The night before the pour, I looked over the 1/2" hammer drill I bought from Harbor Freight (HF) and discovered I was missing the chuck key (to loosen and tighten the part that holds the bits). I decided I had to go to back first thing in the morning to exchange the drill.
The next morning, L and I went to HF where I decided a 1/2" drill felt like too much. I exchanged it for a smaller 3/8" drill because I didn't know what I was going to do with a 1/2" drill in the future. I had no further plans to use such a large drill. Whereas the 3/8" is smaller and a little lighter. I thought this would make it more versatile. So I got the 3/8" drill.
L and I got to the condo and primed the floor for the concrete and soon after, C and J showed up to help up. I sat everyone down and explained the goal, the process and responsibilities of the project. We set up the mixing area and everyone looked good and ready to go. Until we got to the drill.
One thing you need to know about the 3/8" drill is that it does not require a chuck key. All you have to do is twist the chuck on the end of the drill to open and close it on the drill bit, securing it to the drill. Well, this one refused do just that. J and I struggled to get it open but to no avail. The only thing to do was to go back to HF to exchange it.
About 45 minutes later, I was back with another 3/8" drill (exchanged without a problem) and this time, it worked.
We got ready again. We portioned out the responsibilities and rehearsed all the steps. We decided we were going to have two mixing buckets. The first was going to be the barrel where we'd mix two bags of concrete at a time. The second was a five gallon bucket where we'd mix one bag at a time. We lined up the pre-measured water buckets to have at the ready. We had a hose handy to constantly fill up the water buckets after they'd been emptied. I even had my battery powered drills on stand by in case we needed them. We were ready to pour.
We gathered around C who was doing the mixing and we dumped in the bags of concrete. C hit the drill and at once, it showed signs of struggling. It took awhile to get up to speed and about 45 seconds in, smoke began to pour out of both sides the motor! I ran over to my tool bag and pulled out my power drill and by then, the 3/8" was completely dead. We quickly switched out the mixing paddle into my Makita and resumed the mixing. We finished the two minutes of mixing and then me and J poured the barrel contents out into the kitchen area. I smoothed it out while J went back for the bucket.
After I smoothed out the concrete, I went back to the mixing area. The crew decided to only mix one bucket at a time because of the strain the double portion had caused. The Makita got through one more bucket of concrete and partially into another before it quit. We swapped that battery out for another one and kept mixing. Soon, that one died and all we were left with was my ancient Craftsman drill, which hadn't been charged in ages. The Craftsman finished off that bucket and then were out of mixing power.
We got five bags down on the floor and it all looked quite good. There were a few chunks in last bucket but after some squishing with the floor squeegee, it looked fine. But we couldn't go any further.
I was dejected at this point. I did not know what to do. I couldn't believe this was happening. Two trips to HF, an electric drill that lasted for only one minute and five hours of work so far. Granted, we got almost half way through the pour but this was not going to according to my plan. I thought we'd be done and cleaning up by now!
This is when the crew really rose to the occasion. They were all in: offering suggestions, help to go and buy another better drill, and encouragement. How about plan B?: we pause now, go get lunch, track down another drill and pick up where we left off? That sounded good but if we were going to do another pour, we'd have to prime the floor again because we'd exceed the three hour post priming time limit. I said I was ready to forego it because I was so discouraged. Again, the crew stepped in and offered to prime the remainder of the floor. I took a moment to consider it and agreed. The priming took only 10-15 minutes and then we were off.
L suggested we go to Hole Mole. It was a great choice! They've got awesome fish tacos.
I got on the phone and called Home Depot (HD) and asked if their rental 1/2" mud mixer could do the job? The associate was hesitant, especially after I told him I was mixing a few hundred pounds of self leveling concrete. Instead, he suggested a wheel barrow sized cement mixer. Whoa, now that is serious! I figured that was going to be out of the question because there was no way I could get a wheel barrow into the back of my Prius along with three passengers.
At HD, the tool rental associate discouraged me from the mud mixer citing it was meant to mix joint compound, which is softer than concrete. So we went to check out buying a big drill. The crew thought the rental drill would be just fine because we got through single buckets of concrete with the battery powered drills. The drill motors did just fine, it was the power source that was questionable. Therefore, a corded drill ought to be enough. We ran all of this by a tool associate who agreed and encouraged us to go back to the tool rental and get the mud drill. Otherwise, a suitable drill was going to cost about $180.
We went back to the tool rental and got the mixer and went back to the condo.
We got set up again. We reviewed the plan and responsibilities and everything looked okay. So we cranked it back up. We got rolling and it went like clock work. We estimated we completed the pour in 30 minutes.
In the process, we came to the conclusion that mixing in the barrel was better than mixing in the bucket. The concrete got mixed better in the barrel than in the bucket. The barrel could also be carried by two people because it had two handles. One batch from the bucket was really clumpy and thereafter, everything that came out of the barrel was well mixed.
