Work Projects

During the week I work at Precast concrete manufacturing company doing what I love, Building Stuff. The company manufactures precast concrete products as well as precast  pre stressed walling elements. Mixing and casting concrete is what we do.

The old Columbia Machine Company 10Cu Foot Mixer, this machine is well over 30 years old now. Four years ago the original dodge TXT6 Speed Reducer Gearbox Died of old age, it was replaced with an SMA box which is doing a pretty good job. 

6 Years after the last refurbish, This picture was taken in July 2013,  just prior to uplifting the machine for refurbish.

After 6 years, a set of bearings  a gearbox,  lots of grease and some oil

 The new control box for the old Columbia I am busy refurbishing

The meter reads 3.5 amps with the machine running with no load

The machine base was so embedded in concrete it took an electric concrete breaker to remove it

August 2013 the machine stripped upside down on the workshop floor with most of the side removed due to severe rust

As The interior of the machine looked in March 2006

June 2006 just prior to the first refurbish I did

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The new concrete mixer I scratch built early this year, the machine was commissioned in March 2013. It took myself a Forklift and a chain block just under ten weeks to build wish I had some help.

Side view showing the shaft , torque arm mounting and tie rod, this is the business end of the machine.

The other side of the machine, bearing cover in place it keeps the high pressure water out

The discharge door and openinig and closing mechanism can be seen here

The top cover with loading chute, the machine is batched and loaded by wheel barrow.

"The Monsters Teeth", you do not want to get caught up in that , the older machine has bitten two operators during its career. The damage this machine inflicts on the human body is not pretty.

The interior of the machine is lined with 6 mm bennox plate bolted in. There are four paddle arms with flat paddles all hard face welded, due to the abrasive nature of concrete wear and tear is very high thus the plating.

Wiring up the motor

The motor is wired with a time delay between the two start windings.

The base adds 600 mm to the height of the machine

The new TA6 Speed reducer from Baldor

A batch of concrete on the floor

The tie rod was relocated to the other side of the machine after the first one broke clean off just above the buckle. This
must have been a casting fault as the 25mm rod sheared clean off.