Friday, June 5, 2009

[papercreters] Re: Who's making wet slurry this weekend?




In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "slurryguy" <slurryguy@...> wrote:

 Warm weather has arrived.
 
I bet quite a few people will be slopping some slurry around. 
 
What specific project are you making? No project is too small. 
 
Have any pictures of your active project so far?

Here in Oklahoma I am making PC stones to use for siding over my OSB attached to my Red Iron frame work. I am useing a 2 part wet paper pulp, 1 part sand, and 1 part cement mixture. I do not add any water to the mix only the water that is in the wet paper pulp, the mix is quite dry and once I mold it in plastic molds I can remove the mold right away if I want, I don't have to because I have 6 or 8 molds to use all at the same time if I want. Or if I have some help I'll remove each mold right away and cast another as soon as possible. I will upload some photos to show you what the stones will look like. I have not laid any on my OSB as of yet but plan to do so this weekend. I also just pressed my first block and was really surprised. I doubled the above mix which filled my press form to the brim, I thought it would press down to a 16x12x6 block, instead it only pressed down to 8x12x16, the press form is 9 1/2 x12x16. So now I'm only going to use the same mix that I use to fill my plastic stone molds. 

Bob



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[papercreters] Re: Who's making wet slurry this weekend?

Here in the Arizona Outback it has been warm for quite a spell. I've recently got a tow mixer made and have made several batches of blocks. I am experimenting with different recipes and I've come to some interesting conclusions. I have a very fine clay soil here, 100% clay as a matter of fact. The last two batches of blocks I made with very little clay and the rest pulp. I am using cardboard for pulp which has some interesting characteristics. It does not break down into cottage cheese type pulp like newsprint but rather into bigger pieces along with smaller ones and it seems to bind together very well. I have quit adding cement to the mix. It takes longer to dry, but once dry, well it's dry. And very hard. Of course it will absorb water but so does papercrete. I made some blocks and panels out of cardboard pulp alone and once dry it is very hard and rigid. I recently purchased online 50 pounds of boric acid and I will be experimenting with spraying the blocks to act as a fire retardant. Perhaps adding it to the mix as well. I soak the cardboard before pulping as that speeds the process up considerably. I also have a considerable stack of newspapers but I thought I would use them for a pc stucco mix. I haven't built anything yet but I will post some pictures of what I've got going.


-- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "slurryguy" <slurryguy@...> wrote:
>
> Warm weather has arrived.
>
> I bet quite a few people will be slopping some slurry around.
>
> What specific project are you making? No project is too small.
>
> Have any pictures of your active project so far?
>


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Re: [papercreters] Who's making wet slurry this weekend?



I'm back to working on my small 5 Meter dome,
http://starship-enterprises.net/spraypercrete/
after a break to work on the now postponed ug dome.

I have to take a few days to put together a ten meter dome that is going to Italy to become a planetarium. It is going to cost more and take a lot longer to get there than it will take to buy the material and fabricate the dome. I guess the rich Europeans are checking out the bargains in economically disadvantaged countries like US.

Still using the spray washer and a drum with about ten 5/16" holes in the bottom of the sides. It doesn't leak much while mixing but if I let it sit 8-12 hours all the excess water drains off and that's a few hundred pounds I don't have to move by hand. I've gotten in the habit of pulping a couple of barrels full late in the day (not hard work) to use the next morning before it gets hot(ter). From there I'm mixing in the portland cement by hand, then dumping or bucketing it into the forms, preferably between midnight and dawn and certainly no later than ten AM. It got down to the low 70's this morning before dawn, then topped out at about 95 before the winds hit in mid afternoon. Now it's a hot sandy blast furnace out there. Good time to come read email  : )

Oh, another small project/experiment. I had a couple of satellite dishes lying around, the small oval ones. A couple of days ago I slapped papercrete a couple of inches thick on the dish, using the dish to make a parabolic surface. After it gets really well cured then I will attach small mirrors to use it as a solar concentrator. Why not just use the metal dish covered with mirrors? Because it's not papercrete!   No, really because I can make several pc dishes from the same mold and then I'll have several to experiment with. I already covered one with aluminum tape and set a 1x2 on fire in less than a minute, so I'm pretty sure it'll warm a cup of tea with 1" square mirrors as a better reflector than the aluminum tape.

