[papercreters] Re: Spacesman's version of McCain Scissor mixer & Foam Grinder

Five Horsepower sounds about right, Mike.

I did a couple of experiments and did a few crude calculations a couple of years ago and arrived at a "rule of thumb" for powering spinning blade type papercrete mixers. As I recall it was 1hp for every 10gallons of mix.

I made several assumptions to come up with that number.
It assumed a mix that wasn't overly thick, but not watery either. Good oatmeal consistency.
It assumed someone wanted to mix the batch fairly quickly. Like less than 10 minutes or so. (If someone is willing to wait longer for a batch to get chopped up and mixed, you can run at lower power levels.)
I think I rounded the calculations up to come to nice round easy to remember figures and also to allow for a margin of error. (It's always better to have more power available than is required rather than not having enough power.)

Anyhow. The 1hp per 10gal rule is a pretty good starting point for a spinning blade mixer. Each individual's milage may vary depending upon exactly their mixer design, the type of papercrete mix they plan on mixing, how fast they want each batch to finish, the efficiency of their blades, and several other factors too boring to mention here.


Spaceman?
Do you have a HoleHawg Drill?
Off the top of my head, I think those drills are rated in the neighborhood of 1hp +/-. (for intermittent use.)

I realize that you probably don't want to dedicate your drill to this mixer and burn it up running it for extended periods on heavy loads. However, you should easily be able to conduct some enlightening tests using a HoldHawg as an approximate 1hp powersource. It looks like you should be able to simply tighten the chuck of your drill directly to the blade shaft.

Performing that test might be very educational to see if it is worth the effort to keep trying to use your 1hp motor.

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, clydetcurry@... wrote:
>
> Ten years ago we built a chopper powered by five horsepower 210 volt motor pulley / belt driven



------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
papercreters-digest@yahoogroups.com
papercreters-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
papercreters-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/