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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: mrkflux AT sezampro.yu, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Sawdust concrete panels, mixers
  • Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 21:38:06 -0800

Sasha wrote:

Yes Tvo,I have asked the question.But if I add sand and clay the weight of the panel is rising very much isnt it?
Is papercrete better as insulation material?


tvoivozhd---sand is quite heavy, does add compressive strength. Clay is basically a binder for the cellulose, and of course also is heavy, but nowhere near as heavy as sand.

Papercrete is better insulation, though as I have said before I am suspicious of its water-absorption ability. I would make up some small samples, weigh the dried sample and then soak it in water for a week or so, reweight it to see how much water it absorbed. Probably can reduce, maybe almost eliminate water absorption (and vapor transmission) by coating all surfaces with an emulsified bitumil such as is used in the U.S. for making asphalt and sand mix road topping. Weigh that too to see what happens. Forgot, insulation factor of papercrete with not a lot of sand is 2.8 per inch.
http://www.fiberfoamconcrete.com/

I wouldn't believe all the hype below unless verified by my own experiment, but it might be worth trying---$199.95 is too damned expensive for a hollow drive-shaft and what might be mixer blades with holes drilled through to reach the hollow shaft.


*/Blade #11 /*/($199.95) - /Aeration blade for making lightweight, floating-foam and other types of cellular concrete. This unique blade and shaft design sucks air through the hollow shaft area as it spins and releases the air around the rotating blade. This fills your mixture with millions of tiny air bubbles. Concrete made with this blade is extremely light weight and produces materials with "R" factors (value of insulation) that are out of this world! Foamed concrete is surprisingly tough too.






Learn how to make buildings for 10¢ a square foot out of your old junk mail, news paper, magazines or just about any material that you thought was only worthy of putting into your dumpster and expanding your local landfill. *Coming 3-15-04* *Fiber Foam Concrete &Cement* *The wave of the future for the home builder is - *

*Paper Cement!*

*What is Papercement, Fibercement, Foamcement or Paperconcrete? **Paperconcrete is the industrial version of paper mache. It's simply shredded paper, Portland cement and dirt in somewhat variable proportions of 60/20/20 plus water and air. The paper matrix is so thick it can trap millions of tiny air bubbles and the total volume of the concrete mix can increase as much as 50%! This is an ideal building material because it is so cheap, utilizing air, unwanted newspapers, magazines, cardboard, junk mail, old bills, tax records and some local sand or dirt. *



*/Fiber foam concretes are surprisingly strong, fireproof and a very /*

*/well insulated materials but best of all they are very cheap to make! /*

*We will be offering a full line of papercrete mixers, block molds, tools, pumps, foamers, water proofing chemicals and other support equipment starting 3-15-2004* *We will also be offering advanced additives that will bring paper, fiber and foam concretes into an advanced era of technology. Third generation papercrete technology will enable people to make waterproof papercrete for the first time with a product called Calseal®.* *The centerpiece of our equipment lineup will be the powerful "Multi-Chopper" */(Part of the Multi-Mixer series)/ *As the name implies this industrial sized chopper will make quick work of all materials* *that end up impacting on the surfaces of it's hardened razor sharp blades!* *Not only does this machine chop but it also efficiently pumps the slurry around the drum mixing it into an extremely homogeneous mixture!* *
DOWNLOAD .avi MOVIE OF MIXER WORKING <http://www.fiberfoamconcrete.com/papermix.avi>* *DOWNLOAD .mov MOVIE OF MIXER WORKING (Quicktime) <http://www.fiberfoamconcrete.com/papermix.mov>* */One of these two movie formats should play on your computer/* *Steel Block Molds Now Available:* Modular bolt together construction puts you in control.
Make larger or shorter blocks as needed. Half makes the end blocks.
Steel does not rot or break like wooden molds. Lasts a life time!

