Pulley size question. Cement mixer...

notjustair · Sep 12, 2015

I was at an auction and couldn't pass up a very nice old cement mixer for $25. It's not huge - maybe a two or three (if it was really full) bagger. There isn't a motor on it. I'm currently trying to decide whether to put an electric motor or gas motor on it. I have extras of both.

The pulley on the tub shaft is 14 inch. What size should I put on if I use electric motor? I think I have an old Maytag electric motor in the shed. With a gas motor I would only want to run it about half throttle so I'd put a little bigger pulley.

The only reason I'm considering gas is because it seems you are always someplace where you have to run 300 feet of cord or use a generator.

Dave H (MI) · Sep 12, 2015

It's been a few years since I have used mine, but it came with a Maytag electric motor on it. The motor end pulley was very small. You may want to go with trial and error to find what works best. One problem I kept running into was the ability of the motor to turn the mixer if things got a little on the heavy side. I poured a 100x10 ft driveway with that mixer one August about 30 years ago...one section a day. Added a 30x30 section at the top. Neighbors thought I was nuts. Still the only one on the road with a paved driveway though!

Janicholson · Sep 12, 2015

A guess of drum speed would be 30rpm, or once every 2 seconds. Figure the pinion and ring gear ratio (probably 15:1 to 25:1 -Count teeth-.
Look at the motor (1750rpm is likely for an electric, and about 1/2 governed speed of of a gas engine). If a 3.5 pulley is used, the v-belt ratio is 4:1. 1750/4=437.5/15=29.166. Your gear ratios are not going to be what I used, but that is the math. Jim

Janicholson · Sep 12, 2015

A really small pulley will be a weak link. A 2.5 would be as small as I would go. I further guarantee that at 4 bags of premix, a washing machine motor (probably 1/3 hp on a good day) with short 14gauge cord, will be under powered. Were it mine, I would use 1/5 or 3/4 hp. Jim

Steve@Advance · Sep 12, 2015

My old mixer is out in the shed, in the dark, so I can't get any measurements tonight, but...

When I salvaged it out of the scrap, it had a 2 HP Briggs on it with a 1 1/2" pulley. No way to idle is slow enough to work. Load it up and it would die, anything above idle and it went so fast it didn't mix.

So I scavenged a gear reduction electric motor and found a vari-speed pulley so I could adjust the speed. That works great. If I remember tomorrow I'll get some measurements and numbers.

Rich_WI · Sep 13, 2015

(quoted from post at 21:46:39 09/12/15) I was at an auction and couldn't pass up a very nice old cement mixer for $25. It's not huge - maybe a two or three (if it was really full) bagger. There isn't a motor on it. I'm currently trying to decide whether to put an electric motor or gas motor on it. I have extras of both.

The pulley on the tub shaft is 14 inch. What size should I put on if I use electric motor? I think I have an old Maytag electric motor in the shed. With a gas motor I would only want to run it about half throttle so I'd put a little bigger pulley.

The only reason I'm considering gas is because it seems you are always someplace where you have to run 300 feet of cord or use a generator.

14 inch is too small, are you sure thats not a 14 inch pulley turning agear that is on the outside of the drum? If so, that will affect things quite a bit.

In any case, you want to shoot for around 20 rpms, that what most of the commercial units are. Too slow, not a big deal, its just slow. Too fast and it just dont mix.

http://gadi.agric.za/software/renting/pulley_calc.php

Pulley size question. Cement mixer...

notjustair

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Dave H (MI)

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Janicholson

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Janicholson

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Steve@Advance

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Rich_WI

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