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For the improvement of the site, either mortar or concrete is often needed. Kneading it by hand is hard and long, and the quality of the solution is far from the best: it is difficult to achieve uniformity. Not everyone wants to buy a concrete mixer for its periodic use. A good way out is a do-it-yourself concrete mixer. You need a little money, in terms of performance, home-made units are no worse than Chinese ones, and sometimes even better.
manual concrete mixer
There is not always electricity at the construction site, and large volumes of mortar and concrete are also not always required. The way out is to make a small volume concrete mixer that will rotate manually (with a manual drive). The designs of these models are simple and uncomplicated.
From a milk flask
The simplest manual concrete mixer can be made with an ordinary metal flask (previously milk was sold in such). You will also need pipe trimmings or some other scrap metal. The design is simple, such a do-it-yourself concrete mixer is implemented in a couple of hours. The main thing is to weld the frame. The assembly of the concrete mixer itself will take a couple of tens of minutes on the strength.
You make a frame, bend a handle from a round pipe. In the upper part of the frame, weld two water couplings (for example). Their inner diameter is slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe used for the handle. The pipe is passed through the flask, welded to the body.
To make the barrel spin easily, you need to find the center of gravity. To do this, you can put it on some thin object, and moving it forward / backward, find this very center. This is where you need to pass the pen through it. Having skipped the handle, it is attached to the walls of the case. This is where difficulties can arise: flasks are usually made of aluminum alloy, and the handle can be made of steel. It will not be possible to connect from by welding. The only available way out is cold welding. He is quite real. Other modes – with bimetallic gaskets or argon-arc welding at home are not implemented. Another way out is to weld plates on the handle, which are riveted to the sides of the flask.
So that the handle does not play much and does not fall out during operation, nuts are welded to it on both sides of the coupling.
In general, this is all about making a manual concrete mixer with your own hands. For one batch in a 40 liter can, you can get 2,5-3 buckets of solution. More than enough for use in the country or on the site near the house (without construction).
If there is no can, you can adapt a barrel (thick-walled). Then the problem with welding the handle disappears, but you will have to come up with a system for fixing the lid. You can do something similar to the one that the can has.
In the video – an example of a manual home-made concrete mixer from a milk flask. The design is slightly different, but not too different. There is an interesting idea – dividers are welded to the pipe inside the tank, which speed up mixing.
From the barrel (manual and electric)
The author called this design a “drunken barrel” because of the peculiar trajectory of movement. The whole point is that the axis of rotation goes obliquely through the container. Because of this, the solution rolls over from one wall to another. The design is also simple and effective. What is important – there are no problems with welding dissimilar metals. A drawing of a manual concrete mixer from a barrel is shown below.
In the upper part of the frame, bearings are installed in the center, into which the handle is threaded. Thanks to them, a 200 liter barrel is spinning easily. Just choose a container with thick walls – it will last longer. Inside, no additional blades are welded: they only delay the components, interfering with mixing and complicating unloading.
In the original design, the loading / unloading hatch is located in the bottom. This is a cut-off part (approximately 1/3), attached with loops to the bottom, equipped with sealing rubber around the perimeter and closed with two locks. When loading the barrel, turn it so that the hatch is at the top. When unloading – turn down. The solution moves by gravity into the substituted container, and the stuck one can be removed by tapping on the body with a hammer or sledgehammer.
This design served the author for 10 years, although it was made for one-time work, but it turned out to be very successful: 20 buckets of solution mix well in 30-2,5 revolutions. During this time, it was repeated and improved by neighbors and acquaintances. Basically, the alterations concerned the hatch. Experimentally, its most successful design was revealed – similar to the one used in the milk flask. Such a “neck” is welded to the body of the barrel on one side (see the photo above). They also make handles on both sides – for the possibility of working together.
This design easily turns into an electric homemade concrete mixer. A not very powerful engine is installed – 1 kW is enough for a barrel of 200 liters, a small sprocket is attached to the axis of which, a larger sprocket is welded to the pipe axis (to reduce the speed), they are connected using a chain (from a scooter, for example).
Do-it-yourself electric concrete mixer from a barrel and a washing machine engine
This concrete mixer is gear type. To make this model you need:
- barrel made of galvanized steel for 180 liters (diameter 560 mm, height – 720 mm);
- washing machine motor – 180 W, 1450 rpm;
- flywheel and starter gear from Moskvich 412;
- two pulleys from a washing machine with a diameter of 300 mm and 60 mm;
- wheels from a garden cart;
- frame scrap.
First of all, we clean everything from rust, process it with a rust converter and cover it with primer.
We cook a frame from pipes, a channel. We strengthen the corners of the frame by welding metal plates. Everything must be tough and reliable. We make a serious crossbar: a barrel with a solution will “hang” on it, and everything will vibrate and spin.
We weld the pins, a seat for the gears of the transmission. We clean from rust, process with a rust converter, primer.
We fix the wheels from the cart. They have justified themselves with wide treads: it is not difficult to drag a concrete mixer even just around the site.
From the pipes we cook more structures for the stop and installation of the entire “filling”.
We begin to assemble the drive. First we put a large gear on the previously welded pin.
We install an assembly in the seat – a small gear connected to a wheel for a belt drive.
We attach the engine to the plate welded in advance.
We hang it so that the two belt drive wheels are at the same level. It is also necessary to ensure the normal tension of the belt.
It remains to attach the barrel. In it in the center we make a hole for a large pulley, we drill a hole for fasteners. We put it in place.
Only the electrical part remains. We connect the cable through a starter with a button.
A few photos of the main nodes. Maybe someone needs to take a closer look.
The second transmission option is from a car disk
The 200-liter barrel, its edges were cut, bent and welded, forming the usual “pear”.
The car disk was bolted to the bottom (with rubber gaskets). It was selected so that a recess for the belt drive was formed. A hub was pre-attached to the disk.
Blades were welded inside the barrel for more efficient mixing of the solution.
All this economy was attached to the frame.
Where the plate is welded is a place for the engine. We expose it so that the belt runs smoothly. Power was supplied through the toggle switch, the timer was switched on sequentially from the washing machine, from which the motor was removed.
In general, the rotation speed turned out to be 35-40 rpm. Should be enough.
Homemade mixers in the video version
If you understand the general principle of how a concrete mixer is made with your own hands, you can upgrade and redo it, adjusting it to the available parts. Help in this video, collected in this section.
crown type
Another option, only no longer geared, but of the crown type. The crown, by the way, can be bought (cast iron or plastic) and installed on the barrel.
With rollers as a support
Collapsible barrel agitator
Photo of self-made concrete mixer nodes (may be useful)
Each or almost every do-it-yourself concrete mixer has some original solutions. Few people repeat the design completely without making any changes – you have to adapt to those parts and assemblies that are available. Some interesting solutions are in the photo.