Tejas Terry

The slurry was totally mixed after 5 minutes.  That lawnmower blade is chopping thru it really fast at 5 mph.

I don't know how full it was.  We put water in a 4 foot trough to approx 18 inches high.  He said this equaled 150 gallons of water.  Then added 85 pounds of paper and 1 sack of portland cement.

When we drained it into the forms, it was thoroughly mixed and easily spreadable.  It was the consistency of cooked oatmeal, before it sets and gets thick.  It poured out easily, yet set up enough to remove the forms in 20 minutes without losing it's shape. 

We'll be making our blocks on our property, and to make them quickly, get into a flow of mixing, towing, pouring into forms....and while the papercrete is setting up in the forms, mixing another batch, towing...etc. 

The tow mixer is made from a rear end differential of an old car or truck  found in a junk yard.  It is turned upside down and the part that is  normally attached to the drive shaft of the vehicle, is sticking up through a hole that has been drilled in a 4 foot stock tank.  A  lawn mower blade is then welded on to the drive shaft, and when towed behind a vehicle, the lawn mower blade turns and chops and mixes the paper/water/cement mix.  You're only going 5 miles an hour, for 5 minutes or so.  It may leak water slightly, but bondo is used to seal most areas.  It is a super fast process.  I can't see why someone would want to do this going down the highway at regular speeds.  It's not designed for that. 

I attended a class last weekend, and it worked very well.  We mixed enough papercrete in the tow mixer for 1 batch to make 18 blocks that were  1 x 2 feet in size.  I would estimate that when set up, they weighed about 6 pounds each.  The mix was  85 pounds of paper, 150 gallons of water, and 1 bag of portland cement.    The papercrete website has a lot of this info on it,  www.livinginpaper.com

Here is also a youtube video that explains how a tow mixer is made and used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoLBeV6tzJ4

Hi everyone..  I've  read quite a bit of info on here about  testing your soil for clay content, where to look for clay soil, etc. to make cob. 

I own property in West Texas that is desert, with mostly sandy soil, no clay. 

Does anyone know if road base that can be ordered from quarries,  contains clay?  I know that for earthbag building,  a lot of times people  will order cheap road base to fill the bags.  I know there are also different grades of road base....but not familiar enough to know the difference.

Just looking at my options for building a small cabin on my property in the desert...

TejasTerry