Today was filled with many ups and downs and thankfully, it all worked out well in the end. I owe much thanks to L, C and J who helped me out. I could not have completed this job without them.
The next morning, L and I went to HF where I decided a 1/2" drill felt like too much. I exchanged it for a smaller 3/8" drill because I didn't know what I was going to do with a 1/2" drill in the future. I had no further plans to use such a large drill. Whereas the 3/8" is smaller and a little lighter. I thought this would make it more versatile. So I got the 3/8" drill.
L and I got to the condo and primed the floor for the concrete and soon after, C and J showed up to help up. I sat everyone down and explained the goal, the process and responsibilities of the project. We set up the mixing area and everyone looked good and ready to go. Until we got to the drill.
One thing you need to know about the 3/8" drill is that it does not require a chuck key. All you have to do is twist the chuck on the end of the drill to open and close it on the drill bit, securing it to the drill. Well, this one refused do just that. J and I struggled to get it open but to no avail. The only thing to do was to go back to HF to exchange it.
About 45 minutes later, I was back with another 3/8" drill (exchanged without a problem) and this time, it worked.
We got ready again. We portioned out the responsibilities and rehearsed all the steps. We decided we were going to have two mixing buckets. The first was going to be the barrel where we'd mix two bags of concrete at a time. The second was a five gallon bucket where we'd mix one bag at a time. We lined up the pre-measured water buckets to have at the ready. We had a hose handy to constantly fill up the water buckets after they'd been emptied. I even had my battery powered drills on stand by in case we needed them. We were ready to pour.
We gathered around C who was doing the mixing and we dumped in the bags of concrete. C hit the drill and at once, it showed signs of struggling. It took awhile to get up to speed and about 45 seconds in, smoke began to pour out of both sides the motor! I ran over to my tool bag and pulled out my power drill and by then, the 3/8" was completely dead. We quickly switched out the mixing paddle into my Makita and resumed the mixing. We finished the two minutes of mixing and then me and J poured the barrel contents out into the kitchen area. I smoothed it out while J went back for the bucket.
After I smoothed out the concrete, I went back to the mixing area. The crew decided to only mix one bucket at a time because of the strain the double portion had caused. The Makita got through one more bucket of concrete and partially into another before it quit. We swapped that battery out for another one and kept mixing. Soon, that one died and all we were left with was my ancient Craftsman drill, which hadn't been charged in ages. The Craftsman finished off that bucket and then were out of mixing power.
We got five bags down on the floor and it all looked quite good. There were a few chunks in last bucket but after some squishing with the floor squeegee, it looked fine. But we couldn't go any further.
I was dejected at this point. I did not know what to do. I couldn't believe this was happening. Two trips to HF, an electric drill that lasted for only one minute and five hours of work so far. Granted, we got almost half way through the pour but this was not going to according to my plan. I thought we'd be done and cleaning up by now!
This is when the crew really rose to the occasion. They were all in: offering suggestions, help to go and buy another better drill, and encouragement. How about plan B?: we pause now, go get lunch, track down another drill and pick up where we left off? That sounded good but if we were going to do another pour, we'd have to prime the floor again because we'd exceed the three hour post priming time limit. I said I was ready to forego it because I was so discouraged. Again, the crew stepped in and offered to prime the remainder of the floor. I took a moment to consider it and agreed. The priming took only 10-15 minutes and then we were off.
L suggested we go to Hole Mole. It was a great choice! They've got awesome fish tacos.
I got on the phone and called Home Depot (HD) and asked if their rental 1/2" mud mixer could do the job? The associate was hesitant, especially after I told him I was mixing a few hundred pounds of self leveling concrete. Instead, he suggested a wheel barrow sized cement mixer. Whoa, now that is serious! I figured that was going to be out of the question because there was no way I could get a wheel barrow into the back of my Prius along with three passengers.
At HD, the tool rental associate discouraged me from the mud mixer citing it was meant to mix joint compound, which is softer than concrete. So we went to check out buying a big drill. The crew thought the rental drill would be just fine because we got through single buckets of concrete with the battery powered drills. The drill motors did just fine, it was the power source that was questionable. Therefore, a corded drill ought to be enough. We ran all of this by a tool associate who agreed and encouraged us to go back to the tool rental and get the mud drill. Otherwise, a suitable drill was going to cost about $180.
We went back to the tool rental and got the mixer and went back to the condo.
We got set up again. We reviewed the plan and responsibilities and everything looked okay. So we cranked it back up. We got rolling and it went like clock work. We estimated we completed the pour in 30 minutes.
In the process, we came to the conclusion that mixing in the barrel was better than mixing in the bucket. The concrete got mixed better in the barrel than in the bucket. The barrel could also be carried by two people because it had two handles. One batch from the bucket was really clumpy and thereafter, everything that came out of the barrel was well mixed.
Today was filled with many ups and downs and thankfully, it all worked out well in the end. I owe much thanks to L, C and J who helped me out. I could not have completed this job without them.
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