Papercreters: Re: [papercreters] Pure cardboard slurry [3 Attachments]

[Attachment(s) from Donald Miller included below]

Any thicker piece of metal should work for the blade. I've seen a picture of one of Mike McCain's
mixers with a steel fence post used as a blade. Perhaps the way I ended up doing the mix was part of the reason the differential failed. I have a 160 gallon metal stock tank and I fill it to the top and mound it with the soaked cardboard and then fill it to the top with water. I pull it with a 3/4 ton Dodge diesel and it makes it grunt to to get it started as the weight of the cardboard piled on top of the blade is substantial. One advantage of doing it this way is that I don't get a lot of slopping and it makes a mix of a good consistency, not real wet and not so dry that it won't come out of the mixer well. I do end up pushing a lot of the mix out of the "elephant trunk" opening though but I like the mix to be not so runny and watery as it packs in the forms better and doesn't shrink so much.

As far as packing the mix in the blocks, I poke it down with a flat bladed shovel and then after I get all the forms filled and the mixer washed out I go back and poke it down again and level them off. By this time much of the water will have run out and the resulting blocks have good form and don't shrink much. I stake down a large plastic tarp on the ground and place my forms on that which makes a much cleaner working environment and the water drains off the plastic well as the ground where I have it on has a little slope to it. Not a lot, just enough to get the water to run off. You end up with a mucky mess if you don't have the plastic under the forms. At least here where I live as the soil is a fine clay which is like cement when it is dry but very gooey like all clay when it is wet.

I havent tried putting borax in the mix, I suppose it would work. The blocks will definitely burn, a slow smolder, but then so will a 2 X 4 or a piece of plywood only they will burst into flame whereas the cardboard blocks won't. I haven't experimented with spraying the stacked blocks with a boric acid mixture so I don't know how effective that would be either. I have some pictures of my mixer and a couple of modifications to the design that work well for the cardboard and I'll see if I can find them and post them.

The pictures that I found were taken before I started putting plastic under them but it shows the basic way I do the blocks and also the "elephant trunk" setup. It is a piece of inner tube and there is a hinged piece of plywood that holds the folded trunk in place while you are mixing. It leaks a little but then the whole tank leaks some anyway so it's not enough to be an issue. I couldn't find the pictures I was looking for of the mods I had done to the mixer but I'll keep looking for them and post them when I find them. Hope this helps some.
--- On Fri, 9/7/12, Daniel Ranly <daniel_ranly@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Daniel Ranly <daniel_ranly@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [papercreters] Pure cardboard slurry
To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, September 7, 2012, 8:55 PM

That's very encouraging to hear. As far as your differential it must have been in bad shape to begin with as I would believe the abuse put on it in papercrete making would be very minimal compared to real world apps. Perhaps a bad seal? Anyways I'd like to hear more about your cardboard blocks. Really no cement? How much packing in the forms are you talkIng about? What blade did you emPloy on your mixer? I. Know this is a lot of questions but I'm so new at this

From: Donald Miller <donald1miller@yahoo.com>;
To: <papercreters@yahoogroups.com>;
Subject: Re: [papercreters] Pure cardboard slurry
Sent: Sat, Sep 8, 2012 3:13:42 AM

Cardboard, in MHO, works great. I quit putting in cement and make blocks of cardboard only. I believe there is quite a bit of glue in it that makes for a good binder. I find that the blocks are sturdier than the ones I put cement and clay/sand/gravel. If you pack the cardboard slurry in your forms they will not shrink a lot and they dry light and very easy to handle and I'm sure very good insulation. I will need to put in something for fire retardancy. The straw bale people spray the bales with a boric acid mixture. I will try that in a stacked and mortared wall. Who knows?

Cardboard requires soaking as it is a lot tougher to break down than paper. The McCain tow mixer works great. My differential gave out on mine but I made a lot of blocks before it did. I think it was pretty well worn out to begin with. I am in the process of putting another differential in it so we'll see. I also found that the lawnmower blade I started with is not strong enough for cardboard so I made one out of 1 and 1/2 inch by 3/16 angle and ground a cutting edge on it.
--- On Fri, 9/7/12, daniel_ranly <daniel_ranly@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: daniel_ranly <daniel_ranly@yahoo.com>
Subject: [papercreters] Pure cardboard slurry
To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, September 7, 2012, 4:14 PM

So I've been experimenting with papercrete for a while now and am in the process of building a pull behind mixer for large batches. As it turns out I have access to a lot of cardboard boxes that I'd like to utilize. Ive made some in small batches that came out ok using drill and stucco attachment. Will the McCain mixer do a better job pulping cardboard? Whats you general thoughts on using purely cardboard? BTW I'm new here so I look forward to learning from y'all thanks, Todd.