Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: Personal notes Papercrete

Monday, February 2, 2009

[papercreters] Re: Personal notes Papercrete

Looks great to me, you might want to put something heavy on the blocks
to help squeeze out the water for the first day, maybe mold some
concrete blocks to be the right size. Apparently compressing the
blocks doesn't hurt the R value and I would think it would make them
stronger.

A few questions:

1) What recipe are you using?

2) Does the blade / motor combination work well? I like your barrel
setup because it looks like it could be moved by one person into a truck.

4) Do you pre-soak the paper or just blend it up?

thanks,
Dave

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "jerryfant@..." <jerryfant@...>
wrote:
>
> Personal Notes On Papercrete,
>
> Here in Central Texas we still get somewhat of a winter. I went ahead
> and started making papercrete to build my workshop. Drying times have
> been killing me with up to a week before I can move the blocks. I have
> photos posted up at the link listed below. So here are some personal
> notes I noticed about the process and if anyone has better ideas on the
> drying time let me know.
>
> 1. I installed a drip tray just after the mixer to get rid of most of
> the water in the mix.
>
> 2. I set my forms on top of one of three form tables with water
> collectors under each. I was forming on top of old plywood and roofing
> and the water had a hard time escaping so I built these form tables,
> cut down the time very considerably. These form tables have expanded
> or hardware cloth covered by old screen window mesh works very well.
>
> 3. I was making blocks 12"L x 8"W x 6"thick, 48"L x 8W x 6"T, and 36"L
> x 8"W x 6"T. Now I have cut back to 12", 24", and 18" blocks and this
> has also cut back the drying time. The long blocks were too fragile
> for too long - sometimes up to two weeks before they could be moved
> without breaking in half.
>
> 4. Freezing does not seem to affect the blocks, I have had some blocks
> freeze solid with no ill affects! No breaking along stress joints
> created from freezing or crumbling still solid. But is does slow the
> drying.
>
> 5. There is a difference in type of paper used! Phone books and
> newspaper dry in half the time as junk mail, cardboard, and other
> paper. Is there strength loss in this? The insulation value may be
> higher because of added air?
>
> 6. With the setup used now, the drip tray and form tables I can usually
> move the blocks in a couple of days.
>
> It seems to be a good way to go with limited funds and time available
> to go and make about 20 blocks per day toward the workshop. Expecting
> to have enough blocks in about a year!
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/photos/album/861546675/pic/li
> st
> Jerry
>