Steel molds flex allowing for easy release of block. *8" x 8" x 16" - "Standard" - $39.95 plus $8.65 shipping each.*


*12" x 12" x 24" - "Castle block" - $59.95 plus $10.65 shipping each.*


*The 25% off of 24 molds deal -* *Save 25% if you buy in sets of 24* To use these block molds you must have an area that has at least 6" of clean washed sand or gravel (the "sand box") . This allows the bottom of the block to pick up the sand box media thereby texturing the block face. When you turn the blocks over the face is covered in the sand or gravel that you selected for your sand box. This gives the block a beautiful looking face! Combinations of black, gray and white gravel gives block faces the perfect illusion of being solid granite. The sand box method also provides for vital drainage so even if you plan to Stucco your block they still need to be cast on top of a well drained sand or gravel area. *The "R" factor of papercrete is about 2.5 per inch but foamed papercrete is as high as 3 per inch.*

*A "Castle Block" made of "Foamed Papercrete" or just regular foamed concrete has an "R" factor of 30!*

/"Just as an experiment I chopped up ALL the trash from our weekly kitchen trash bag. It not only chopped up all the paper but surprisingly it also chopped up all the non-returnable bottles and cans without missing a beat! This puts sharp edges into the concrete matrix so you have to be careful how you use this special blend I called "garbagecrete". It makes very good quality block but don't use it for casting bench seats. I think we have broken almost every rule in the virtual "papercrete-handbook" adding things like used paint brushes and roller cartridges, sponges, Styrofoam popcorn, plastic bottles, tumble weeds (my personal favorite), sunflower stalks, straw and other fibrous plants, tree leafs, twigs and other various yard rakings, holiday wrapping paper including those dreaded clamshell packages! *SECRET:* The huge castle block shown here contains the entirety of our families refuse for one week. Mulched and mixed with water and 50 cents worth of cement added it is now very compact! This block is absolutely rock hard, is tougher than any cement block, looks beautiful and has an estimated lifespan of over 2000 years. A large block like this could easily cost $12.50 to buy at a building supply yard but just think, it took only 8 minutes to make. Is your time worth $90.00 an hour??? For many people living in rural areas dirt and time is much more available than high paying jobs. In economical situations like this making your own building materials makes perfect sense./ /In the larger environmental picture just imagine a world without landfills where beautiful energy efficient homes are built dirt cheap! This is the beginning of a revolution in building materials! A relatively new product called Hardyboard® and many other fiber cement products are already making huge dents in the building materials market today./ I will stress that the power and speed of the Multi-Chopper is almost intimidating! Once you see one in action you will have instant respect for it's power and speed. My favorite feature about this type of mixer and blade design is that you do not have to presoak the paper. Just toss it in dry and it's instantly pulped!!! Stay clear of the blades and never put your hands past the edge the drum top when feeding it! Do not "stuff" paper down into the drum, just let the paper fall in, the Multi-Chopper will do the rest for you!"



*It's 3400 RPM 5 HP motor will bolt on to the side of any metal 55 gallon drum.* *We will also offer a center tilt drum cradle so the contents can be easily tilted and dumped.* *The Multi-Chopper kit will sell for about $499.95 */(Blades sold separately)/ *The Drum mounting kit is $129.95* *The center tilting drum cradle will sell for about $399.95* *You provide the 55 gallon drum, */(We also have them in stock if you need one)/ We have researched papercrete mixers for over 12 years and never really come up with a design that truly made us happy until we started experimenting with short gamut / high velocity propellers. This type of action really separates the fibers making for extremely tough papercrete. Other types of mixers can create huge "curds" of paper that don't bond well to each other. We are sure that short gamut / high velocity propellers are going to be the future choice of most papercrete makers especially once they compare the strength of the end product not to mention the increased speed and ease of production. Another great challenge we faced was trying to keep plastic bags, string, ribbon, tape and other such attenuated / tenuous items from wrapping around the shaft. We finally solved the problem with a number of simple but interesting solutions. Remember that the Multi-Chopper is one version in the MULTI-MIXER series. By purchasing various other blade/propeller options it can also be used for:
*/Blade #8 /*/(69.95)/ /- /Blending Bio-Diesel and other low flammability oil/fuel solutions. /(For liquid mixing only)/
*/Blade #2 /*($179.95)* - *Standard papercrete chopping blade. For pulping *paper only* and making classic papercrete.
*/Propeller #3 /*/($129.95) - /For mixing thick and sandy mortars for laying blocks and bricks.
*/Blade #1/*/ /($269.95) - Papercrete/Garbagecrete self-cleaning &chopping blade.
*/Propeller #6 /*/($89.95)/ /-* */Mixing lime stucco, paints and other thin coatings used for plastering, painting and coating.
*/Blade #11 /*/($199.95) - /Aeration blade for making lightweight, floating-foam and other types of cellular concrete. This unique blade and shaft design sucks air through the hollow shaft area as it spins and releases the air around the rotating blade. This fills your mixture with millions of tiny air bubbles. Concrete made with this blade is extremely light weight and produces materials with "R" factors (value of insulation) that are out of this world! Foamed concrete is surprisingly tough too.

