I can vividly remember the day that I first started using a cement mixer instead of mixing mortar in a wheelbarrow using a hoe—what a difference it made! Instead of it taking 15 minutes of mixing ingredients by hand, I could now mix it in less than 10 minutes and save my back along the way.
I liked the cement mixer so much that after I wore out the first one, I went and bought a second one—used of course and only $50. It did need some work though, so I probably invested about one hundred bucks when all things were said and done. This mixer has been used for the past few years and it does an okay job.
But throughout the years of mud slinging, I would occasionally hear the voice of Richard Flatau saying “You really should try a mortar mixer…they are so much better than a cement mixer.” (Mortar mixers mix the mortar in a horizontal drum with rubber blades that turn along a horizontal shaft. The drum stays motionless and the blades do all the mixing.) Taking Richard’s sage advice, I did look for one a few years back but much to my chagrin I found that even used mortar mixers were typically going for over one thousand dollars and putting an ad in the local paper turned up nothing.
One day I stopped at a local construction site and spoke to a couple of masons regarding mortar mixers. They informed me that finding a good used mortar mixer was next to impossible because by the time they are ready for retirement, masons buy them for their own side work.
I finally succumbed to the realization that I probably would never find a reasonably priced mortar mixer. Boohoo.
Four Years Later… So now here I am with only a few walls left to do on the house and browsing through the local paper there was an ad for a used mortar mixer for $250. I debated whether I should call or not. With only five walls left to do, was it worth it?
Richard’s words of wisdom came back to mind. How would I ever know if it was true? It could just be an old cordwooders tale.
I figured it’s probably sold by now, but what the heck, I’ll call the number. So I called the number and got a recorded message. Should I leave a message?…It’s probably not worth it, they’ll never call back. Reluctantly, I left my name and phone number.
About 4 hours later the phone rang and the guy said he still had the mixer. Not only did he still have the mixer, but he was only a few hills away from me. We made an appointment to meet and I decided to take the truck just in case it was worth the trip.
The mixer as it ends up is an old Western Products model 750. I believe the 750 stands for 7.5 cu. ft. Old is a good description of this mixer along with other words like “thoroughly broken in”, “one leg in the grave”, “welded often”, “needs a caring family”, etc.
The good news was that the owner had just replaced the bearings on the mixer. Knowing that bearings are usually the thing to go on old cement mixers, it seemed like a good deal to me. I tried to talk him down on the price, but he wouldn’t budge. I thought about walking away from the deal as if I were buying a car, but then I would never know if this was an old cordwooders tale or not. Since it was my birthday, I figured I would splurge. How often is it that you get to buy a mortar mixer on your birthday?
Since this is a BIG mixer (at least from a cordwooders standpoint), it comes with its own built-in trailer. The owner was nice enough to help me get it hitched up to the truck and away I went. I was a little concerned that the makeshift connection between my hitch and the trailer might give out going up and down some of the steep hills in the area, but low and behold I got it home safely.
The following morning I went out with chisel and hammer to clean out the old beast. The mixer was heavily caked with years and layers of mortar. I probably got a good 30 lbs. of mortar out of it before I sanctioned it “clean.”
Now that I could actually get a good view of the rubber blades, I realized one of them was torn. Was this a good deal after all? After a bunch of squirts with WD-40, I was able to unbolt the blade. The blades are made out of 1/4″ rubber and I seriously doubted I could find replacement blades for this model, so I went shopping for a piece of rubber that I could make into a blade. As it ended up, I found a squeegee blade that was 1/4″ thick. It was just as wide as the bad blade and only needed to be cut length-wise to make it fit along with a few drill holes for the bolts.
So now it was time to test the old cordwooders tale. In went three buckets of sand and three buckets of slurried paper. I turned on the switch and off it went. It is quite loud and sounded like giant washing machine on steroids. (No offense Sammy.) I left it run for about 30 seconds and shut it off.
Inspecting the sand/paper combo found it to be quite uniform in color. This normally takes a good five minutes with the cement mixer. I couldn’t believe how quickly it mixed!!!
Next I added the masonry cement and hydrated lime. I flipped the switch and let Bessy do her thing. It was humming right along. The mix was a little dry so I added a bit of water. About two minutes later, I had a mix that was completely uniform. No clumps of paper. No pockets of unmixed cement. Simply astounding.
Those old cordwooders are right! This machine is a thing of beauty.
Now that I am a proud owner of a rusty, trusty mortar mixer, I guess I’ll have to keep building with cordwood. Let’s see…I can build a cordwood garage/workshop, garden shed, gazebo…Looks like I’ll be busy for a while.
