This post got me thinking about sealed shaft bearings that might get
used on the bottom of a mixer.
Back in the old days before cars started having electic water pumps
they used to have pulley driven water pumps. Some still have 'em.
I wonder if an old belt driven water pump off a big honkin' engine
would be a perfect bearing? I'm NOT suggesting trying to use it as a
papercrete pump. I'm just wondering if one could take advantage of
the sealed bearing.
Finding one at a junk yard should be trivially easy and very cheap.
It is designed to work in a wet environment, and under heat and
pressure too. They're designed to simply be bolted to an engine with
a simple gasket. Bolting such a pump to the bottom of a mixer should
be a snap. There would probably need to be some reinforcing steel on
the inside of the barrel to bolt against, but that's simple to do.
The only trick would be welding a mixer blade to the pump impeller
somehow.
Obviously I've never tried this, but it might be a nice belt driven
shaft with a sealed bearing and belt pulley.
It might make building a electric barrel mixer a snap. Might work
well for a small lawn mower engine powered barrel mixer too.
Just thinkin' outside the box.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "drivedoctor" <drivedoctor@...>
wrote:
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I purchased some cheap ($6 ea.) used 55-gallon plastic barrels that
> contained commercial diswashing detergent to build a papercrete
mixer
> and want to have the mixing blade come up through the bottom of the
> mixer.
>
> I want to build a platform similar to what Mike McCain has in his
> 1997 "Introduction to Fibercrete" video from DirtCheapBuilder.com.
>
> McCain used a gasoline engine with a horizontal shaft that ran
under
> the platform to a 90-degree angle drive that powered an edger blade
> in the bottom of the plastic barrel. I initally want to substitue
> the gas engine with a 2HP electric motor.
>
> Are there any suggestions for some off-the-shelf parts to connect
to
> the electric motor or possibly used auto or farming equipment?
>
> I've seen some small drive shafts for post hole digging machines
> online a the Tractor and Supply Co. website (www.mytscstore.com)
that
> I think will work. But I'm not sure what use to connect the shaft
to
> at the bottom of the barrel.
>
> Just a friendly note here... I'm really surprised as a group we
> haven't come up with a set of "uniformed" plans where a person
could
> purchase off the shelf parts or used parts to make a 55-gallon drum
> mixer. This way all the papercrete newbies could quickly get their
> hands wet making slurry rather than trying to figure all the
> technical aspects of building a mixer.
>
> As a group project, I would like to suggest we formulate a
uniformed
> 55-gallon mixer plan and parts list and post it to the files
section
> of this newsgroup.
>
> Mark in Oklahoma City
>
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