If you have added cement tot he mix it will not break down and mulch into another mix. Cement is actually made stronger by being in water. if you had used clay soil in stead of cement you could re-use the finished stuff in the next batch.
I use pumice in place of sand in my mix. It is lighter and adds R value, but it may not be available where you are. I just found out the pumice plant near me closed down so I am going to switch to perlite when it's time to get more. I looked it up on google and it seems to be found in more areas than pumice. They are both volcanic rocks but perlite is actually glass. You can get it in the raw state when it looks like crushed rock or in the processed state like what you see in plant pots.
I don't use much cement in my mix. I started out with 2 bags per 200 gal mix but am now down to 1/2 bag or less. The blocks are every bit as strong but so much lighter. I recently moved a bunch of old blocks and was astounded at how heavy my original blocks were. My whole motive for using this stuff is to keep things light and manageable for myself, not being a bodybuilder or anything close to it.
Sincerely, Judith
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To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
From: criswells.ok@sbcglobal.net
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:39:04 +0000
Subject: [papercreters] Re: Recipe Ratios
I kind-of got my recipe from message 7146
The following quote is from Clair from the above message:
"Hi Bob our blocks are 12x14x6-we are using 7 gal mix .We are just doing small mixes in a barrel so we mixed 10 lbs paper 15lbs portland and 2lbs manifactured fines (sand)-20 gal water.We had problems with uniformity ,we needed more holes in the compresssion area and seems to be fine now."
That information came from Clair up in Alaska. If you divide that by 1/2 it comes out to
- 5 lbs paper (dry I guess)
- 7.5 lbs portland cement (that a little over a gallon)
- 1 lb sand (ok I missed that by a mile)
- 10 gal water (I think I can even get by with 5 gal or less)
The reason I'm cutting her recipe in half is because of the way I pulp my shredded office paper/cardboard and then move the pulp into another mixer and add the cement and sand. I think the sand is what was giving me so much weight, it would also make the blocks more fire proof and also doesn't soak up water so bad. As a matter of fact I took some scrap pieces that had dried and tried to re-pulp them with more pulp and they would not break down nor soak up water. (I havn't figured that one out yet). I had to take the pieces (they had been soaking for 48 hrs) out of the pulp because they just would not break down.
Bob
--- In papercreters@
Wow.
I'm not sure where to draw the line semantically, but it seems appropriate to ask the question: Are you making papercrete or are you making concrete mortar with a paper additive?
The mix you are describing may be the most dense, mineral-rich mix I've ever heard about. I'm not surprised that it is heavy.
I'm glad you posted about your efforts.
A couple of comments:
Most of the recipes people have discussed have a ratio of dry cement to DRY paper of as low as 1-2, or as high as 2-1, perhaps as high as 4-1 by weight. NOT VOLUME. Your ratio by dry weight might be 10-1 or higher. With such a low paper content, I'm not surprised that you have observed no shrinkage. Your blocks aren't "drying" they are chemically curing and locking all the water inside the brick.
I'm curious what your are trying to accomplish? What are you planning on using the final product for? I can tell you right now, you won't get much insulation factor from the mixes you are trying, but perhaps that's not important to you.
I'm not trying to discourage you from experimenting with any recipe you want to. In fact, I'm intrigued to see where you are headed. Please keep us informed no matter what. This might be fun to watch.
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