I've been driving concrete pumps for the last 6 years. 46m to 56m. I've been using water only. Using 6-7 in feed rate, turning it down to 0 when i hear the concrete coming into the last boom section. I am only using a frame and never had any problems, summer as winter. With that saying, watching these videos makes me want to move to Canada and work for this company. Seems to be a lot of knowledge and a general friendly attitude.
It most definitely can be done with water (especially when priming in A-frame configuration). We just do this to avoid those handful of calls annually in which a boom gets stuffed up on the prime. Priming with bentonite in the port has virtually eliminated said situations. We’re lucky to have a good variety of work here. Problem with our area is that cost of living is outrageously expensive.
@Canadian Concrete Pumper is expensive everywhere🫣 But how hopeless can it really be? If you need a stupid concrete pump operator who needs some assistance to navigate through the bureaucracy regime and some assistance to get settled, I will be more than happy to pump a lot of concrete for you guys the next 20-25 years!
@Canadian Concrete Pumper how is it possible??? That basically means that the normal person is locked out from this marked, unless your income or savings is stupidly high? Assuming we here have numbers way beyond the normal average?
@@lagresomadsl Yup. A young person doesn’t have a hope at detached home ownership typically unless they’ve got some financial help. You literally can’t save quickly enough to keep pace with the rate of inflation.
Another great video Scott, thanks. It's nice to start a cement crane job by filling up the boom tubes real good. :D Our local Oregon material is probably similar to yours so we usually just prime with water in the hopper with first mud on one side to fill the cylinder, works 99/1. On difficult/mystery mixes we'll use bentonite and on line pumps quite often. We usually prime the Z-booms in A-frame so maybe a bentonite kit on the booms would be good. Our line pumps use it a lot, great stuff. The one thing we do differently is use a cordless drill with a paddle bit, water first to get it swirling then bentonite. Whips it up completely with no lumps. Pump On, Happy New Year!
Thanks brother. We actually have a drill and mixing station setup back at our yard (bentonite slime ends up getting EVERYWHERE 😂😂😂) Couple of our rigs had the mixing drill on them as well, only drawback I found is that guys had a tendency to just toss it back in the tool box without rinsing (that’s if they didn’t lose or break it altogether) which again made quite a mess. Most definitely though, like you said, the drill is quickest/most efficient way to mix up bentonite powder 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Years ago on short notice the company I worked for asked me to help a young superintended monitor the slab pour on a fancy commercial strip building. Long story short, pump operator didn't prime the truck properly causing a "Rock Pack" Pump operator told finishers to beat discharge hose with sledge hammers while he kept running the pump. We told them to "Stop" they ignored us so we ran outside and told Pump operator to stop.. The blockage cleared and two of the finishers were taken to the hospital by ambulance with serious injuries. To bad there was no RU-vid back then, he could have learn a thing or two from you.
Excellent Video! Thanks for making that video, I'm definitely going to try the bentonite powder very soon. We have a limestone mix in 90% of our pours, other times is usually pea gravel or lightweight rock. Hope to see you all at the upcoming Con-Expo in Vegas mid March.
We got hit with -10 Celsius and 14 inches of snow the week leading into Christmas, it then melted off by the start of this week, so we were playing catch-up . Typically we like to shut down the week in between, but it seemingly never actually works out that way.
I’m always in forward when I stop the pump. The key is “pancake batter consistency”. If you try and put it through like yogurt, you can wind up with a big Ol’ ball of bentonite and cement 😂
Happy new years brother! Bentonite is essentially powdered clay/mud. It is most commonly used as drilling mud. Roughly 2 measuring cups of bentonite powder mixes with 4-5 gallons of water to create a prefect consistency, greasy, mud which is top notch for priming boom pipes as well as rubber hoses. I also dust the inside of my hopper with it to create a layer of mud as such that concrete does not buildup/stick to the sides of the hopper when time comes to washout. You definitely want this stuff on a line-pump. So much more convenient (and cheaper) than packing around 50 lbs sacks of cement or mortar mix. The only drawback is that you absolutely cannot allow any of the bentonite prime to make its ways into finished or structural concrete as it will remain in a mud-like state FOR-EV-ER. Happy new years brother. Thank you for watching and commenting.
It was all measured/plotted prior to the pour. It’s a bit deceiving, we’re actually within our 1:1 with still a couple of feet to spare. Always good to heir on the side of caution and double check with the taper measures for sure. 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
Photo/video quality on the 14 pro is amazing. It’s mostly just the sound which lacks in comparison to the GoPro. There’s a lot about the GoPro which I’m not a fan of (eg: how easy it is to accidentally set it to Timelapse or Photo modes). That GoPro has cost me some good content a few times now.
@Canadian Concrete Pumper so u use the go pro max? the audio is really good on it. and yeah i have messed up a few times with mine, anyways i have the video finished. i will post it on the 1st of the month
@Canadian Concrete Pumper the best one is the go pro max, the audio captured is so much better, but yeah you are close when u r vloging. my dad and others r far away or looking the other direction. btw i have the 9
Our local authority has a training manual, followed by a written test, which then allows you to gain experience and eventually take the practical test to earn your operator certification.
I like the idea of reducing your chances of problems, but 5 gallons of water in the prime port works every time for me. (Knock on wood) that is with 57 rock from Florida, so pretty much garbage. All that after I suck a single dry sponge (0 on dial, rpm all the way down)
Agreed, water works the vast majority of the time with our mixes as well. We turned to bentonite as standard fair on the big-booms as there would inevitably be those couple/few pours annually in which an operator would stuff the boom up tight on the prime and the contractor starts sending loads of concrete away assuming that the pumping company will pickup the tab. With using bentonite, these rare instances have been all but eliminated.
I’ve tried the single-dry sponge method here and paid for it the following day. Our mixes here are very heavy on fines and light on stone, doesn’t provide enough of a “self-cleaning effect” as compared to a more coarse mix. At least that’s my theory anyhow. I always end up reverting back to sponge-water-sponge.
Curious what the 57 rock is? We have a limestone rock here in Southeast Missouri. It's always interesting the different mixes in different areas of the country.
@@fronabargerconveyingpumping TN guy here, I believe he's talking about the size of the limestone. May be a different rock but when I get loads with limestone a lot of the time they will say 57-limestone
We do, but with the plastic tanks especially, it doesn’t get even warm until several hours into the day. Never really gets “hot” until the tank is half empty or less, which then becomes a pain in the butt trying to see through all the steam while washing out 😂
Hello brother. Thank you for watching. There are firms which specialize in this process,and can/will arrange everything for you. Due to extreme labour shortages, Canada has just recently expedited the process.
We use that method as well, just typically not on big jobs with big booms. The one in one hundred chance of an operator plugging on the prime and having to start pulling elbows apart while there's ten loads of concrete lined up down the street just ain't worth it. Hence why the title of the video is "The most effective" rather than "quickest", "fastest", or "easiest". I also have this one, which may be more to your liking: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GBpWxmbpPTI.html
