Continuing a show tradition where tradesmen spring the best new mousetraps for batching, mixing, placing or finishing concrete, northern California general contractor Stephen Steele arrived at World of Concrete 2021 with a mechanical marvel bound to challenge conventional methods for preparing packaged concrete, mortar or grout.
With wooden handles and a plastic vessel shaped like an elongated, upside down heart, the Steele Mixer offers a fast alternative to powered models or a wheelbarrow and shovel, the latter the bane of small contractors and do-it-yourself concrete practitioners. From a World of Concrete Producer Center booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Stephen Steele demonstrated how the unit can thoroughly mix a 40- to 90-lb. bag in less than a minute—free of the grating, “nails on a chalkboard” sound of shovel blade, wet gravel and wheelbarrow converging.
The Steele Mixer is portable, its folding, inverted V stand packing inside the vessel. The mixer can also be delivered with side straps for transporting as a back pack. Space-wise boxes make it ready to ship or stack in a dealer yard or home improvement retail environment. — Steele House Industries, Novato, Calif., 415/845-3127; www.steelemixer.com
