I am new here as well but, I just posted pictures of the tools I am using. If you look there you will see my bladed mixer that I use for pulping the paper. I am using a simple $29 drill and the home made blade I have pictured there.
Cost was roughly 7$ to make as I bought a 36" long 1/4-20 threaded rod for a buck and about 30 1/4-20 hex nuts for 3$. I bought a lot extra incase one or two got lost in the mixing process. Then I bought 3-1/2" scraper replacement blades as they already had two holes in them. I used my dremel to open up one hole on one end to fit the 1/4-20 rod. Then it was just a matter of putting the nuts on the rod locking them against eachother and placing the blades on.
Just a bit of info about mixing in a 5 gallon bucket.
1. be sure to use the lid of the bucket with a hole in the center this will reduce splash as the drill will throw half the material out if you don't<<<<learned the hard way the first time.
2. Don't attack it all at once. Keep the blade above the material and then slowly drop it down into the material when the drill kicks back a bit back off and do it again continue this up and down motion until you feel it reach the bottom. Believe it or not I just pulped over 100 gallons of paper today doing this. Also after a while of doing it I learned to do a simple count of 50-75 times up and down in the paper. It pulped nicely with this mixer without overloading the drill and burning it up.
Im like you in regards to the big mixers, while I would like to have one, I do not currently have the resources to make one.
I also found a home made wooden press in the archives here that I plan to build to press blocks out of, I think that might be benificial to your idea about making a block then pouring the outside of it with concrete.
Hoped that helped and by all means you don't have to use my design for a pulping blade. It was just what has worked for me with my limited budget so far.
If you look through the pictures of the other members here you will see different methods of how they pulp and mix materials.
In the short two weeks I have been here I have learned a lot, so take your time enjoy and good luck on your project.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "amherstburg46" <amherstburg46@...> wrote:
>
> First of all, for a mixer. I have read that you can use an "x" stucco blade attached to a drill to mix the papercrete. I have not been able to find them locally, and I was wondering if a paint mixer drill attachment would suffice ? Just looking at it there would be very litte of a cutting effect. Right now, I am only looking at doing a few small test batches, so I would not be interested in investing time and money into any of those wonderful mixing machines people on here seem to be making.
>
> Another question. I live in a humid part of Canada and intend to use make a large solar greenhouse with the papercrete. So I am interested in something with a high insulating value which at the same time is resistant to mold and rot associated with high humidity. I was wondering if it would be possible to create a brick much like a bi-metal coin (a toonie for any Canadians reading this). I could create the first brick with just paper and concrete. I would obviously shrink with that sort of mixture. When it dried, and shrank, I would put it in the same mould which I would then fill with a mix that had high amounts of concrete and sand. This would create a brick with an insulating interior but a strong, mould resistant exterior.
>
> If anyone could provide a clue, I would appreciate it. Thanks
>
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