*/Propeller #5 /*($179.95)*/ /*/-* *Fuel log mulching blade. This blade turns ALL paper, wood, leafs, saw dust, lawn clippings, weeds, twigs, sticks, etc into castable fuel log mulch used for casting your own fire logs. You must also add a 1% to 5% ratio of Crystalwax® which is a special super low temperature binding wax. We provide you with the special "LOG-MOLDS" with the draining wire mess bottoms. Simply pour your pulp mixture into the molds and you are in the fire wood business! The logs sun dry in about 3 days and they are ready to sell or burn (Burns similar to Duraflame® logs). Your wax fuel logs should retail for about $3.00 each because of their fantastic long term burn duration however they will only cost you about 10 cents each to make. *Note:* If your logs turn out flimsy add more cardboard. Cardboard boxes make many types of mixtures much tougher when dry. Using at least 10% cardboard or more would be highly recommended in all fire log pulp formulations. *Safety:* These logs burn very hot so if you use them in a metal stove you must exercise caution or extreme overheating of the stove and surrounding stove area may result. Only burn one log at a time./ */Other Propeller Options Coming Soon/*



*/Advanced Concrete Additives And Chemicals-/* QuickCure® <http://www.fiberfoamconcrete.com/concreteadditives.html> - Concrete &Cement Hardening Compound - /An essential compound for keeping aerated and water logged papercrete from shrinking during casting. Great for making lightweight, strong and nice uniform looking blocks./ */#QC10 - 10 lb. bag only $39.95 plus $12.94 S&H/* QuickCure makes any types of Portland and Plastic-cement 'Gel-Cure' within 5 to 60 minutes depending on the dose. A 10 lb. bag can treat 2 tons of papercrete or conventional concrete. When using fast curing compounds it is vitally important that the concrete remain perfectly still after pouring and finally reaching the 'GelCure' point /(turning from a liquid into a solid)./ After concrete gels any movement will create dozens of micro fractures that may weaken the final product. However if you keep it still the overall quality and strength of the cement will be as good or better than it's initial ratings. You will add the QuickCure to your cement mixer about 2 minutes before you are ready to pour. After 2 minutes of mixing you will have about 30 minutes of work time assuming the dose was about 4 ounces of QuickCure added to about 200 pounds of your concrete mixture. Just so you understand QuickCure's variability adding an 8 ounce dose will gel your 200 lbs. of concrete in about 10 minutes while adding just a 1 ounce dose will gel it in about 2 hours. These dosing amounts are only general guidelines and small scale experimentation is advised before dosing huge batches. Read the full instructions when you receive your QuickCure hardening compound to learn more. *Caution!* We over-dosed a batch of concrete with QuickCure last year and watched it turn from a liquid into a solid is just seconds! Ordinarily this would have been a joyous moment except it happened in the mixer *: / *QuickCure is a highly concentrated additive so seemingly tiny amounts can make major changes in the concrete matrix. Practice and use only a little at first until you gain some experience. Use less on hot days and more in winter. *How does QuickCure work? *It simply attacks the Gypsum found it most cement formulations. Cement manufacturing companies add Gypsum into their formulations to retard set time. Portland cement by it's very nature would set almost instantly on contact of water if it did not contain set time retarding chemicals like Gypsum. QuickCure is designed to attack the Gypsum timing mechanism's and neutralizes them quickly or slowly depending on the dose you choose. Ironically one of the greatest enemies of any cement's long term integrity is Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum). Buy adding QuickCure® you are actually lengthening the total life cycle of your cement indefinitely by causing a chemical reaction that will eventually cause petrification of the paper. If you have ever seen a petrified tree it's very tough and in many cases millions of years old. In other words you could be creating a masonry product that could last for thousands of years instead of just 150 which by-the-way is the maximum life cycle for many concrete structures built or poured today. Most of those big concrete parking garages you see today will need to be demolished in just 4 or 5 generations from now due to concrete failure caused by the cheap chemistry of modern cements. Building more permanent structures with better cement chemistries would be a nice gift to pass down to future generations that will not doubt be looking for durable housing that is earthquake and fire proof. *CalSeal®* - /Advanced Concrete Technology Here today./ /When CalSeal® is added into any concrete mixture it will render it totally water proof. Great for making totally water proof stucco's. Helps your structures last indefinitely by keeping all water away from your bricks or adobe. CalSeal® is a must for concrete and block homes in rainy areas of the county./ /Completely waterproofs slip formed basement walls. Use CalSeal® when stuccoing pools and ponds./ /Excellent for treating footing blocks and making thin ferrocement roofs totally waterproof. Great for ferrocement boat hull builders. (Ferrocement is interesting stuff so do some web searches on it : )/ */A must have item for stuccoing over all abode or mud brick structures!!!! Water is the enemy of mud, rammed earth and adobe. Keep it dry and watch it last forever!!!!