Spaceman

slurryguy wrote:

Warm weather has arrived.  I bet quite a few people will be slopping some slurry around.    What specific project are you making?  No project is too small.    Have any pictures of your active project so far?      


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[papercreters] Chicago Area Papercrete Animal Houses

No. I'm not talking about the old John Belushi movie. Although, anyone in Chicago that has seen these structures and has good pictures can make all the "Bluto" jokes they want if they can post pics. :)

Article about the Morton Arboretum Critter Houses
http://tinyurl.com/ChicagoCritterPapercrete

The write up about the Papercrete houses on the Morton Arboretum Website
http://tinyurl.com/MortonArboretumPapercrete

It would be great if someone from Chicago could find out who built what, and maybe get them post some good pictures of the construction process they used to build the houses. If you are a member of the list, please feel free to make a few phone calls and maybe visit the Arboretum and share what you learn with everyone.

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[papercreters] Who's making wet slurry this weekend?

Warm weather has arrived.

I bet quite a few people will be slopping some slurry around.

What specific project are you making? No project is too small.

Have any pictures of your active project so far?


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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

[papercreters] Re: papercrete basketball court?

I love papercrete.

I love basketball.

I have very large doubts that Papercrete would make a good basketball court. Even if it were an indoor basketball court where it could be kept dry, I have doubts that it will have the proper feel, wear resistance, or longevity.

However, nobody will ever know for certain until someone gives it a try. If you feel like giving it a shot, please be certain to document what you do and the results you achieve (good or bad) here on Papercreters so we all can learn from your experiment. If you do try it, I suggest a small experimental patch just to see how well it will work. Something big enough to jump on and dribble a ball on should be sufficient.


My subjective guess is that the first time you try to dribble a basketball on it, you will not like it as a playing surface, but what do I know? I've never tried it.


--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "redlunarmoon" <redlunarmoon@...> wrote:
>
> Good day,
> my friend wants to build a basketball court around 40 foot square, 4 inches thick and I suggested we look at papercrete maybe as an interesting experiment. <snip>

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[papercreters] Re: PC inside a bus turned RV?

Papercrete inside a bus could work very well. Here are a few suggestions to use or ignore as you deem appropriate.

I would recommend using a very low cement mix with Borax included. I don't see any benefit of including sand in this particular application. You really don't need the papercrete to have high compressive strength. You are only looking for it to be an insulating material. The bus itself will provide all the mechanical strength needed. Experiment with various mixes to find one that you can use that will be fire resistant and mold resistant.

Spaceman's low cement mix should work extremely well. It's at least a good place to start.

I would suggest trying to cast papercrete as blocks or small panels on the ground. If such a low cement mix without sand is used, you should have a very easy time cutting the cured/dried papercrete with a saw. Even a hand saw should go through it like a hot knife through butter. The lack of sand will prevent it from damaging cutting tools. You should be able to take those flat blocks and panels and cut them to shape to fit all the strange nooks and crannies in the bus. You probably can even sculpt them with rasp or an angle grinder. I would then suggest glueing the smaller chunks of paperctete together to form custom conformed shaped panels, almost like standard automotive door and ceiling panels. You might even consider gluing fabric on the interior surface of the papercrete as a finished surface. That would make it easy to have seams that show, but are still attractive. Think of it almost like an upholstery project. You're just using papercrete instead of flamable urethane foam rubber.

These custom fitted panels could then be easily glued in place anywhere inside the bus. This system should be able to easily flex and absorb any flexing that the bus gives it. If you are careful, you should be able to use small dots of glue to stick the papercrete to the metal interior of the bus. That will allow you to rip a papercrete panel off the wall to make repairs at a later time. It will also allow you to remove a panel that might get wet so that it can dry out in the open.


IMPORTANT:
The FIRST step in this process is to SEAL UP THE SHELL OF THE BUS. You will be counting on the bus to keep the papercrete dry. Repair any rusted spots, and seal all the metal seams extremely well. It will be far easier to do this sealing step long before papercrete is installed inside the bus. You'll be able to hose down the bus and watch for leaks without worrying about getting any papercrete wet.


I hope these ideas are helpful.

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