How does this one look? (Other than expensive-seeming.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O4GCFW...olid=2LOMF9SUEPNK4&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it I'm suspecting that It's a good one, for the following reasons: 1) large(er) bearing shaft, e.g. 20 mm/0.78 inches. This means an easily-easily-weldable grade of steel can be used which will be strong/stiff enough to work well, and (hopefully!) keep on working. 2) urethane "tire/tyre" - just like what Mifco is selling on recent production. 3) looks like it weighs a fair bit. Some have said this is desired in muller use. Obviously, this is not the end-all - but if one is a poor scrounger/has limited opportunities for scrounging.... Note that I would try to use two of these in an ersatz Mifco muller...
Probably would work ok. Good to have the 8” diameter as the larger the diameter, the more it tends to roll rather than plow. Add wheel weights if desired? Like discs of lead or iron? Springs for down-force? Denis
Yes. The "swinging arms" which would carry the wheels would have provisions for both, most likely. I'm thinking weights, first.
I used a similar 8X2 wheel. It worked quite well. Better still once I bolted two of them together to double its width. I got mine much cheaper than the one you linked on sale at Princess Auto (the Canadian Harbor Freight equivalent). Good luck! Jeff
Need to factor in a trip over the border to buy those, then the bearing replacement... How much do those weigh? Do they, uh, gather sand? How big is that bolt, diameter-wise?
You could always try Harbor Freight (the US Princess Auto equivalent)... Bearings are cheap. The better they are sealed up, the longer they will resist getting gummed up with sand and clay. Not sure about the weight, but the whole roller assembly is fairly hefty. I removed a trampoline spring that used to pull the wheel down into the sand, as it was not having any beneficial effect. However my wheel is kinda backwards, it gets pushed rather than pulled, and that makes it want to press downwards unaided. Sand does stick in the side of the wheel that faces the center of the muller. When that begins to happen, I take it as a sign that the sand is just about ready to use. Jeff
Watching the video, I'm amazed that it works. I'd never be able to pull that off! It took close to twenty years for me to begin to develop the needed mindset that I needed to build stuff that I could expect to work decently! It also had a few people think I had OCD. No, just a lot of regrets and yet more wasted time, and frustration gone through the roof. I'm no longer healthy enough to hide this stuff, either. Only answer I can think of, that I'm able to do, is to do the job right, or failing that, as best as I can.
Maybe you are right but I am fairly sure that if I can do it, literally anyone could - I have all the fabrication expertise of a trained computer programmer. And a little wobble in the wheel probably would not do any harm if it isn't quite perfect. Note, HT1's cement mixer muller uses a single inflatable tire which is cheaper still, and works very well: Jeff
1) no casters like you have at HF. There are inflatable-tire wheels, albeit with open, "semi-precision bearings", which are *not* sealed. (Sand gets in them unless they're covered.) Is your mixer analogous to this one: https://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/67000-67999/67536-193175329752.pdf. (?)
It's virtually identical, apart from being painted Princess Auto's 'Power Fister' blue... I stole the bearings for mine from an old lawnmower wheel, but I'm sure new ones are probably fairly cheap. Jeff
I have no real issues with it being underpowered. Now, if there's a deep pile of sand right in front of the wheel after I load it up, it may stall on startup (probably only because the wheel is being pushed rather than pulled)... so I usually just roll it back a quarter turn by hand before I flip the switch to let it get a run at it, and this has never failed. I only feed it about 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket of sand at a time. More than that would bog the wheel down, I think. Jeff
Was (just) reading how you - or someone; the one-N Denis - needed a "chute" so your sand did not "escape." How is that working? Ps: sounds like I now have two reasons to go north when us barbarians are allowed to cross the border again - casters like yours, AND bearings like yours, too.
Maybe you're thinking about someone who built a more traditional stationary drum type muller? Just about every non-cement mixer based spinning drum muller that I can recall seeing has no easy way I can think of to retrofit a chute or other dumping mechanism. Jeff
Here, from this thread: What is the "right" amount of moisture for greensand? "And I may need to build a chute of some kind for my muller too; I discovered it wants to dump sand everywhere when I tilt it over... Of course much of that was coming from between the top and bottom half of the drum, which has since had its rubber gasket installed and been tightened down, so maybe it's not as big of an issue as it seemed at the time. Nevertheless, seems a good excuse to get rid of some old sheet metal I've been hanging onto that is cluttering up my shed, so I probably will try to do something like that." Post #64. The post is thine. (May, 2018) The above was in response to the other person's speaking of a chute he made...
I cut a plastic drum in half to catch mine and it worked well. Now I have my molding machine and muller built over an old cast iron bathtub and can dump it right next to the molding station and all the extra sand from molding falls into the tub as well. I am going to move it up higher so I can dump it straight into the flask.
I guess you got me there Dennis, that was from before I found out a plastic garbage can is wide enough to catch just about all my sand when I tip it out. I forgot I had once thought about building a chute to catch and funnel it into something less ideally sized and shaped. Although in a way I kind of did go through with it after all - I have what amounts to a large funnel that I normally sit on top of the garbage can, since that enlarges the target by a few inches. It's just the cut-off tapered top piece from the mixer drum, inverted. Sometimes a little clump of sand will fly out sorta sideways and my foundry has a dirt and gravel floor, so it seems worthwhile taking that extra step to avoid losing any sand. Jeff
Note also that I found what appears to be a more-or-less duplicate of the princess-auto 8 inch caster wheel - the wheel alone, no caster, is 35$. HF doesn't carry it, unless their on-line listing is telling lies today.
Sand seems to have a date with the floor/ground, and that irrespective of the means to corral it. Checked @ HF regarding the price on the barbarian version of the blue mixer, and it's 230 Clams, (BC Comics reference) unless there's a sale or one can get the discount. It's hefty enough that I doubt much I'm going to haul that brute up a flight of stairs (to modify it) without help, and then wrestle it down the stairs after adding stuff to it... Makes "from scratch" look more plausible, given that vehicular transport needs to be arranged a week or more in advance, and build-costs (for me; no shed here, bummer) are looking to be roughly similar. I can transport the from-scratch version in pieces if needed, and I can do most of the work at home. Cement mixer means it mostly has to be done some distance away - potentially three hours away!
