Papercreters: [papercreters] Re:test results on papercrete.net

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

[papercreters] Re:test results on papercrete.net

Speaking of weight: I'll be using a digital scale to accurately
measure materials - HOWEVER - since I'm mixing this in a blender and
making small test blocks, I'm seriously considering posting in metric
simply because enlarging a batch would be much easier than using
English pound, gallon, ounce. Can y'all weigh in with opinions, or
should I just count on publishing both metric/English measures?

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Ashok Mathur
<ashokchand2000@...> wrote:
>
> They key ingredient in papercrete is the amount of water you start
with in the mix.
>
> Most people start with too much water ( wieght of water is 6 to 8
times the weight of the paper fibre component) as the excess water
allows them to run the tow mixer with very little effort ie they use
water as medium that allows newsprint to swrill in it and be
presented to the blade for being pulped.
>
> The end result is that the papercrete
> (1) takes a very long time to dry
> (2) shrinks considerably
> (3) developes micro fractures if the forms are removed early
> (4) is prone to molding as the paper fibres are not fully coated
with cement.
>
> I would like you to try to mix a mix where the weight of water used
is just equivalent to the weight of the paper being added.(You may
have to soak the paper in water before putting it in the mixer). When
making a tight mix, run the mixer for a much longer time then when
using lots of water.
>
> Another variant you could try is with the weight of water being
only half the weight of the paper fibre component.
>
> Shrinkage and drying time are two results to watch for in addition
to other results.
> Regards
> Ashok
>