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I Love Papercrete
by spike3579 on June 9, 2013 Table of Contents I Love Papercrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intro: I Love Papercrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 1: A Brief History of Papercrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 2: So....What is This Stuff Anyways??? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 3: Papercrete Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 4: Making Papercrete Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Step 5: Building Time! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 3 3 5 8
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
hole in the stock tank but made the hole an inch smaller so that I could cut tabs and bend them down to secure the tank over the drain. I bolted everything together and sealed the joint between the differential and the tank with bondo. I also made a flap under the trailer to hold the drain shut. All that remained was to attach the lawnmower blade to the differential and I had a mixer. How long did it take? I took my time acquiring parts over a few months and then once I got started building it took me the better part of a couple of weekends to construct it. How much did it cost? I scrounged as much as I could. I got the rear end from a mechanic that I knew. I bought the metal for the trailer from the scrap yard so it only cost about $35. The trailer hitch was another $20 and the stock tank was about $175. Maybe another $20 for bondo, bolts, glue and silicone. So a total of about $250. What you do different next time? I would re-design the drain so it was easier to use and make it larger to let the mix out better. I also need to put a couple of chains on by the hitch in case something bad ever happens and the trailer comes off. OK , that's cool and all but I want to try making a few blocks before I commit to making a contraption like that. No problem. just use a plaster mixer on a heavy duty(1/2") drill in a 5 gallon bucket for a test run. Next up well go over actually making a batch of papercrete and casting it into blocks.
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
Life intervened and it was two more years before I got back to working on the yurt. It would have been longer but my sister, sick of sleeping on the couch when she visited, started instigating for more yurt progress. I told her Fine, well work on it next time youre here. thinking that would be the end of that. Well, she promptly came out and it was yurt building time again. Part of the reason I had been procrastinating on the project was that I wasnt really sure how to build the roof. It needed to be self supporting and not have any columns holding it up because the original yurt structure needs to fit inside of it.. It also needed to be very sturdy. We've gotten three feet of snow in a single storm and the roof needs to be able to handle that as well as our 50-60 mph spring winds. We started by making a central ring out of a couple layers of plywood that all the rafters would connect to. The ring was about 5 feet in diameter with a large hole in the center for a skylight. Next, we needed some way to hold this ring in the right place to attach the rafters to it. We erected some scaffolding and spent quite a bit of time getting the placement of the ring correct. It needed to be at just the right height and exactly in the center of the building. Oh, and level too. Eventually things got worked out and the yurt is finally weatherproof. It still needs to be finished out but it's coming along.
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
Step 6: Wrap Up
So there you have it. All the joy and wonder that is papercrete. While it's probably not going to ever make it as a mainstream product, it's perfect as an inexpensive alternative for someone who has more time than money to spend on smaller projects. It really lends itself to piecemeal progress. Save all your paper trash throughout the year. In the summer make some batches of blocks in the evening after work and soon you have enough inventory to build something. Start a building. Add another room next year. So on and so forth. Don't limit yourself to buildings either. I use it all the time for raised garden beds. Papercrete can be cast into any form you can imagine too. You could use it to make planters, outdoor benches, sculpture or anything else. Just get your hands dirty with it and I guarantee, a love affair will be born.
Related Instructables
http://www.instructables.com/id/I-Love-Papercrete/
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Jun 10, 2013. 8:28 AM REPLY
shaddoty says:
Green is overused, I was reading an advertisement by a high end audio company and their products were "Green"
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