materials needed for making (lego type) concreate blocks

[lord mud of the flyes]

So say I start with a 45 gallon oil drum and want to fill it

How much sand cement and hard core and water would I need (making them somewhere with no water supply)

Thanks

[JohnMo]

Pretty sure the there are volume calculators online, do a Google search, for volumetric concrete calculation.

 

Not sure you would be adding hard core, just sand, cement and gravel, plus water. Ratio depends on strength grade of concrete required.

Edited Friday at 14:38 by JohnMo

[Roundtuit]

Google suggests:

[JohnMo]

Or just go your local concrete supplier and get a 'mix on demand' truck, to fill your moulds. You tell the person in control of the truck, slump needed, strength grade, aggregate size, he will do the rest, either dump straight to mould or via wheel barrow. 30 mins to an hour later, he will be off to the next job. Zero heavy lifting needed, no guess work or arsing about

[SteamyTea]

There will be quite a bit of air in the mixture, and over time it will shrink a bit.

Some things are not worth modelling, just get some materials in and start mixing.

 

Now I assume you are thinking of a standard imperial oil drum (45 imp gal) as opposed to a US oil drum (55 US gal, or 46 imp gal).

Or somewhere between 205 and 208 litres. 

I used to listen to 208 MW when I lived in France, was one of the only English speaking music channels we could get.

[JohnMo]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

I used to listen to 208 MW when I lived in France, was one of the only English speaking music channels we could get

That's a huge tangent 

[SteamyTea]

28 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

That's a huge tangent 

Been a long day behind the wiper blades.

[saveasteading]

8 hours ago, lord mud of the flyes said:

drum and want to fill it

Why?   The purpose will affect the mix.

Does it need to be strong?

[lord mud of the flyes]

On 14/11/2025 at 14:36, JohnMo said:

Pretty sure the there are volume calculators online, do a Google search, for volumetric concrete calculation.

 

Not sure you would be adding hard core, just sand, cement and gravel, plus water. Ratio depends on strength grade of concrete required.

There is no point in doing a google if you dont know what you are doing! BTW Im cementing fence bolts to it to hang a fence

[lord mud of the flyes]

On 14/11/2025 at 16:01, Roundtuit said:

Google suggests:

Are you saying that the above ratio is for 1 cubic meter. or for 205L/ 45 gallon which what i am using?

[lord mud of the flyes]

On 14/11/2025 at 16:33, JohnMo said:

Or just go your local concrete supplier and get a 'mix on demand' truck, to fill your moulds. You tell the person in control of the truck, slump needed, strength grade, aggregate size, he will do the rest, either dump straight to mould or via wheel barrow. 30 mins to an hour later, he will be off to the next job. Zero heavy lifting needed, no guess work or arsing about

Wow! you recon they will come out just to fill 2x 45 gallon drums, I wonder what the cost of that will be

[lord mud of the flyes]

On 14/11/2025 at 18:18, SteamyTea said:

 

 

Now I assume you are thinking of a standard imperial oil drum (45 imp gal) as opposed to a US oil drum (55 US gal, or 46 imp gal).

Or somewhere between 205 and 208 litres. 

 

Yes that right, english imperial 45 gallon/ 205 litres

[lord mud of the flyes]

On 14/11/2025 at 23:06, saveasteading said:

Why?   The purpose will affect the mix.

Does it need to be strong?

It needs to be strong enough to hold a gate post and strong enough to bond to a gate post fitting

[saveasteading]

8 hours ago, lord mud of the flyes said:

strong enough to hold a gate post

So nothing special.

And it will be an oil drum filled with concrete?

You could add bigger stones, half bricks and it would be fine.

[JohnMo]

9 hours ago, lord mud of the flyes said:

cementing fence bolts to it to hang a fence

Bolts assume is fence posts?

 

What has fence posts got to with concrete Lego blocks, they are about 2m³ each.

 

Just use postcrete, get it by the bag from any DIY outlet or builders merchants. Not sure why you need an oil drum of concrete to secure a fence post.

 

Maybe you need to expand on what your doing to get better answers, sorry we can only go on what you write down.

[torre]

I think we need a fuller picture re your 'Lego" plans.

 

I'm struggling to think of any scenario where it isn't easier to either take sufficient water to site or have it delivered, and build with standard materials.

 

You'll struggle to cast interlocking blocks consistently enough to build with them.

 

[Roundtuit]

11 hours ago, lord mud of the flyes said:

Are you saying that the above ratio is for 1 cubic meter. or for 205L/ 45 gallon which what i am using?

The ratio is the same no matter how much you mix.  The tabulated quantities are approx what you need to mix .204 m3 (which is 204 litres or roughly 45 gallons).  

 

As above, more details required.  I'm struggling to see where 45 gallon drums fit into this.

[lord mud of the flyes]

9 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Bolts assume is fence posts?

 

What has fence posts got to with concrete Lego blocks, they are about 2m³ each.

 

Just use postcrete, get it by the bag from any DIY outlet or builders merchants. Not sure why you need an oil drum of concrete to secure a fence post.

 

Maybe you need to expand on what your doing to get better answers, sorry we can only go on what you write down.

Im filling an oil drum with concreate to hold a gate up

[lord mud of the flyes]

8 hours ago, torre said:

I think we need a fuller picture re your 'Lego" plans.

 

Hope this helps

[lord mud of the flyes]

7 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

The ratio is the same no matter how much you mix.  The tabulated quantities are approx what you need to mix .204 m3 (which is 204 litres or roughly 45 gallons).  

 

So 71.4 KG is the amount of cement that I will need to fill a 205 litre drum right?

 

7 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

 

As above, more details required.  I'm struggling to see where 45 gallon drums fit into this.

Because it is a holder for the cement

[lord mud of the flyes]

9 hours ago, JohnMo said:

 

 

Just use postcrete, get it by the bag from any DIY outlet or builders merchants. Not sure why you need an oil drum of concrete to secure a fence post.

.

Why this to cement; is it a lot cheaper or something

Edited Sunday at 18:56 by lord mud of the flyes

[JohnMo]

12 minutes ago, lord mud of the flyes said:

Hope this helps

Why not a 6" post either driven into the ground or postcreted in?

 

Or just fill barrel with sand. Not sure what the concrete brings to the party. A sand filled barrel is about 300kg each.

[lord mud of the flyes]

3 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Why not a 6" post either driven into the ground or postcreted in?

No digging allowed!

 

3 hours ago, JohnMo said:

 

Or just fill barrel with sand. Not sure what the concrete brings to the party. A sand filled barrel is about 300kg each.

if the barrel is filled with sand, then what will support the gate hinges? (bolted to the gate)

[JohnMo]

15 minutes ago, lord mud of the flyes said:

barrel is filled with sand, then what will support the gate hinges? (bolted to the gate)

The steel of the barrel. Just throwing ideas out there, you have your plan I'll leave to get it done.

[markc]

Free standing gate? Rolling gate would be much easier than a swing gate in this case.

as above, a 205l barrel filled with concrete will be around 500kgs, that doesn’t give you much unless it’s a light gate, quite narrow or end of gate runs on a support wheel.