David Leftwich

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since Nov 18, 2016
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Recent posts by David Leftwich

I'm aware this post is an old one, but I've had an idea for years of how to easily fix this. A fat 50 Cal ammo can is about the right size for a decent block, is already welded square, and has the plenty of height to leave room for a Lego block plate to stack them. Take out the bottom,  use a hole saw on the plate and a wood block on the other side with the circles you cut out, and you have Lego plates. If there's problems with the difference in size of holes and pegs, you can use washers with narrow holes the right size. It would double the cost at $26 for the fat 50 and who knows the amount to make the press bigger, but would produce bigger and much better blocks.
5 years ago
cob

Steve Lansing wrote:Let start with a question, what and how are you building? First, with the clay you have, if you added sand and straw and preesed into bricks, would that work like a form of adobe? Also, if you crush concrete down to powder, it can be made back into concrete again, just balance out mix with more cement.



R Ranson wrote:I don't know much about concrete - but I wonder...

It sounds like you have the perfect resources to make a cob house.  Could the concrete be used to create a foundation the build the cob walls on top using some of that lovely clay you have?  



The problem with our soil is it absorbs water like a sponge, killing the concrete foundations. As to making cob out of it, I don't know if it would work for cob. It tends to expand to several times it's size when wet. In a wet year the ground can rise over a foot. Never worked with cob, though I've done some research on it. I'm planning on several projects that CEB would be perfect for. First for building a graduated raised garden bed (beds that are on different levels like stairs). Also planning on making a rocket stove grill, wood outdoor fire pit,and a kiln. Obviously I'm gonna need a fireproof building material for it. I'm going to build bio-char briquettes anyway, so a press could be used for that too.
8 years ago
So, the soil in my area is almost entirely expansive clay, and I haven't found any local suppliers here of soil suitable for Compressed Earth Bricks. However, we are a concrete jungle full of crumbling streets always being repaired. One of the biggest expenses for the construction is getting rid of the used concrete. My question is:

A) can concrete powder be pressed into blocks with CEB presses?

B) will it expand in heat or rain like the cured concrete does
&
C) will it take more pressure than is feasible to do so?

Thank you
Dave_Lefty
8 years ago