Mixing concrete

It's a long time since I've done this too, but with my Belle Minimix I just used shovelfuls as my measure. There's not too much point in seeing how much you can get in the mixer at any one time since the limiting factor is you shovelling, and a half-full drum mixes a lot more quickly.

That may be OK for your mixer. But the motor in my el cheapo mixer is not strong enough to turn a decent load. However my mixer is light enough that I can carry it up steps etc.

How much concrete can you sensibly get in your wheelbarrow? One and a half loads may be less efficient than a reduced mix.

Watching a groundworks contractor do some underpinning here the technique was as follows..... empty first mix to barrow and park out of the way. Bucket of water in mixer followed by 20mm ballast and cement. Wheel barrow to site and pour. Back to mixer and add water as required. Empty mix to barrow and repeat.

regards

I have 2 x 90 litre builders barrows to barrow materials to the site in itially

mixing is adjacent to the shed bases

my query is really about how much I should load the mixer with for optimum speed and efficient mixing

Regards

I don't need a wheelbarrow. My mixer has wheels. I can wheel it to where the ingredients are, mix it and wheel it to the job and empty it there. But really I am pointing out that the size of the mixer barrel is irrelevant if there's a pathetic little motor driving it. For my last major job I used a hand mixer that was incredibly heavy. It had years of concrete caked all over it. I could still turn a large barrel by hand without any problem. At the end of the job I put the mixer out on the footpath for the yearly inorganic collection, where it was snapped up immediately.

Sounds like bloomin hard work - glad I'm not doing it :-)