Concrete Block Making Machine?

F

flyawa

501 Club
Back in the 1950's my dad traded a 1937 Ford grain truck for a really neat machine that made concrete blocks. It was powered by a LA International engine.

It had two hoppers, one for cement and one for sand. Augers metered the correct mixture into a "U" shaped trough that had a series of angled cast iron choppers that mixed water into the mixture. As the mixed cement came out of the end of the trough it fell into a mold that had a block shaped cast iron removable base. You'd flip a switch and a electric motor with an excentric mounted on it caused strong vibration that packed the cement and let the water come out. You then pulled a long lever that lifted the base out of the mold and you carried the block and the base to the drying area. You then dropped a new base into the mold and repeated. He made blocks for several homes and then sold the machine to a guy in central Kansas. I've never seen another one.

Questions:

Has anyone seen this machine?

Who made it?

Are any still in operation anywhere?



Any info is appreciated.

Dave
 
I remember when I was a kid the concrete mixers on highway jobs. There was a hopper they put the ingredients in and lifted it by cable into a round mixer. Add Water, mix and pour out the other side. Lift the hopper agian because it was being filled while the first batch was mixing.
Never did see a block machine though. Reminds me of a crusher that took stone walls in and put stone on the road. That was real popular back in the 30's too.
 
Dave, I did a few patent searches as well as checking Google and couldn't find anything that matched your description. Part of the problem is there have been a zillion manufacturers over the years. Without knowing the year of manufacture or the name of the manufacturer it is almost impossible to nail it down. :(

You might also want to periodically check E-Bay. I found this picture of an ad from 1914 for a block forming machine.

Sorry :(
 
I have a complete set of plans for a homemade block machine that does exactly what you describe! thanks; sonny
 
Dave flyawa,

i thought i came across an article about a block-making machine somewhere on my MotherEarthNews archive cd, but i found this on their site:

045-074-01-figure1.jpg

this was the caption:
Designed and built by Lemuel E. Shaw of California this highly productive machine has been producing 800 blocks daily with one operator and a helper

here's the article from MotherEarthNews.com, which had this note: "This article reprinted by permission from Popular Mechanics. Copyright © 1946, The Hearst Corporation."

If you've never heard of Hi Sibley, you should have. Because back in the mid40's Hi was living-and writing about—more of a MOTHER-type life than most MOTHER readers live today. Do-ity-ourself adobe houses, "organic" gardening, homestead bees, and a hundred other back-to. basics projects . . . ole Hi and his wife did 'em themselves and then published the results of their work in a good dozen magazines of the day. The following Hi Sibley article originally appeared in a 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics ... but it's just as timely and valuable to any self-reliant home. steading family now as it was then.

That's right! 100 blocks per hour . . . provided you have the help and the space and racks to cure the blocks properly. In Fig. 1 you see the outfit complete, ready for work. It's a self-contained unit mounted on its own two-wheeled, pneumatictired trailer with a supporting caster wheel under the drawbar. There's nothing to take apart and put together again when you move the machine. Merely disconnect the water hose and the power line, hitch it to a truck, and away you go.

Figs. 4 to 7 inclusive show how it works. Fig. 2 details the metal mold and Fig. 3 the ejector plates and assembly. In Fig. 4 the mold, supported by a crane, is being lowered into place on the molding "board", in this case a steel plate somewhat larger than the mold. In Fig. 5 the mix is being scraped and troweled into the mold. When full the mold is vibrated by means of a footoperated take-off drive, and then the excess material is struck off the top with the fence or striker board. Next, the crane is hooked to the mold and the ejector is swung into place. In Fig. 6 the operator bears down on the ejector and simultaneously presses a foot pedal to raise the mold off the formed blocks. In Fig. 7 the finished blocks are being moved to the curing racks.

Fig. 8 shows the main frame, entirely a welded job using 3- and 4-inch pipe, steel plate, and steel channel. Only general dimensions are given as some of these parts must be sized to fit during the assembly of other parts of the machine. With the exception of the motor, which is only a representation, the crosshatched views in Fig. 9 are intended to give a general guide to proportionate sizes of the machine parts and their relative positions. To make the manner of assembly more clear, certain parts have been omitted from these details. No detailed dimensions have been given in Fig. 9 because these will vary somewhat according to the materials and parts which you have or which are available.

this was the first page; i'm sure you can find the whole thing on MotherEarthNews.com by searching the phrase '"block" and "machine"', without the single quotes. as for the mysterious "Fig." figures, i guess they must be part of the original article. perhaps searching Popular Mechanics would yield more information...

hope this helps!
dave
 
Those are a good start. VinceD, that is somewhat similar to the forming part but it shaped the block vertically rather than face down.

Dads machine was quite tall. I'd say 8-10 feet tall at the two hoppers that were a rectangular cone with a divider in the middle to separate the sand and cement. There was a catwalk and stairs to get bags of cement up to the top and shovel sand. The "U" mixing trough was probably 12 feet long and extended from beneath the hoppers at a height of about 4 feet to allow the cement to drop into the former. The engine was mounted on part of the catwalk structure and drove a gearbox and pulley belt to the mixer trough. I asked Dad before he died if he knew who made it. He said he thought it was made back east somewhere but had no idea of the makers name after all those years. He estimated it was built in the 30's.

Thanks guys for the research.


Dave
 
Dave, we have a Abby in our county where for years the priests supported themselves by making and selling concrete block to local residents. When commercial production of concrete blocks drove down the price, they converted to a different product.

(Are you ready for this???)

They started making and selling fruit cakes!!!!!!!

I have not had one but the demand is much greater than the supply and they are making more money now then they ever did with concrete blocks. True story!!!!!!
 
Although many of the locals will tell you they are - and it certainly makes for a better story - they are NOT using the concrete block equipment to make the fruitcake.
 
Dan, the official name is:

Assumption Abbey
Ava, MO.

It is located 20 miles south of Ava, off Route 5.

Here is a link to the fruitcakes. I warn you, however, this is a heavy subject.

I pulled this quote from an article on the Abbey:
"Assumption Abbey monks formerly supported themselves by making concrete blocks. They switched to fruitcake in the 1980s and now bake 25,000 cakes a year. "Around here we like to say, If you liked our concrete blocks, you'll love our fruitcakes,'" Brother Reisch jests."

All the concrete block in the house where my son-in-law grew up came from the Abbey.
 
Brian!! I am always on the lookout for sites like that, because back then you could make some nice equipment that had simple design, and wasn't super hard/expensive to make!----My homemade Cub equipment was made along the line of simple/functional/and going to last a lifetime!

Not many of the vintage plans are printed/posted anymore, so if anyone finds some please post link to them!! thanks; sonny
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top