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liquipak (22879)- Feedback left by buyer.
More than a year ago
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Good buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
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More than a year ago
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Reviews (4)
24 Aug, 2018
Good value & quality.
Good value and quality.
25 Aug, 2016
Good piece of kit
A very good price and a well constructed piece of kit. I use this item to control the speed my electric overhead drills and angle grinders. It does the job perfectly.
11 Aug, 2016
Excellent value for money
12 of 13 found this helpful After missing out on about a dozen used Belle 130 mixers I bought this particular mixer somewhat reluctantly. I'd assumed that, for the money, it was not going to be sufficiently robust and that the quality would be low. But I needed a mixer quickly and thought that if it holds together for my immediate project it wouldn't be too bad. I was wrong. This is an excellent mixer and is definitely up to my non-professional, heavy-domestic usage of it.
Instructions
These are very comprehensive and include excellent photographs that really help. The only omission I found was that I was not instructed to fix the drum-spindle into the swinging frame by using the very large nut and split washer...
It might also have helped to include narrative as to which way around to fit the yellow plastic wheels. I ended up fitting them with the longer part of the shafts facing inwards as this gave about a 2-3cm wider wheelbase overall. Marginal maybe but it also looks right this way around.
Assembly
It was easy enough to assemble, made easier by the excellent instructions. I used additional, larger washers and larger bolts than those supplied in a few instances. I did this for reasons of strength as when tightening up some of the nuts & bolts going through the fairly thin box sections I noticed some buckling. I don't put this down to over-tightening, just that this is an economy kit and it was very easy to make it much stronger with a few bigger bolts and oversize washers. It's now probably as robust as the Belle's at a much lower price.
The most frustrating part to fit was the large rubber ring between the two drum halves. I finally fitted it by not trying to trap the whole ring in place first but by just doing one hole at a time, loosely bolting it in place then squeeze in the next bit of rubber and line that hole up.
Usage (comments made after knocking up about 1yd/1ton bag of concrete)
As mentioned, I wanted a 130ltr Belle initially but this 140ltr machine is easily better. Get the mixing angle right and it mixes a full load extremely quickly and evenly. The internal paddles really do their stuff (fitted with an additional over-sized washer to help spread the bolt-load), and if you keep the gear-train well greased (I use spray-can Lithium grease), it's very quiet in operation.
It definitely helps to put the machine on a board when mixing, or to fix a wider plate to the non-wheeled leg. Both actions make the machine less wobbly to operate and will reduce mechanical torque from twisting the machine into a knot before its time.
(If you've got muscles and/or you're not an ol' fart like me this next point won't matter but...
When emptying a full mixed load into a wheelbarrow you really need to lock yourself against the wheel in order to tilt the drum into the pouring position. I found it very difficult to pour a full load without the use of a ground board (mentioned above), unless I held the wheel right against my chest and used my body the help leverage the wheel around. This is not a problem on half or three-quarter loads but as I'm not Arnie I need to make sure I'm properly positioned before pouring.
Wheeling the machine to & from where you need it is easy enough but respect the fact that it's got plastic wheels and it flexes a bit when you move it. This is not a problem at all, just that it needs some TLC if it's going to do you proud.
Summary
This is a very good value for money machine. I've been using it for a month now and will be knocking up about 7yds/tons over the next week and am confident in its ability to do so. Again, this is an economy machine so if you take your time assembling it and treat it with respect when you're using it then there's no reason why it can't perform as well and as long as the priciest machine on the market. I'm delighted with it so far.
Oh, and with its all-black livery and big Union Jack logo on the side it's got to be the coolest looking mixer around!