/* /Use a 1/2% ratio in all concretes high in lime content or a 1% ratio in standard high strength cement mixtures./ /One gallon size $49.95 plus $11.94 S&H - Enough to treat 1 cubic yard of lime stucco./ *Rockcrete® *Coming soon. /(Colloidal Aluminum Silicate Dispersion)/ /Rockcrete® is sold only as a dry powder packaged in 5 gallon pails. It is soluble in water and foams a clear solution./ /It will thicken concrete mixtures and can be used as a topical coating to waterproof and toughen all types of cretes./ /When air dried it is clear and is as hard as porcelain. When soaked into paper and then air dried it makes paper as hard as rock. A very interesting compound with endless uses./ MORE CEMENT AND CONCRETE ADDITIVES AND CHEMICALS COMING SOON! MORE CEMENT AND CONCRETE ADDITIVES AND CHEMICALS COMING SOON! MORE CEMENT AND CONCRETE ADDITIVES AND CHEMICALS COMING SOON! MORE CEMENT AND CONCRETE ADDITIVES AND CHEMICALS COMING SOON! MORE CEMENT AND CONCRETE ADDITIVES AND CHEMICALS COMING SOON! MORE CEMENT AND CONCRETE ADDITIVES AND CHEMICALS COMING SOON! *Making your own paper concrete blocks is almost an addictive venture for many enthusiastic owner/builders. **Once most owner/builders mix up their first batch of paper cement they can hardly wait for the next batch of junk mail or news papers to come in! Any paper product can easily be mulched into an almost free building material. You can make blocks, flat panel boards or even use it as a plaster to cover free formed wire shapes like rocks, waterfalls, columns, domes or even create an indoor cave style living room */(See photo below)./ *Like many others you may find yourself looking at your weekly garbage as a source potential income, savings and joy! You will never look at waste paper the same way again! Paper mixed with dirt and cement is treasure!* *The bricks you see below cost only pennies to make and are surprisingly light and strong. They have great compression strength but can be cut with a rip saw making them easy to work with.* *The harness and strength of your paper concrete depends on how much cement and dirt you use in the making of your blocks. There is no right or wrong formula depending on what you are trying to build or create.* *This is only one of 7 block molds we will be offering including the big "Castle Block Mold" which allows you to build your own medieval castle or heavy duty block walls. The "R" value of the castle blocks (not shown) is about 30 so they are VERY eco-friendly for saving energy in most types of structures.*

*Free-form wire and paper concrete cave *

*style living room in Earthship - NM*



*As far as building codes hopefully you live in a fairly progressive city. Even in cities with tough building codes most engineers will sign off on paper concrete homes as long as the roof is bolted to self supporting beams and the block is only used as wall fill. In yet many other cities you will find grand fathered agricultural laws that exempt farm buildings from permit fees if they are under 800 square feet or used for barns, work shops, farm equipment and grain storage or other agricultural needs.* *In most cities walls up to 6 feet high almost never require building permits!* Let 's Have Some Fun Making Your First Papercrete At Home! Start by procuring some paper from any paper shredding machine! Using an old discarded kitchen blender simply add water and paper and until the pulp is nice and thick. Now add a few heaping tablespoons of Portland cement into the blenders vortex (No Sand!!!) and mix for about 30 seconds. Pour the thick creamy papercrete into some old plastic wear and let it sit perfectly still for 48 hours. Over handling the container during set time can create micro-fractures and weaken your end product. When properly cured you will find papercrete made in this fashion is an extremely light weight and shock proof material!
papercrete, fibercrete, fibrous concrete - Living in Paper <http://livinginpaper.com/current.htm> (make a smaller papercrete mixer to supplement the large one I think I posted a few days back---the large one is an automobile rear end mounted in a trailer frame, with the drive end facing up to drive a shaft in a big tank. When you tow it down the road a half mile or so, the paper and water will be mixed to a slurry. Do not put cement in the big trailer mix, it will set up too soon. Mix smaller quantities including cement in a barrel, with the above smaller papercrete mixer. It is is very simple, the lower end is taken from an old outboard motor, and a 7.5 hp or so vertical-shaft lawnmower engine mounted on the lower end. Fasten it securely to the garrel, it is an accident waiting to happen if you don't.

