Cob: bicycle powered cob mixer

[brian besold]

Hello. The following message was received by Michelle Brooks, who suggested 
that I foward it to this address for potential ideas with my project. Thanks 
in advance for anything, Brian.


I'm interested in building a bicycle-powered cob mixer. I have some ideas, 
but without having ever worked with cob, there are things that I need to ask 
some of you who have worked with cob. I'll explain my ideas so far. These 
are based on the use of a cement mixer, but I'm also wondering if a cement 
mixer, since it's so heavy to begin with, is the best container to use. 
Initially, I thought I'd use the drive-train from the bike- connect it to 
the gear on the mixer and it's done. The problem comes when it's time to 
dump the mix. Either the drive-train on the bike has to disconnect or the 
bike has to dump with the mixer. As fussy as I've found home-made chain and 
gear driven toys to be, I don't think this is the best design. A simple 
friction drive where the mixer rests on the back wheel of the bike might 
work though. The back of the bike will be mounted on a stand lifting the 
back wheel off of the ground, and be completely independent of the mixer. 
I'm wondering if mixing the cob will even be possible though. Will it be too 
heavy to get the mixer rotating?  Can anyone tell me where I might be able 
to get an old cement mixer(w/out a motor) to play with?



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