Difference between revisions of "Paddle mixer"
(Created page with "'''Paddle mixers''' are used for plaster, paint, resins, lime mortar, papercrete and occasionally other things. ==Small paddle== Small cheap mi...") |
(→Standard drill: tidy) |
||
| Line 20: | Line 20: | ||
==Standard drill== | ==Standard drill== | ||
| − | Not designed for paddle mixing, prone to overheat in this application, and they run too fast with too low torque. Paddle mixing with them tends to void any warranty. They remain popular because only a paddle need be bought, but work throughput is poor compared to a purpose designed paddle mixer. | + | Not designed for paddle mixing, prone to overheat in this application, and they run too fast with too low torque. Paddle mixing with them tends to void any warranty. They remain popular because only a paddle need be bought, but work throughput is poor compared to a purpose designed paddle mixer. Pick a drill with a 2 speed gearbox on low gear. |
| − | |||
| − | |||
==SDS drill== | ==SDS drill== | ||
Revision as of 00:17, 4 November 2013
Paddle mixers are used for plaster, paint, resins, lime mortar, papercrete and occasionally other things.
Small paddle
Small cheap mixing paddles are intended to be used in a regular drill. Typically these have a hexagonal shaft, and are often painted orange.
Standard Paddle
These are intended for a mixer drill only. They have a threaded end, and are larger & heavier duty than the above types.
Home made paddle
They're easy to make if you have a welder.
A few people have tried a short length of chain welded to the end of a rod, and report better results than a rigid bar.
Paddles for plaster
For plaster mixing, it's important to be able to clean the paddle of all plaster between batches. Many commercial designs fail in this respect, with corners and traps in the design which are difficult to clean out. (Completely set plaster doesn't matter providing it doesn't come off into your new mix, but partially set plaster from the previous mix causes the new mix to go off faster.)
Mixer drill
These run at around 500rpm with about 1kW, and are designed to be used for longer under load than a standard mains drill. They have a threaded socket to take standard paddles.
Standard drill
Not designed for paddle mixing, prone to overheat in this application, and they run too fast with too low torque. Paddle mixing with them tends to void any warranty. They remain popular because only a paddle need be bought, but work throughput is poor compared to a purpose designed paddle mixer. Pick a drill with a 2 speed gearbox on low gear.
SDS drill
These run at lower rpm than traditional drills, a real advantage. Still not as well suited as a purpose designed mixer drill.
Paddles can be held in a Jacob's chuck adaptor, or SDS shanked paddles also exist.
Self contained paddle mixer
If you do a lot of plaster mixing, one of these might suit. They can be left running, enabling other work to be done.
They generally consist of a large bowl and an overhead motor & paddle, but other patterns exist too.
Horrible hybrids
-6272 or 3
Paddles can be modified to better suit the task and the motor in use. Here a 500rpm paint mixing paddle was modified to pulp paper at 1000rpm:
- one of the 2 rotors was cut off to increase the ideal working speed of the paddle
- the blunt rotor edges were sharpened to improve pulping
- the threaded top end was evenly ground down to fit a mains drill with 2 speed gearbox. (this is far from ideal, but we needed it right away and couldn't find a mixer drill within driving range).