papercrete.com <http://www.papercrete.com/> (a LOT of URl's, many papercrete-related)


I remember sending you the below e-mail a long time ago. Probably some of the links are now dead, and I did not save the full message and photos as I should have.


http://network.idrc.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=5316&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&reload=1057848550 (Making microncrete tiles still cheaper, still better in Cote D' Ivoire---good economic lesson here, look how many it now employs in a short time, and the low cost of business entry---simple plastic molds and they use a battery-powered vibrating table---must use a solar panel to keep the batteries charged---now electric power lines in that part of Africa, engine-generators and fuel are expensive as hell.

I like the idea of this business---roof and floor tiles have a lot wider market than masonry stoves and microconcrete in tile manufacture has proven to be durable, which is the important thing. The tiles could also be made decorative by putting a textured polyurethane cast sheet in the bottom of the mold. This is done in the United States to make common concrete block into wall siding that simulates the appearance of wood grain, brick panels etc.)

For a Canadian business, you could get a lot of free help from Ottawa-based Institute for Research in Construction at the National Research Council of Canada.

http://www.dainet.org/livelihoods/shelter2.htm (some of the best ideas in building cheap houses and low cost-of-entry home businesses (that really work), are in India. This is a TARA technology put to work.)

http://www.iisc.ernet.in/depts/astra/alternativebuildingtech.htm (alternative building materials and technologies, concrete variants)
http://www.iisc.ernet.in/depts/astra/buildingtechimg.htm (pictures of CEB houses and FC half-cylinder, self-supporting roofs---cheapest and best way to make a roof in the world, forget about center posts and rafter-beams, or trusses. Convex side up is ok in a warm climate without violent winds---an easier-to-tie-down channel-beam is better where you have hurricanes, typhoons or tornadoes. Install it with the flat side down, seal the top lips where they join with a metal or plastic cap-extrusion and bolt through the lips.


http://www.bestpractices.org/cgi-bin/bp98.cgi?cmd=preview00
http://www.bestpractices.org/cgi-bin/bp98.cgi?cmd=detail&id=5783&key=
(How about a $110 dollar woodless house? A little spartan for U.S. or Canada tastes, but I've seen some CEB and channel-beam roof houses in Colombia that would sure as hell sell here. They cost $600 then, ten or twenty percent more now. That's foundation, walls, roof. Doors, windows, electric wiring, lights, plumbing and bath, kitchen fixtures extra. Today, you'd probably have to put up a demonstration house (use it as an office, or even live in it) but after that you'd be working on customer money, not yours. I used to get about ten percent down payment, and the customer or their mortgage lender would pay me three or four payments as the house went up.

http://www.skat-foundation.org/resources/downloads/pdf/as/basinnews_21.pdf

http://www.gtz.de/basin/news/magazine/basinnews_20.pdf (really thought-stimulating stuff on bootstrapping a dead economy with housing---doesn't work if people are basically charity-recipients. If they contribute labor and learn construction business, it does.

For a small building contractor it should provide some lessons in how to build sufficiently high-value houses for a lot less money that will sell well in competition with present higher-cost materials and methods. You said I like to think about CEB---you got that right. If I were younger I'd be doing that today---along with FC channel-beam roofs, built-in plumbing and wiring raceways which would save a lot of time in installing pipe and wire, and be accessible without a jackhammer for repair or modification. A lot of other stuff could be conventional, but with some of the above savings reflected in sales price, you wouldn't have to sell your product---people would be standing in line begging to buy it.





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