How stinky a slurry becomes depends upon several factors. How much
alkaline materials are in the slurry? How much bacteria are
present? Temperature? Time?
Want to have some fun? Mix up some paper and water only slurry and
add some bread yeast to it. Cover, and set in a warm place for a
couple weeks. You'll get a nasty very diluted alcoholic mash.
(WARNING! Don't drink it if you value your health.) (This mix is not
appropriate for any kind of papercrete it's just for fun.) You might
be able to make a solar still and capture some of the little bit of
alcohol and burn it. Don't get too excited about creating fuel this
way. It's terribly inefficient. You'd be far better off creating
woodgas out of the paper, or just incinerating the paper outright.
The ideal conditions for stinky slurry is to soak only paper and
water for long periods in a warm environment. If you have mold
allergies the results can be downright hazardous.
If you add the borax to the water, Putrid GAGification can be
drastically reduced if not eliminated if you are using a soaking
technique. Please be sure to keep it covered so that pets or other
critters won't get into it.
Rarely does soaking longer than overnight provide any practical
benefit in my experience. Soaking glossy paper seems to help it the
most while newsprint seems to need the least amount of soaking.
Glossy cardboard almost is unuseable without a good soak. (It's a
pain to use with a good soak.)
Last, but not least, after spending a hot day working with slurry the
Papercreter's musty aroma might benefit from a nice long soak too! I
know when I've spent a hard day sweating, I sure smell better after a
long soak.
Did I gross everyone out yet?
heh heh heh
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "al" <alpinekid@...> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm building a house off-grid. I'm too far along to use papercrete
in
> the main house but I'm starting to play with the suff inpreparation
> for the next phases.
>
> Right now I'm just playing with the paper and water. I want to get
my
> tubs, mixers etc together before I make a mess with stuff that get
> really hard.
>
> I put a weeks supply of junk mail into a 5gal bucket and added 4
gals
> of water. After an hour I tore up the paper by hand and then let it
> soak over night with a plastic bag over it to keep it from drying
out.
> It absorbed all the water so I added another gallon and tore things
up
> some more. The next afternoon I took the bag off and found a lot of
> bubbles comming off the mixture. There was no smell. I'm assuming
that
> this must have been air that was in the paper fibers that had
> coolessed(sp) and as I played with it the air bubbles broke free and
> came out.
>
> I took a gallon of the mixture and packed it into a ss pan and set
it
> out into the sun. The next day it was dry enought to dump out and
keep
> its form. It dried in two days. It was obvious that I have to
mixture
> up the paper a lot more. There was lots of air space and the paper
was
> still, mor or less, just torn paper.
>
> I had to leave for a week and when I got back I notices that the
> mixture had an oder but not a rotten oder. I had to add more water.
I
> mixed it more and made another brick. This one was more glop and no
> torn paper look. It is taking a very long time to dry.
>
> I wondering if the paper starts to rot if left for a week in water
and
> thus becomes useless for papercrete? It was easier to mix:-)
>
> I'm now looking for a source of borax. Is it still available in my
> favorite chemical supply store, safeway?
>
> Al
>
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:papercreters-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:papercreters-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
papercreters-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
