Ron, with my 10 ton air assested bottle jack it took about three times to eject all the water, I also didn't have any drain holes in the form, after I drilled about 50 5/16" drain holes and installed a 30 ton air assested bottle jack, it only took one press to eject all the water. But! After building these new forms (seen in the photo section) I'll never press again. Its way to slow and I want to get things done faster if possible. The new forms I've created are 30" long and have two end pieces, mine are 12" long and have a 2x6 insert that is 12" long also. They could have been any size I wanted but right now I'm using 12", later I may use 6" for interior walls. The reason I made the forms 30" long is because I'm using 2" x6" red iron and by placing the end pieces three inches from each end of the form it will produce a 12"x24"x6" block. The end pieces can be placed anywhere inside the form to produce any size block you need. In my photos you will see 2x4 blocks under the forms, that is because I had to pour to the level of the patio which is 1 1/2 above the porch slab. The last block rested nicely on the patio slab and all remaining block will be pourd on top of this starting course. They will be all locked together as I will show later in my photo section, stay tuned.
Bob
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Ron Richter <ronerichter@...> wrote:
>
> Bob,
> How is the press progressing? I am slowly working on the auger idea. I am a traditional archery bowyer and I have had some bows to make this summer (much to my papercrete projects dismay).
>
> One question I had was the length of time the pressure has to remain on the mix to allow the water to leave. I mean, it surely can't all escape momentarily, so the pressure must be maintained over at least 10 seconds or longer to effectively void the water. Is this correct? I am trying to figure out how fast the auger should turn and how long the slurry will remain in a constricted state at that speed.
>
> Ron
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Bob criswells.ok@...
> To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 6:23:53 PM
> Subject: [papercreters] Forgot to mention
>
>
>
>
>
> I forgot to mention that we use a 30 ton air assisted bottle jack to press with. We wanted a 20 ton bottle jack but Harbor Freight quit handling that size. The air assist bottle jack works like a hydraulic ram.
>
__._,_.___
