Whether you’re laying pavement, casting gate pillars, or making kitchen countertops, one essential material you’ll need is concrete. Concrete consists of cement, stone, and sand, all mixed in the right proportions.
While mixing these materials can be done by hand, you’ll find it challenging and time-consuming, especially if you need a large quantity. That is why using a concrete mixer is a far better option than mixing by hand.
Let’s now proceed and show you how to use a concrete mixer.
Step 1: Prepare the Mixer
You can’t just start your mixer and start pouring the materials into it; you have to ensure that it is well prepared for use.
First, you have to ensure that your mixer is placed on a firm and level ground and that the drum is faced upwards at 45 degrees; this will ensure that your cement mixer does not fall while you're using it.
It would be best also to wet the inside of your mixer drum so that cleaning it after use doesn’t become troublesome.
Step 2: Prepare the Materials
To ensure your mixing can be done as efficiently as possible, you should place the cement, sand, and stone on three different plastic or wooden boards. The wooden boards will help keep the ground as clean as possible.
It is also advisable to use barrels or other large containers to hold as much water as you’d need. After doing this successfully, you can start your mixer.
Step 3: Begin Adding the Materials
Your next line of action should be to load the mixer with the necessary materials. It is wise to add the materials in a specific ratio of 1:2:3 of their volumes. That is, for every volume of cement, you add two and three times that of the sand and stone, respectively.
You should first add the sand, after which you add water, add then cement and finally the stone. Repeat this process until you’ve reached the required amount of mixture.
Tip: While this amount is solely dependent on the job at hand, it would help if you also were careful not to overload the drum
Step 4: Add More Water
When you’ve got your first few concrete batches ready, add more water to the mixture and ensure you get the best thickness possible.
Tip: Be careful not to thin out the mixture; a thick mixture is usable when wet and is very strong when dry.
To ensure that your mixture has the correct water ratio, keep your eyes on the mixture as it gets agitated around the drum; this way, you will be able to tell when it falls off the mixer in each 360-degree cycle, and you'll be able to know from reliable indicators if the concrete will be perfect or not.
So, what are the indicators to look out for, you ask? Well, if your concrete falls off before getting to the side of the drum, it is too wet. To resolve this issue, you’ll need to add more of the raw materials. Also, if it gets to the top of the drum before falling, it indicates that the concrete is too dry. All you need to do is add more water.
If the water is just right, the mixture will move about halfway up the sides of the drum before falling.
Step 5: Clean the Mixer
While some might think cleaning the mixer is not essentially part of the steps in using a concrete mixer, it is an essential part if you plan on using the mixer again.
Dry concrete is tough to remove; hence you must ensure that the mixture left inside the drum is never allowed to dry up. It would be best to clean it as soon as possible unless it becomes too difficult to clean.
Final Thoughts
Using a concrete mixer increases the quality of the concrete. It also allows you to save time and reduce overall cost.
