2 Buy or not 2 buy...Cement mixer

[Bill Lewis]

Ok, I'm getting ready to start on my deck construction. The lumber is scheduled to be delivered this friday.

My dilemma is that I've got 7 posts to dig holes and set footers. Unfortunately the requirements have changed, they are now required to be 20" square or 22" diameter by 8" thick (used to be 12" diameter).

It works out to be a little over 3, 80# bags per hole. So I'm thinking I'd like to make my job a little bit easier I'd get a mixer. It's alot of concrete, but not nearly enough to get a premix truck in here.

So here are my options.
1. Do it by hand in the plastic morter tray and hoe. Hard work and can only mix one bag at a time.

2. Rent a mixer. Haven't checked prices yet, but could be expensive.

3. Buy this HF Mixer that's on sale.

Anyone used the HF or similar mixer. Will it survive the job? Is it worth getting it? Will it make my job easier or harder.

BTW, I do have a compact tractor with a loader so moving material or the mixer around will be easier.

[Rob Russell]

15+ years ago when I built our shed, I borrowed a similar mixer from a coworker. It made life a whole lot easier. My piers took 2+ bags each - remember that they had to go down at least 42".

The mixer looks pretty similar to what you have there, although that was awhile ago. The nice thing about buying the mixer is that you can stop in the middle of the day and not worry about your rental. Still, check out rental prices. I'll get it's under $100 for a weekend and with your loader to move materials around, you won't be lugging the stuff in a wheelbarrow the way I was.

If you do but one, do you have other uses for it or would you just sell it in the local paper for $125 and call it a "rental"?

Rob

[Frank Pellow]

I would not use any of your alternatives.

Instead, I would get an old wheelbarrow and an old spade and mix it that way.

The old cement mixinjg wheel barrow.JPG

In the 37 years that I have owned the wheelbarrow shown in the above picture, I must have used it to mix the equivalent of 600 30 kilo (66 pound) bags of concrete. And, I have used it on much bigger jobs than the one that you describe. You can mix two bags at one time.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Whatever you do, if you do buy one, make sure that you don't tell anyone until after you have finished using it, because once your friends/neighbours find out you have one, you will seldom see it at home

My Uncle had one, and I think that thing lived at everyone's house for years!!!

He made up for the price of the mixers in BEER over the years

Frank, you are a better man than me, that shovel thing is HARD work!!

Cheers!

[Frank Pellow]

...

Frank, you are a better man than me, that shovel thing is HARD work!!

Cheers!

Please take it from one who has done a lot of hard work, that this mixing is really is not very hard work at all. Mixing a two bag batch takes 5 minutes or less of stiring the stuff around with a shovel. And you are going to need to shovel the stuff into a hole/from/tube anyway once it has been mixed.

[tod evans]

i`d call out a truck and be done with it.....02 tod

[Frank Pellow]

i`d call out a truck and be done with it.....02 tod

I fail to see what the big deal is about this small job. And, Tod, getting it delivered by truck certainly seems to be overkill.

[Steve Ash]

I'd agree with Frank. Mixing a small batch by hand in a wheel barrow works just fine for me. Now on the bigger jobs I just get a Redi-Mix truck to deliver.

[Jeremy Gibson]

Bill,

I bought that mixer (well, actually it was my wife that insisted) from my local HF when it was on sale at the same time I bought their dust collector - also on sale. I was also building a deck and had 8 sono-tubes to fill. We found that 2 80# bags works very well in the mixer and the machine ran without a hitch. After mixing we dumped the concrete into a wheelbarrow and then shoveled it into the tubes. For the sale price we both really liked it over mixing by hand in the wheelbarrow.

That said, Frank it also right that a large barrow can handle 2 bags and it's not too bad. But now that I have the mixer I'm glad I do.

Only one word of caution! The drum is rotated by an exposed gear over the motor. After I assembled it I was explaining how it worked to my wife. I grabbed the drum by the outside rim (also has slots to receive the gear teeth) and twisted. My right right finger tip got between the gear teeth and the slots - ouch! I had a black nail for about a month, so be careful.

So, if you are going to do more cement work in the future I would recommend buying it. If this is the last bit you plan to do then use the wheelbarrow or mortor tray.

[Frankie Hunt]

I think it about as easy with a wheelborrow and a hoe. There is a special concrete hoe that has a bigger blade with 2 holes it it. You dump the bag of ready mix into the deep end of the wheelborrow. Add water to the shallow end and start mixing along where the 2 meet. You stand between the handles. When at the correct consistency has been achieved you wheel the wheelborrow over to the hole and dump it out.

To me it is easier than fooling with a mixer. Getting the mud from the mixer to the hole would be a pain too. You will need a wheelborrow for that anyway.

Dont forget having to clean up the mixer. And having to store it until you use it again in 5 or 6 years.

Frankie

[tod evans]

I fail to see what the big deal is about this small job. And, Tod, getting it delivered by truck certainly seems to be overkill.

by my math it works out cheaper to call a truck- 21 bags at 3-1/2 bucks each+ either a mixer or barrow-n-hoe or a minimum 1 yrd order 100 bucks here. no gas to go fetch 21 80#bags, no sweat mixing.......guess maybe i`m just lazy....02 tod

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

by my math it works out cheaper to call a truck- 21 bags at 3-1/2 bucks each+ either a mixer or barrow-n-hoe or a minimum 1 yrd order 100 bucks here. no gas to go fetch 21 80#bags, no sweat mixing.......guess maybe i`m just lazy....02 tod

Maybe....?

Some would call it smart

.......some..........

[Allen Bookout]

If you have a place to store it get it. You will not be sorry. I had one for years and a couple of moves ago left it behind. Have been sorry ever since. Do not get a cheap one hike Home Depot rents. They do not hold up and slow down with a good size load after a bit.

Like Stu said, don't tell your neighbors untill you get your first job done. When they do find out they will be very happy.

Allen

[Frank Pellow]

by my math it works out cheaper to call a truck- 21 bags at 3-1/2 bucks each+ either a mixer or barrow-n-hoe or a minimum 1 yrd order 100 bucks here. no gas to go fetch 21 80#bags, no sweat mixing.......guess maybe i`m just lazy....02 tod

Your math looks good Tod. I did not know that you could get a truck to deliver that cheap.

But, there is another consideration. I doubt that I would be ready to handle all that wet cement at once.

Of cousre, I can't get a truck for any price to the site that I showed in my picture (Pellow's Island). And I am very glad that I can't

[Mark Rios]

For fence posts I generally always use bags. That way I can mix as much and/or as many as I need. Over about 30 or more 80# sacks though and I will buy it mixed.

Over here in CA. there is usually a minimum of 2 yards that the big trucks will bring out. You can sometimes talk the dispatchers into having the drivers give you the extra leftovers from bigger jobs but yo never know when the truck will get there. If it's alot of concrete then you might be up very late finishing if the truck gets to your place at the end of the day.

Don't you folks out there on the East Coast, and the midwest for that matter, have the yards that sell you up to around 1 to 1 1/4 yds. of cement in it's own trailer? A concrete u-haul type of service? There are four that I can think of just around my town and it's very common here in Ca. You tell them how much cement you want and they hook a trailer up to your truck and fill it with the amount you tell them. Again, they only let you tow 1 to 1 1/4 yds. depending on the place you buy from but you can of course make more trips. I use this whenever I'm pouring more than about 1/2 of a yard. If you only have a smaller truck or SUV they will still let you pull 1/2 yd. or 3/4 yd. at a time.