lamb


I have 2 x 90 litre builders barrows to barrow materials to the site in
itially

mixing is adjacent to the shed bases

my query is really about how much I should load the mixer with for optimum
speed and efficient mixing

Regards

On Jul 11, 10:47 am, "TMC" wrote:
"Tim Lamb" wrote in message

...



In message
, Matty
F writes
On Jul 11, 10:02 am, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill
it

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is
not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light
enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

How much concrete can you sensibly get in your wheelbarrow? One and a half
loads may be less efficient than a reduced mix.

Watching a groundworks contractor do some underpinning here the technique
was as follows..... empty first mix to barrow and park out of the way.
Bucket of water in mixer followed by 20mm ballast and cement. Wheel barrow
to site and pour. Back to mixer and add water as required. Empty mix to
barrow and repeat.

regards

--
Tim Lamb

I have 2 x 90 litre builders barrows to barrow materials to the site in
itially

mixing is adjacent to the shed bases

my query is really about how much I should load the mixer with for optimum
speed and efficient mixing

trial and error?

I've used the "fill it til it almost pukes" approach with mixed
results that depend (as ever) on who is actually deciding how much of
what is going in when.

With a steady hand on the tiller (your own) you;ll soon work out how
much you can chuck in without overdoing it..
you have minimum 20loads to experiment with - just get started;)

Jim K

"Jim K" wrote in message
...
On Jul 11, 10:47 am, "TMC" wrote:
"Tim Lamb" wrote in message

...



In message
,
Matty
F writes
On Jul 11, 10:02 am, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall
correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half
fill
it

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is
not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light
enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

How much concrete can you sensibly get in your wheelbarrow? One and a
half
loads may be less efficient than a reduced mix.

Watching a groundworks contractor do some underpinning here the
technique
was as follows..... empty first mix to barrow and park out of the way.
Bucket of water in mixer followed by 20mm ballast and cement. Wheel
barrow
to site and pour. Back to mixer and add water as required. Empty mix to
barrow and repeat.

regards

--
Tim Lamb

I have 2 x 90 litre builders barrows to barrow materials to the site in
itially

mixing is adjacent to the shed bases

my query is really about how much I should load the mixer with for
optimum
speed and efficient mixing

trial and error?

I've used the "fill it til it almost pukes" approach with mixed
results that depend (as ever) on who is actually deciding how much of
what is going in when.

With a steady hand on the tiller (your own) you;ll soon work out how
much you can chuck in without overdoing it..
you have minimum 20loads to experiment with - just get started;)

Jim K


Yep I guess so

On Jul 11, 8:37 pm, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message
,
Matty F writes

On Jul 11, 10:02 am, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill it

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is
not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light
enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

How much concrete can you sensibly get in your wheelbarrow? One and a
half loads may be less efficient than a reduced mix.

I don't need a wheelbarrow. My mixer has wheels. I can wheel it to
where the ingredients are, mix it and wheel it to the job and empty it
there.
But really I am pointing out that the size of the mixer barrel is
irrelevant if there's a pathetic little motor driving it.
For my last major job I used a hand mixer that was incredibly heavy.
It had years of concrete caked all over it. I could still turn a large
barrel by hand without any problem. At the end of the job I put the
mixer out on the footpath for the yearly inorganic collection, where
it was snapped up immediately.

On Jul 10, 11:02 pm, "TMC" wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill it

I should be able to put in

60 litres of ballast (6 x10 litre buckets)

10 litres of cement

approx 10 litres of water

20 loads would give me about a cubic metre

Does this sound about right?

yep rings a bell, say a morning/aft for two fittish fellas

Jim K

On 10/07/2011 23:02, TMC wrote:
Its been many years since I last did this (1992 if I recall correctly)

I have a 125 litre (3.5cu ft) capacity mixer

If my failing memory serves me correctly it is ok to just over half fill it

I should be able to put in
60 litres of ballast (6 x10 litre buckets)
10 litres of cement
approx 10 litres of water

20 loads would give me about a cubic metre

Does this sound about right?


Sounds like bloomin hard work - glad I'm not doing it :-)

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk