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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Home manufacturing business recent post #3
  • Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 20:30:03 -0700

Home Manufacturing Business, recent post #3.


http://www.motherearthnews.com/index.php?page=arc&id=5472 (Mother Earth News on he busineses in small Emporia, Kansas, notation of rural manufacturing on the rise---almost no homesteaders relies on ag-related income, though it is a good one if you set up a PYO near a town of ten thousand or more---no more than fifteen miles from the city limits.)

http://www.startups.co.uk/Yd28xvhoS63Ijg.html (U.K. has same rural problems and opportunities as the U.S.)

http://www.countryside.gov.uk/WhoWeAreAndWhatWeDo/pressCentre/rural_economies.asp (U.K. rural statistics---rural manufacturing is where it's at.)

http://www.cfra.org/resources/strategies_2.htm (REAP a prinipal sponsor of rural entreprener activiies)

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/links/business4.asp (large link library on rural startup needs and their fulfillment.

http://www.gov.sk.caetopics/keyword/keyword?topic=business-economics&keyword=349 (Saskatchewan startup help---believe me Saskatcewan government. industry associations, private businesses, and newspaper editores, columnists can be conned--erh, induced to support a startup with a good business plan.)

http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/0101/gregory.html (the most relentless entrepreneurs in the world are Chinese)

http://www.arc.gov/index.do?nodeId=294 (Appalachian manufacturing startups---my down-the-road machinist buddy, has almost no overhead and an unbeatable electric power rate---he can kill any Northeastern or Mid-Atlantic job shop on job bids, while still maintaining a very profitable margin of profit. The only trouble he has had recently has been American Electric Power bumping up the voltage with no notice whatsoever---kicked off the machine switches and caused him to spend $1200 to have a local electrician build him a new supplementary transformer to drop the voltage back where it should be.)

http://www.alliedfoamtech.com/Appconc.htm (if I could look forward to a few more productive years one of the products I would manufacture is BBTBB (better than Butler buildings). K-D two-foot wide foamed and fibered lightweight sections to bolt together at the building site---pre-assemble them if they are fairly small, like for storing lawnmowers, lawn tractors, tools, and take them to the building site on a tilting flatbed trailer.)

Sell them to flea market dealers at a larger-than-normal discount---and put them on a rretractable-wheel trailer to haul in and out on a towbar. They can use the foam-concrete structure both as a display booth for their other wares, and as a highly visible model passers-by can look at and buy---have some literature printed for handouts, print the dealer's name and address on it---you must assure them they will be paid for their efforts and you will not steal the sales commission from them. For a small startup manufacturer, honest is not just the best policy---it is the ONLY policy.

Make fiberglass molds and spray the foam in them with a cheap Tirolessa hopper-sprayer to start, shift to higher-capacity foam-sprayer after a couple months in business.

If cheaper and better than Butler, this is a hell of a business---year-around sales and a huge market. Fiberglass molds would be your chief investment to kick up production. You first make a "plug" (wood or molding plaster) pattern, hand layup glass fabric and polyester resin on it (use a parting compound on plug surface), when cured lift the mold off the plug. If it is hard to hand-strip, leave some tiny holes in the plug and use compressed air to blow the mold away from the plug. Do the same thing with the molds when pulling lipped-foam concrete sections out of the molds.The purpose of the lips, beside creating rigidity ane more strength is to seal out rain---you use either a commercially-available flexible plastic cap-strip or buy a cheap metal mold you can take to a plastic extrusion shop and extrude a UV-resistant plastic cap-strip.
Again, can speed up fiberglass mold-making by using a fiberglass/resin and catalyst-spraying chopper gun---we used to have one, think it was a Binks, but can't remember what we did with it when making fiberglass tanks lost its charm.)

You should use hand-retractable waxed wooden pins inserted in the lip-mold---locate them accurately and pull them when the foam concrete is pretty well set. You can drill (or better, use a hot piece of metal rod (propane torch insert) to melt holes through the cap-strip through which assembly bolts are thrust.

Figure out the cubic feet of foam fiber, the weight factor. Ideally the individual sections would be light enough for one man to sdt them up and bolt them together, but in any event don't build them so heavy two men can't easily handle them.
http://www.baustoffchemie.de/en/db/concrete.htm (chemistry of foamed concrete)

Don't think it is the above, but be sure to incorporate pozzolans in the concrete mix if it is available. Pretty cheap stuff from a coal power plant ash residue. Also incorporate acrylic for stronger, tougher, more shock-resistant polymer-concrete. Lots of fiber additives, aramid, polypropylene, alkali-resistant glass---just be sure it is alkali-resistant for long life.

http://johnvillegas.tripod.com/new_page_1.htm (Elastizell is a principal foamer supplier)

Mearle was the first foam chemical supplier in the U.S.---forgot who bought them out. Was pretty pricey, so I analyzed the foam chemical once, mostly cheap hide glue. I presume there are equally cheap foam ingredients now. Had a five horsepower gasoline engine foamer made in Waukesha, retailing for $800 that worked fine, but they couldn't sell dollar bills for fifty cents, so sold out to a Canadian firm which did nothing with it either. such units at quite low prices now come from Europe---Czechoslovakia if my memory is correct.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:KqSVIhcvxhcJ:www.civil.columbia.edu/meyer/pdffiles/booklet.pdf+foamed+fiber+concrete&hl=en (Columbia University concrete research---HTML because I couldn't download the pdf version.

http://home.att.net/~gallgosp/architec.htm (FINE third world cheap housing website---most concrete small home manufacturing prodects in the U.s. would be better classified as third world projects, third world tooling and manufacturing techniques coupled with the limited capital available to most homesteaders.)









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