start of finish broom bracket

[kenklingerman]

I hate both types of finishing broom heads for concrete, one slips loose even when you tighten the wing nut with a hammer, the other gets hard to adjust because concrete gets in the threads and you have to loosen it up almost 1/4"

This idea should hold tight with minimum force and not have to loosen it up too much, this is just a prototype of the joint, still need to add the handle and broom brackets, and also a rubber sleeve to keep the concrete out of the works

you can see the plastic pattern I used to trace the parts I made to build this laminated device, learned a plastic pattern is only good for a couple of parts and you need to unclamp it from the steel ASAP, was barely able to make the last part LOL

sorry I didn't take more pics of the progress earlier





The final product needs to be made of stainless for obvious reasons

[farmersamm]

I think I see how you laminated the pieces to come up with the "slotted" assembly.

[kenklingerman]

Nothing like beer, music, a plasma cutter, some scrap and an Idea LOL

[farmersamm]

I have an old Goldblatt bull float with a "toothed" adjustment on the head for setting the angle. It used to have some fouling issues too. You needed to make sure to hose it off immediately after use, or stuff would work it's way into the adjustment thingy

[kenklingerman]

Originally Posted by farmersamm

I have an old Goldblatt bull float with a "toothed" adjustment on the head for setting the angle. It used to have some fouling issues too. You needed to make sure to hose it off immediately after use, or stuff would work it's way into the adjustment thingy

I intend to wrap this whole thing in a rubber or flexible pvc sheath , been thinking alot about idiot/lazy proofing concrete tools lately, already made some giant wing bolts for the vibrating screed that will not allow concrete in the threads while in use and you don't need a wrench when you are getting ready to pour or just got done:-)

[DSW]

Ken, If I remember when I'm up at the shop some time tonight when plowing, I'll try and grab the "funny trowel" swivel we picked up from World of Concrete years ago. A pretty ingenious design for easy adjustments on fressno's and so on. I made up some adapters that let me use it on pool trowels and a small mag to reach out and finish small areas by buildings.

We hardly ever broomed concrete as we did mostly stamp work. If we broomed we just used the pole thread on the brush. Of course it helped having the finisher who was 6'7 tall and could reach out there with a fixed broom.

[bert the welder]

How about slipping a length of bicycle inner tube over it and close the ends with zip ties? We use to do this with our bike seat posts to keep them mud-free for adjusting.
Make a pin hole to fit the threaded bolt through. Should be snug enough to seal.

[kenklingerman]

Originally Posted by bert the welder

How about slipping a length of bicycle inner tube over it and close the ends with zip ties? We use to do this with our bike seat posts to keep them mud-free for adjusting.
Make a pin hole to fit the threaded bolt through. Should be snug enough to seal.

PERFECT, someone on the job suggested that too today accept the pinhole,

THANKS!

[DSW]

Ken here are the picts I mentioned I'd grab. You get 180 deg of adjustment with this. Pretty straight forward as to how it's made. All you have to do is twist the pole to loosen and adjust to the angle needed and retighten. It's a bit difficult to apply a lot of force in one direction, but if you tighten it well we seldom had any issues. Never really had any issues with it getting full of crete either as the threads are well protected and it's easy to dissasemble if needed for cleaning. Any questions just ask.

[kenklingerman]

thanks DSW, that's really slick! I appreciate you going through the trouble, that's actually kinda genius!

[DSW]

We bought it as soon as we saw it. It's not perfect for everything, but it's pretty slick. I usually have it attached to a mag or pool trowel for hitting areas up by a wall that the bullfloat or fresno can't hit. Now that I have a few more tools, it wouldn't be hard to reproduce. The toughest part would be finding the tube and solid that fit well if you don't have acess to a lathe.

Oh one other thing. We use a mineral based relese agent on all our tools. I believe the name is Kleen Kote. You dilute it with water and spray it on the tools and let it dry. Crete comes right off. We coat our forms, wheelbarrows, rollerbug and any other stuff that might not get cleaned right away. The roller bug is the big thing. with all the nooks and crannies it's almost impossible to wash it fast enough when the sun is baking in July. If it gets missed, we just hit it with the pressure washer as soon as we get back to the shop and all the crete comes off.

[kenklingerman]

Thanks for the kleen coat suggestion, the guys I work with like to jump in air conditioned truck asap and won't take enough time to do anything right, they always tell me I work to hard, WTF? ITS CONCRETE! GET OFF YOUR A$$! LOL I can't do it all myself a little extra time is always nice

[DSW]

We picked up any number of little tricks for crete. We could do 1500-1800 sq ft, hand placed and stamped with 4-5 guys on a good day in one continuous pour. 2-3 guys to just run wheelbarrows and the other 2-3 to straight edge, rollerbug, bullfloat, edge and color. Then 1 guy would jump on cleaning tools while the others stamped.

One good one was mini-delay. I forget the company right now. One bag to one yard will push the set back one hour. So we'd pour out say 3 yds of a 10yd truck and toss in 7 bags. Then pour out the next 3 yds and toss in 4 more and pour the final 4yds. When we'd stamp we'd have 1 hr to get 1/3rd of the way across the pour as the 1st 1/3 set, then we'd hit the retarded part and the set would go back to roughly where we started on part 1. We'd get another hour to do the 2nd 1/3 and then hit the section that was set like we originally started and have another hour to stamp that part. Also worked well if you knew a section would be in the sun. Pour the shady area 1st, retard the sunny area and it would all set at once. It would also act somewhat like a super plasitcizer and knock down the slump a bit making it easier to straight edge. We'd often have it sent out tight for say a set of steps, then retard the rest of the truck say an hour and a half and that would loosen up the crete as well. One guy finishes the steps out back while everyone else is pouring the front walk. Then the finisher could come around front and get started with out having to kill himself.

We also had chemicals to accelerate the crete we could add on site. Super P we could add and so on. We also used an evaporative control to cut down on surface drying when it was windy (ECON) with that we could usually keep the surface soft while the bottom set up.


Edit: get yourself a few Brazilians. Those guys will work you to death. The biggest problem (other than the language barrier) is getting them NOT to work when they need to wait for crete to set up.

[kenklingerman]

Originally Posted by DSW

Edit: get yourself a few Brazilians. Those guys will work you to death. The biggest problem (other than the language barrier) is getting them NOT to work when they need to wait for crete to set up.

YES, i've had that experience exactly, LOL edging to soon and sinking on the knee boards making duck ponds, but that is better than the opposite we have with the particular people I generally work with, don't like the cold or the hot and ALWAYS bitch about accelerators because not enough truck time, and retarders because they can't get off for the day soon enough. Just can't make some people happy.

I love Chems, just not calcium choride, I think it is archaic, ruins the color and can get u in trouble.

[Stick-man]

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