My stand mixer can only handle 7 or 8 cups of flour when making bread. So it doesn't seem worth it for that small amount. Easier to mix with a trowel or gloved hand. Billie

I use a hand-held mixer, which is more flexible than a stand one. I just went out this morning and bought one with a more powerful motor, it was pretty cheap. I've never felt comfortable with the thought of using a drill attachment, for some reason. This seems more do-able to me.

Attached link is to the type of mixer I got for my experiment.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hand held mixer

Hi Dog
A small drill press is as cheap and works very well.
Make a small turntable you can bolt to the drill press table and you can spin your bucket of mud very much like using a huge kitchen mixer.
You can also add a flex cable to the drillpress allowing the use of all sort of brushes great for cleaning work.
The spinning brush is much better and faster than using a hand held wire brush. And drill presses are QUIET.

Hi David. I don't understand what you mean by a drill press. The attached link, which is pretty expensive, is what I think of as a drill press. Do you mean something different?

Here is a link that might be useful: Drill press

Hi Dog I have two of that identical off shore drill press make, only that one is a 10 inch and mine are 12". See below. One factory supplies almost everyone worldwide it seems.
I paid less than that price for both. That is a high price.
You can buy a 8" model here for $40 Canadian on sale, I have one of those as well. It mixes great crete mud using a 3" ribbon mixer designed for paint and drywall mud

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ohmigod look at the snow outside your window!

Those drill things look like they'd be very expensive here. How do you fit a turntable? Where do you get a turntable, is it a regular accessory for the drill? So many questions...lol

That's not snow outside David's window...that's the 'Tufa dust from his last few projects!!! That drill press wirebrush REALLY does do a number doesn't it.

LOL! We had a good 8 inches of 'dust' out there before Christmas.
I actually work pretty dust free, I do every thing I can damp.
My shop is equiped with 2 ceiling fans that push the dust down and I have a circulating air cleaner running steady in the shop.
The wire brushes are great but I've already destroyed one cheap flex cable and that one in the picture is on it's last legs.

The wire brushes make shaping concrete very easy, especially the lightweight perlite stuff I most use and using the DP instead of a drill makes it very quiet work. I can work outside without driving the neighbor crazy.

I haven't done any Crete work since I broke my finger at the beginning of December but it's almost ready to go now.

David, sorry to hear about your finger. Hope it's better than ever quite soon.

About your flexible wire brush & flex cable. Could I do the same thing with a basic drill without the stand? Like, put the drill into my vise and add the flex cable like I would for my dremel?

I'm just assuming that this can happen and that such parts exist for standard drills.

Hi Rockyn
You can use a drill as long as it's a decent size.
Drills are a bit noisy and lack the power of a drill press but do work fine.
I have a 1/2 Makita I use with the flex cables as well.
I prefer the quiet and power at lower speeds a drill press provides.:)

My finger seems OK but I'm not ready to handmix big batches of mud with it yet just in case.