Portable cement mixer recommendations?

[David_Kb7uns]

This is a West Coast thing but industrial duty and not cheap either but you buy one it will last forever, but find a used, Canoga or Multiquip and grab it. Have an electric Canoga 100 that my dad bought in 1978 that was used back then still runs no holes in the barrel.

Canoga Equipment

Multiquip Concrete Mixers

The Imer tripod mixers are hard to keep standing on uneven ground.

David

 

[DJ54]

I'd have to agree on the 3 pt. mixers. And, they don't have to look pretty to work great. I got this old Cherokee brand mixer off a fellow I worked with nearly 20 year ago. It has a hydraulic cylinder on it, that dumps the drum. They had 2 different brand mixers, and liked the other better. They'd only used this one several times, and sat in the corner of the barn for 20 some years.

I literally wore the drive caster wheels out on it, that drives the mixer drum. I also replaced the bearings on the shafts, the drive casters are on, and eventually replaced the #40 roller drive chain. Here, they have a minimum 3yd. charge, plus a surcharge, for delivering over 10 miles, so it has paid for itself several times over.

I saw a very nice Sears (rebadged, but can't remember the mfg.) at a consignment sale this Spring. I got on it, at the tail end of the bidding, when I realized the dealer that had brought it, was bidding it up, so got off of it. It looked like it may have been used once, then sat in a barn for 30, or so years. A nice HD unit.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I have an old B J Foote 3.2 cu ft electric stand mixer that I've been using for years. Now at 71, I'm also having trouble loading the waist high barrel and toting the mix with a wheelbarrow. The solution I came up with was to mount the mixer frame in the FEL bucket of my Kubota L6060 with chain binders. That way, using the FEL, I can tip the mixer to near ground level to load. I can then move the mixer to the sand, gravel and cement pile locations which aren't always together. After mixing, I use the tractor to carry the mix, still in the mixer, to the work site. Depending on the location, I can usually pour the mix into the form using the FEL without getting off the tractor. The reach of the FEL lets me pour into a form up to 8 feet off the ground. This saves me a lot of time and effort, requires no mixer modification, and cost nothing.

Since I now do nearly all my concrete work using this method, I'm planning to weld the mixer frame to a FEL QA adapter plate and replace the electric motor on the mixer with a hydraulic one. That way, I can power it on the move using the FEL 3rd function valve.

 

[newbury]

I have an old B J Foote 3.2 cu ft electric stand mixer that I've been using for years. Now at 71, I'm also having trouble loading the waist high barrel and toting the mix with a wheelbarrow. The solution I came up with was to mount the mixer frame in the FEL bucket of my Kubota L6060 with chain binders. That way, using the FEL, I can tip the mixer to near ground level to load. I can then move the mixer to the sand, gravel and cement pile locations which aren't always together. After mixing, I use the tractor to carry the mix, still in the mixer, to the work site. Depending on the location, I can usually pour the mix into the form using the FEL without getting off the tractor. The reach of the FEL lets me pour into a form up to 8 feet off the ground. This saves me a lot of time and effort, requires no mixer modification, and cost nothing.

Since I now do nearly all my concrete work using this method, I'm planning to weld the mixer frame to a FEL QA adapter plate and replace the electric motor on the mixer with a hydraulic one. That way, I can power it on the move using the FEL 3rd function valve.

Interesting, please document and write it up.

 

[Michael Aos]

Another vote for the larger Harbor Freight model. I'm coming up on 1yr with mine and it's been great.
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[bdog]

I bought a harbor freight mixer back in 2011 or so. When my dad and I were putting it together we both thought this thing is junk and won’t last a day. It has mixed over 1,200 80 lb bags of quickcrete.

 

[nimblemotors]

What I disliked about all the commercial mixers is they are very hard to move. When I mix concrete, I typically get a truckload of gravel and sand
and mix it up myself, but the truck dumps the stuff in the driveway, and the concrete goes somewhere else. Most people dump into a wheelbarrel,
but what I did was make my mixer so I can load the dry ingredients from the driveway, then roll it to the dump location, and then mix it there,
and pour it where it needs to go. I also don't always have 120v power either and extension cords are always a pain, so I made it run off a 12v battery.
A fully charged car battery would run it enough to mix and pour close to a yard.

I made it from a 30 gallon hdpe drum, and powered it using the small "2500lb' HF winch, one I used on my trailer that had a terminal broke, so I fixed it for this project.
The real key was I bought a trashed golf-cart-truck thing for $100 that had big wide wheels, and I used the frame and steel to build the mixer and the front axle and wheels,
so I had really big wheels that easily roll on dirt gravel etc, and have the weight centered, so I can just lift the tonque and roll it around even with 200 lbs inside.

I sold the cart dump bed for $50, so it really only cost me $50, and the drum was $10. I have a picture of it somewhere. First version I used a bike pedal hub for the bearing,
but that didn't work so well after a few yards of work with it, and I replaced that bearing with a car front wheel/hub bearing that I had, which was overkill and no problem since.
The other updated was concrete tends to stick into the corners of the back of the drum, so I added some wood and fiberglassed in to make the back rounded, big improvement.

I decided I needed a bigger one, so i also built one that is very large, can hold 1/2 yard, but winch motor isn't strong enough to spin it, so mostly do 1/4 yard,
that one was made from surplus junk too, but I did update with an industrial gear reduction unit that was like $150 I think. That one can't be rolled around with a load in it.
But both have trailer hitches on them, so they can be towed.

Here found a pic, you can see both, the big one, and the little one.

 

[countrybumpkin]

If you have a hydraulic auger you could always use it with a drum mixer. Think I’m going to try one next time I start a small project. Much easier to handle than a wheel barrow.

 

[currierej]

Not to change the subject, I saw this for sale and I was wondering if there would be enough interest in delivery of small loads to make this worth while, they make 1/2, 1, 2, and 3 yard versions.

 

[ch47dpilot]

I have the big HF mixer. Only had a few issues and could only do 160Lbs at a time. First issue was the drive gear wasn't quite messing with drum so I had to beat the drum down a little to get it from skipping teeth. This started after I tried to start it with a full load and drum tipped down. After that I would start drum in vertical position till it got turning then slowly tip so it could mix. They need to design it so you can adjust how far up/down the drum goes so you can get the drive gear to mesh deeper into the drum. The second was the bolt that holds the drive gear on backed out. little thread lock and no other issues. Definitely worth the money did over 100 80lb bags and still running. Depending on cost maybe worth getting 2yr warranty if you plan to do a lot of work