Well you and others are welcome to their opinions, except compressing the PC removes the air. By removing the air It increases the density, but also decreases the insulative value. I guess that is why 6 inches of fiberglass insulates better than 6 inches of rock. But this is my opinion and I am not forcing it on anybody.
When vibrating I just used my 12 X 24 X 6 forms. By the time I got my extension cords out where I had the forms set, got the sander, went back and plugged in the sander, went back to the forms the water was drained out of the forms. Running the sander on the side of the forms did not get any water pouring out and I could not see the material settling. All the concrete vibrator did was make a mess. And the extra time and effort to do all this I could have mixed and poured another set of forms. I try to mix 5-6 cu feet per batch. And what I want is light blocks with a minimum of shrinkage. Again, when you do a small batch and pour one or two blocks at a time, the time/labor factor is not too important. When you are trying to make 100 to 200 blocks per day, you will forget vibrating, pounding or compressing. You are wanting to make as much block per day per hour of labor invested as you can. If you are working by yourself and need 3-5000 blocks, you get tired of re-inventing the wheel. If you have time and really dont care how long it takes or you have a modest structure, then you can experiment with different techniques. Lord knows I have my set of failures. Again, this is strictly my opinion and I run a 70/20 on right vs opinion.
ElfNori <elf@elfnori.com> wrote:
Curtis, I have to take exception a statement in your post. You state compressing reduces insulative values. Others on the list testify to just the opposite and give reason for same. Compressing papercrete increases it's density/weight, no argument there, but it also increases its insulative value.On vibrating the papercrete, what kind of form were you using? Was it porous? Was it a solid form on the ground?ElfN----- Original Message -----From: Curtis StewartSent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 7:59 PMSubject: [papercreters] Compressing PapercreteVibrating PC has little effect on drainage. I have tried a sander and my Wacker. This was a few years back as I was learning, THIS AINT CONCRETE!!! To make the PC settle faster and drain quicker ya gotta press it. But then you loose insulation properties, decrease size and increases weight. I do believe a block press type of equipment could be effective in speeding up the process, but what you increase in speed you loose in time. Pouring PC into forms, lettin git drain and moving the forms, usually within 10 to 15 minutes is the fastest, most labor efficient way to form this material. While other methods of construction will be interestin and may have limited application, the average person on this board will end up making blocks and drying them. I need to pick Clides brain on the strong mortar method he uses. But that is another day..
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