I haven't been mixing much PC lately, or in my case, paper adobe as I use mostly the fine clay that makes up my topsoil where I live. I am pulping almost all heavy cardboard and it is tough to cut and I was having to drive a mile and a half to get the mix pulped well and then there would be a wad of uncut stuff in the bottom of the mixer along with packing tape which is on a lot of the boxes. This stuff would be wadded up around the blade. Today I decided to get back in gear on pulping and I wanted to try to tweak the mixer as it is a basic 160 gallon tank with a 22 inch lawn mower blade which works well but I thought maybe I could make some improvements to it. I cut a piece of 4X6 diagonally on my table saw and lag screwed these to the inside of the tank for baffles. I had read that baffles would work well and some were smaller like 1 1/2 in. angle tack welded to the inside of the tank so I thought that if I made these out of the 4X6 and if it protruded too far into the tank to work well I could always trim them down to a smaller size.It is usually easier to trim something down to size than to try to enlarge it. Well I must say that these baffles worked absoulutely great! It pulped the cardboard and I didn't have the glob of uncut stuff around the blade when I got to the bottom of the tank as I was emptying it. I took a bunch of pictures as per our esteemed moderator the Slurry Guy recommends and I will post them so you can see the results.
My mixer has the elephant trunk and it works great. I used a truck inner tube as that was all I had but the guy that I borrowed the idea from {U tube video}, used a car inner tube and I think that it might work better to seal the water initially because the truck inner tube is heavy and stiff and a little water will leak out as I'm filling the tank but as soon as I drive a hundred yards or so and the pulp gets around the botton it seals up and doesn't leak anymore. I will describe the pictures as I took a picture of the leak while I was putting in water and after I drove a couple hundred yards.
When I pulped just newspaper I still had a wad of uncut stuff around the blade so I think the baffles could be a big help in the pulping process. I have two other ideas to try to improve the performance of the mixer but I thought I'd be sorta scientific and do one thing at a time to determine the effectiveness of each. On the bottom of my mixer the wad of uncut cardboard/paper has worn a shiny spot from the friction and I am fearful of the bottom of the tank wearing through as it is not made of very heavy material. I am going to make a circular plate of heavier steel and bolt it to the bottom of the tank in the approximate diameter of the worn spot to protect the bottom and then weld some cutters about an inch high so that as the wad of cardboard/paper goes around it, hopefully, will get cut up more and speed up the pulping process. I may get to work on that tomorrow as I'm jacked about the way the baffles worked and now I'm inspired to move on to bigger and better things! In theory at least
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papercreters@ yahoogroups. com, JUDITH WILLIAMS <williams_judith@ ...> wrote:
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> There's a new video on youtube that shows a tow mixer with an "elephant trunk" type of exit. Don't remember the exact site but you can find it by doing a search. Don't know about the length of your blade. I think mine is 24 or 26 inches, the longest ride-on mower blade I could find. Next time I make a mixer I will definitely do the elephant trunk thing. I am now using a 8" pipe with a soccer ball that I inflate in it and deflate when it's time. Do you live in MA?
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> Sincerely, Judith
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> Check out my new Squidoo Lens at
http://www.squidoo. com/papercreteby judith>
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> EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD
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> To:
papercreters@ yahoogroups. com> From: spike9345@.. .
> Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:37:08 +0000
> Subject: [papercreters] Building a tow mixer
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> I have built a tow mixer as the normal inst. advise. I used a fence post at 38 inches for a blade. Is this to long? It seems to catch the paper in clumps. Also put in a sliding gate for a door and it leaks alot. Should I go to a shorter blade (lawn mower 28 inch).
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> Thanks russ
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