Hi! New member/lurker here!
I have been following this thread on the rollers since it began, as
I have thought when I get to the point of building a mixer, that I
might do something similar.
Initial thoughts were that yes, the rollers are too small, but as a
tinkerer and master putterer (lol) i held my pen.
Now after seeing the pics and reading these later posts, I feel I
have an obligation to speak up.
I am an automotive designer. I have long ago graduated from
individual component design to system integration and whole vehicle
design at one of the Big Three.
I work not only with the system engineers that are responsible for
individual parts and assmblies, but also the crash and safety folks,
and the tooling and manufacturing, as well several other safety
related groups.
Please stop using your papercrete mixer as it is!
It is more dangerous than you might imagine! When I viewed your pics
with those adorable girls of yours I was horrified! Not just for
them but anyone that would be anywhere near that mixer in operation.
Please allow me to explain!
There are larger rollers available as was discussed. I would suggest
for the DIYer to use other vehicle drivetrain components to create
the Tire to PTO box. Drive shafts or rear axles of vehicles are
designed to handle these loads. Rollers off an industrial conveyor
system (as pictured) are NOT! compare the size of the conveyor
roller bearings to the wheel bearings in your car or light truck.
See the difference?
I know I have time to devise a system before I get to that point of
build. one of the challenges for me was to keep the mobility of the
towed mixing unit, and devise the PTO system to also be portable or
stowable. To accomodate the size of the components needed a
reinforced concrete (or solid timber) pit would have needed to be
build. this is neither temporary nor portable.
First off...your mixer is no longer mobile. It is now mounted on a
deck frame system. This is assumably adequate for the weight of
mixer, motor and ingredients (including the water). So this part
seems adequate if the piles are deep enough...PCers can help more
with that. however the frame may not be able to take the combined
load of the drivetrain and the weight of the mixer and ingredients
together...at least not for long.
Now that you have a stationery mixer, why would you cobble such a
rig? A suggestion here would be to get a used lawn tractor and
either use the PTO to power the mixer, or use/convert a hydrostatic
drive lawn tractor to power a hydraulic motor on the mixer.
I understand about the limitaions of using wood if one does not have
access to welding equipment and supplies. However, you are building
a machine that requires that level of strength and reliability as
weled steel frame. Either find another method that is safer and
robust or breakdown and spend the money on a commercial system.
Things to go wrong with your setup are numerous.
The opportunity for any of those failures to become catastrophic are
too great to risk. Additionally, this setup would easily allow a
single minor failure to become a chain reaction failure that would
almost certainly be catastrophic. Let me add that the definition of
catastrophic failure includes only the possibility of injury, where
the real definition is that pieces break and fly apart with
explosive force throwing pieces of your machine some distance with
great force even at a distant point of impact.
I am very sorry to add this two cents worth after all of the other
cautions from other PCers, and to paint such a bleak picture. such
statements as mine i know might seem over reactive (it is not) and
maybe even discouraging (possibly). However you nor anyone else
would understand the risk taken if you, your wife or one of your
beautiful daughters were impaled by flying shrapnel or crushed from
something gone wrong.
I have nearly 30 years experience in what i do...part of which
includes analyzing what went wrong scenarios. If you need me to list
the things which could potentially go wrong with this design I can
do that. I just hope that this warning should be enough.
Please! Do not continue using your mixing machine as it is! Please!
-Todd
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