Saturday, July 21, 2007

[papercreters] Re: you all inspire me.....

I've never tested the exact mix you're using, but I've tested some
things similar. I expect you'll find it is more than strong enough
to support itself in the manner you describe. I'll be interested to
see what you find.

Does some degree of deformation have to be a showstopper? As long as
it is well understood, stable, and not close to failure, allowances
for the deformation aren't too difficult to implement.


I'm having flashbacks to some of my first experiments. I used toilet
paper tubes for my first forms. I oiled with canola "PAM" cooking
spray. What a miserable form!! The tubes fell apart when they got
wet. I still managed to get my samples, but it was a pain in the
backside! lol However, I still have one of those ugly, initial
samples sitting on the shelf. This particular orphan sample dried
curved like a banana. That made it a poorly shaped candidate for
compression tests. So it sits on the shelf looking nostalgic. I
laugh at my first attempts, but I still learned a lot from them.

I do not recommend Elmers. Feel free to try it if you like. More
papercrete slurry makes a darn good mortar.

Setting the bar a little high??? You expect, "so there won't be any
mistakes"??? heh heh heh

Hmmmmmm. Let me think. Have I EVER undertaken a project and not
made a mistake? uhhhh hmmmmmmmmm errrrrrr

In preschool my teacher once told me my crayon picture of a bicycle
was "perfect." Maybe that was it? Something tells me Miss. Thompson
was just being nice. My brother didn't even know it was a bicycle.
I think he got punched in the arm shortly after telling me that.
Yeah, he and I had great communication skills!

I guess I'll just muddle along and keep fixing all my bone-head
moves!


--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "mdumiller" <mdmiller1@...>
wrote:
>
> in reply to bontie44: the box was just a heavy cardboard mailer
that
> I oiled the inside surfaces first with a spray can of olive oil
> (don't tell my wife the cook, why the can is almost empty)
>
> slurryguy: well for compression testing I'll probably apply some
> heavy weight over a given square surface area and measure the
> deformation with a caliper, or something like that. I'll probably
> use a small area, like 1" x 1" and load it with some barbell
weights,
> and let them sit for some time, like a week or a month. If the pc
> test material dead weight is 15 lb/cf, then with a 8' high wall the
> dead load of the wall is 120 lb/sf for a 12" thick wall, I'd like
to
> see close to zero deformation with 100 lbs or so on the 1" x 1"
> square test area. Western red cedar design values are 350 lbs/sq
> inch perpendicular to the grain, so 1/4 of this would make me
happy,
> especially in a non-load bearing wall, but... it needs to support
> itself and anything hung on the wall. I hope to start a cabin on
> some land in colorado, but would use this material for the interior
> walls only, the larimer county code guys are persnickity and I
doubt
> they would permit it for outside walls. Plus, I'm a little
hesitant
> at this point due to my inexperience with pc.
>
> The other issue is one of safety, if a kid runs into the wall, is
> there enough fiber strength in bending to keep the wall from
tumbling
> down. At this point, I'm thinking of forming the blocks with some
> type of nested interlock on the top and bottom and glueing them
> together with elmers. I've got some time to play first, so there
> won't be any mistakes.
>
> --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "slurryguy" <slurryguy@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Welcome to the group md!
> >
> > No matter how much you read about papercrete there isn't a
> substitute
> > for mixing up a sample is there?
> >
> > What are you planning as a compression testing method?
> >
> > Keep in mind that papercrete will have some give to it. It is a
> wood
> > product after all. Measuring the compressive deflection as a
> > function of compressive load would probably best characterize the
> > load carrying properties.
> >
> > Failure testing is also informative, but most papercrete mixes
> don't
> > seem to fail catastrophically like typical concrete. In many
ways
> it
> > acts like a sponge. You can squish the heck out of it and it
will
> > bounce back.
> >
> > I'd love to see what papercrete structure would do on a shake
table
> > earthquake simulator. It might perform magnificently.
> >
> > --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "mdumiller" <mdmiller1@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > I am an architect, and I just had to try to make a batch of
this
> > > stuff. I have a few stats I'll share that might help someone
> else,
> > > since I wasn't sure what I was getting into.
> > >
> > > Measured out 90 grams of paper and 15 grams each of portland,
> lime,
> > > clay, and a calcium carbonate/silicate mix I had (couldn't find
> my
> > > bag of sand). Tossed in 5 grams each of borax and burnt umber
> (for
> > > color - burnt umber is mostly clay). This is based (loosely)
on
> > the
> > > recipe from Robert Merrill. I pureed the paper in the blender
in
> a
> > > couple of batches, set into a colander to strain for awhile,
then
> > > mixed everything together. What amazed me was the amount of
> water
> > > this took even after draining the puree in the colander.
Here's
> > the
> > > numbers:
> > > 160 grams of dry materials - Total dry weight 160 grams
> > > 1100 grams of water (after draining paper puree)
> > > which created: a block 3.5" X 4" X 5" Total wet weight 1260
> > grams.
> > >
> > > Thus a cubic foot of this material is 8.7 lbs when zero
> moisture.
> > > Assuming the moisture content gets down eventually to 8% or
less
> by
> > > volume, then a cubic foot of this stuff should be about 14-15
> lbs.
> > > (based on a cubic foot of water being about 64 pounds, so 8%
> would
> > > add 1/8 X 64, about 5 pounds of moisture - that seems like a
lot
> > for
> > > some reason...)
> > > ...my conclusion, is, that this material looks pretty
incredible -
> -
> > > and I like the burnt umber color, looks kind of like a chunk of
> > > Hershey's chocolate.
> > > I'll be tracking the weight periodically over the next week as
> the
> > > block dries. Can't wait to put some compression loads on some
> > > samples.
> > > thanks to all for their freely sharing of info on this group.
> > >
> >
>



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