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General Metalworking - All aspects of working with metal.
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Posted by Proctologically Violated©® on April 30, 2006, 11:37 am
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Awl--
In my shop-floor pouring travails (at least preparing for them), I gained
some inneresting insights.
1. Harbor Freight, ito of info, is even more useless than HD, if you can
imagine that.
In their various cement mixers, it is not clear from the cu ft declarations,
if the cu ft refer to the *mixable* cu ft or the drum cu ft.
Plus, the prices for the various "sizes" are all over the map--no
correlation between size and price. Supposedly $199 for a 3.5 cu ft unit,
altho it's not at all clear what that 3.5 cu ft refers to.
The Husky mixer at HD is clear: $299 for a 5.0 cu ft drum, which will mix
2.5 cu ft.
An 80# bag of ready mix yields about 0.6 cu ft of concrete, so the HD mixer
will take, at least on paper, about 4 bags--considerably more than the vague
references on the HF site.
2. Next, I was shocked to discover the following.
That it winds up being more than 2x as expensive to mix yer own
cement/gravel/sand as it is to just mix typical ready mix! I calc'd
$6.66/cu ft using ready mix, vs. about $14+ mixing the ingredients yerself.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow.....
You can approx'ly check the calcs: $10 for 94 lbs cement, which yields 4.5
cu ft concrete, and which requires 250-300# sand (at $4 for 60 lbs) plus 300
lbs of gravel (at $4/60 lbs). Some of the data posted conflicts, but this
is more or less correct. HD prices.
Stunning.
Which means buying ready mix is a no brainer.
But why would ready mix be so much cheaper??
3. HD can be surprisingly close to HF in prices, for things like moving
dollies, 100 ft 12-3 extension cords, other stuff.
HD of course nails you on myriads of other stuff (including nails), as does
even HF, when they attempt to sell Merkin items, like Channellock, etc.--no
bargains at all.
But HD is the supernova example of the ongoing fleecing of America. W/ Bob
Nardelli swearing that HD is a savior of society.
It is, in fact, the moth eggs on our social fabric.
Support your local hardware store, whenever possible.
--
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
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Posted by Ignoramus19383 on April 30, 2006, 11:46 am
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PV, just how much concrete do you need to mix? It is not that hard to
just mix concrete in a one wheeled dolly with a steel tub (forgot what
it is called), and then it is easy to dump into wherever you need to
pour it. Not for large quantities, obviously. One bag at a time. One
bag == one gallon of water == 3 minutes mixing time with a
shovel. Leather gloves help a lot.
i
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Posted by gfulton on April 30, 2006, 2:40 pm
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> PV, just how much concrete do you need to mix? It is not that hard to
> just mix concrete in a one wheeled dolly with a steel tub (forgot what
> it is called), and then it is easy to dump into wherever you need to
> pour it. Not for large quantities, obviously. One bag at a time. One
> bag == one gallon of water == 3 minutes mixing time with a
> shovel. Leather gloves help a lot.
>
> i
>
Wheelbarrow.
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Posted by Ignoramus19383 on April 30, 2006, 5:32 pm
Please log in for more thread options >
>> PV, just how much concrete do you need to mix? It is not that hard to
>> just mix concrete in a one wheeled dolly with a steel tub (forgot what
>> it is called), and then it is easy to dump into wherever you need to
>> pour it. Not for large quantities, obviously. One bag at a time. One
>> bag == one gallon of water == 3 minutes mixing time with a
>> shovel. Leather gloves help a lot.
>>
>> i
>>
>
> Wheelbarrow.
Yea, wheelbarrow, that's it. Works great for mixing concrete, or
taking out chicken manure.
i
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Posted by reader on April 30, 2006, 11:51 am
Please log in for more thread options
> Awl--
>
> In my shop-floor pouring travails (at least preparing for them), I gained
> some inneresting insights.
>
> 1. Harbor Freight, ito of info, is even more useless than HD, if you can
> imagine that.
> In their various cement mixers, it is not clear from the cu ft
declarations,
> if the cu ft refer to the *mixable* cu ft or the drum cu ft.
> Plus, the prices for the various "sizes" are all over the map--no
> correlation between size and price. Supposedly $199 for a 3.5 cu ft unit,
> altho it's not at all clear what that 3.5 cu ft refers to.
>
> The Husky mixer at HD is clear: $299 for a 5.0 cu ft drum, which will mix
> 2.5 cu ft.
> An 80# bag of ready mix yields about 0.6 cu ft of concrete, so the HD
mixer
> will take, at least on paper, about 4 bags--considerably more than the
vague
> references on the HF site.
>
> 2. Next, I was shocked to discover the following.
> That it winds up being more than 2x as expensive to mix yer own
> cement/gravel/sand as it is to just mix typical ready mix! I calc'd
> $6.66/cu ft using ready mix, vs. about $14+ mixing the ingredients
yerself.
> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow.....
> You can approx'ly check the calcs: $10 for 94 lbs cement, which yields
4.5
> cu ft concrete, and which requires 250-300# sand (at $4 for 60 lbs) plus
300
> lbs of gravel (at $4/60 lbs). Some of the data posted conflicts, but this
> is more or less correct. HD prices.
> Stunning.
> Which means buying ready mix is a no brainer.
Just watch the 'minimums' for truck delivery. Also watch the 'time on site',
as some concrete trucks like to add the overtime to your bill. Where a truck
does NOT make sense is for post holes, small footings, basically the small
stuff.
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> just mix concrete in a one wheeled dolly with a steel tub (forgot what
> it is called), and then it is easy to dump into wherever you need to
> pour it. Not for large quantities, obviously. One bag at a time. One
> bag == one gallon of water == 3 minutes mixing time with a
> shovel. Leather gloves help a lot.
>
> i
>