In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "David Schutt" <deck_arme@...> wrote:
I've been searching around for free waste paper. The groceries have
compressed bales of cardboard that I can have (if we can get them up
into our little trailer).
I was wondering if anyone has experience working with this kind of
cardboard? How did you use it? Did you have to rip it up into
smaller pieces before you put it into your towmixer? How did the
blocks turn out? We are hoping to make blocks 1' wide x 2' long and
5.5' thick, using a paper, sand, cement weight ratio of 1:1:1.667.
David
One year ago, before I ever heard of papercrete, I had a four foot high stack of card board boxes that my wife and I had compiled from our gift shop business. All our card board boxes were from China and it seem to be a recycled product in itself, it is much softer and more easy to pulp. I like to mold art items and was wondering if pulped China cardboard would work (I had never tried pulp paper or cardboard for molding) I tore the cardboard up into pieces small enough to fit into my concrete mixer (about two wheelbarrow size) added enough water to get the pulping going and turned it on. Took about 20 minutes and I had what looked like brown jelly, (I never thought of adding cement to the stuff) I poured some into my latex molds and poured the test in my flower bed (thought it would make good mulch) The stuff in my molds took a week to dry right out in 100 degree sunlight. The stuff on the ground dryed in about three days to a hard substance like papercrete but with no cement added. I did not like the way the molded stuff turned out and took it as a failure. After I discovered this site I went back out and took a look the the stuff I had poured into my flower bed, it was still hard, was in direct contact with the soil, had no termite invasion what so ever, has been through many many rain and snow seasons and I was quite impressed, now I too am thinking about asking my local grocery store for their bails, I know that theirs will not be from China so it will be different but I really think it will work.
Bob
BTW : besure to remove all flap tape from the boxes before you put them into your mixer, the stuff really wraps around the mixing blades.
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