Cement

[Dan]

Researching a new story that requires a some (hopefully) nasty cement action.
A real shot in the dark here, but i know that Ed's got some construction know how, so my question: Is it possible to stick your hand in a cement mixer while it's mixing?

Not to give too much away as i may post this story for the next crit cycle when it starts up, but what i'm looking for is some way for the MC to get a handful of it while it's soft, and the rapid hardening will be used as a weapon...

Thoughts (from anyone, not just Ed)?

[SharonBell]

EWWWW!! Now that would be a set of CEMENT knuckles, instead of brass knuckles! 

[Geoff_N]

It is possible to scoop some cement up in your hand while it's rotating - assuming you mean the bog-standard cement mixer, not the lorry or larger sized.

Actually I misread your post, and because I am gruesome, thought you were talking about putting someone's head in the mixer  -  aahh loverly...


Geoff

[Dan]

No, hand only...but the head, now there's an idea...

[Ed]

If you mean a concrete mixer lorry, the concrete stays low in the drum while it's mixing, because there are fins inside the drum, like an archemedes spiral that actually pushes the mix towards the front of the drum as it's mixing.  When you reverse the turning direction, the fins push the mix out of the back and down the chute.  The likelihood of getting dragged in is pretty minimal, I'd have said. 

If you plan to trap somebody in quick setting concrete, it's not particularly quick - they'd have to be up to their neck in it and unable to pull themselves out for it to work as a trap.  It's funny stuff, though - you get a period of working time with it, otherwise it'd be useless, but when it starts to go off, it goes very quickly and gets hot as hell with the chemical reaction taking place.  I've known people lose skin to it inside their wellies.  Same doesn't apply with cement, for some bizarre reason.

The worst job in the world has got to be climbing inside the drum (they all have bolted access panels in them) and chiseling away the build-up of cured concrete, or worst still, if the drive packs up and you end up with 6 cubic metres of concrete set inside the drum.  It's too heavy for most cranes to lift off and too big to easily scrap, so your only option is to get somebody inside the drum with a pneumatic road drill to chip it out.  Even with ear defenders on, it's deafening - when the guy hits steel, you can hear the ring a mile away   Sod that -you couldn't pay me enough money to do that.  There's also a crush risk - if a big chunk of concrete shifts inside and lands on you.  There's nowhere to go.

With small cement mixers - yeah, you can easily reach into them and grab a sample of the mix.  Brickies do it all the time.  They're unforgiving things if the fins catch you, though.  I've heard of people getting arms ripped out of their sockets by them, and I (along with every apprentice ever to make up a mix) have got a shovel stuck under the fins in the past.  You soon let go of the handle and get TF out of the way as it spins around with the drum.  Get twatted upside the ear with that and you'd know about it

[Dan]

Cheers Ed - great info there. All i needed and more!

[Geoff_N]

The worst job in the world has got to be climbing inside the drum (they all have bolted access panels in them) and chiseling away the build-up of cured concrete, or worst still, if the drive packs up and you end up with 6 cubic metres of concrete set inside the drum.  It's too heavy for most cranes to lift off and too big to easily scrap, so your only option is to get somebody inside the drum with a pneumatic road drill to chip it out. 

I agree. When I was a student in Sheffield, I was taken to two similar grim jobs. One was inside a cooled Bessemer steel furnace. Like the concrete mixer, various metals and slag coalesce on the sides, which eventally have to be cleaned. But worse still was when I was taken into the base of a power station cooling tower. Although ostensibly only steam goes into these. The steam condenses so that water comes down and condensation - clouds - come out. But there is enough muck in sucked in air to gradually build up a crud, that needs to be scraped out. Claustrophobics need not apply...
Geoff

[Ed]

Thought about this today - I was working in a concrete yard, so I took a few pics of the back of a mixer for you, Dan.  Not great pics, because I took them with my phone, but you'll see what I meant about the archemedes spiral thing.



And here's a bolted access cover -

[Dan]

Cheers Ed for the pics.

Sadly the story was written and turned out to be possible the worst story i've written (and there's been some clangers!). It was so conveluted to get to the point where one man has his head stuck in a cement mixer in a fight.

*shakes head*

Bottom drawer for that one!

[Ed]

  Heheh - been there, done that

Nevermind.  Maybe you'll find a use for the idea at a later date and it'll suddenly all fall into place... or not