Jared Binitial

Hi everyone,

So I'm caught in a bind... I've got a rubble foundation near ready for an earthbag shed in eastern Montana, but it's almost mid August. Here, most years we get at least a few nights in October that are a few degrees below freezing. Right now days are anywhere from highs 93-103 and lows in the high 50s low 60s. October will have days with highs between 45-75, and the one or two light frosts at night. November is just plain downhill into miserably painful icy doom.

Anyways, the shed will be absolutely all I do sunup to sundown, but I'm mostly doing it alone. Thoughts about me moving forward? We are a hot and desert-dry climate right now. September is usually less hot, but still warm. How long approximately will a standard earthbag between 10-20  percent clay take to dry in the wall? Was planning to use a wetter mix, as the clay here squeases concrete hard when heavily wetted,  but will I have time? If I do, when should I set my deadline approximately? Like I said, nothing I've found says how quick the bags cure in a similar environment. Please help!

Sure hope it works that way!  Thanks Phil! The layers nearby are a bit harder shale, and has the many horizontal layers characteristic of it. The stuff is so soft though that it gets a layer of clay slip when mixed with water. The stuff I'm actually keeping is the shale/mudstone that is already broken up like a soil. I'm guessing that millennia nearer to the surface and exposure to moisture and frost heave may have broken it all down for me.  Not entirely sure why I've only been able to find that trait in just one small area, but I'll take it. When squeezed into a ball with a higher moisture content, it dried quick in the sun as hard as cement and without a single crack. Sounds like a good sign I think!

Hey, here's a somewhat related question, does anyone have experience using soft clay shale to add to their sand/gravel? This may suddenly be my only option. I found a nice patch with shale already naturally pulverized a bit into a fluffy, heavy clay mix (see pic). Shale is still very visible, but most pieces are tiny, and it can form a good clay ball that is sticky and pliable. Some visible bits of shale still float in the matrix though.

Anyways, this stuff is apparently ground up and used in ceramics and pottery, does anyone have experience with it?

Hey thanks Bryant, glad to hear! So, would you say that up to half or so gravel in the sand mix is the ideal? Have you worked with a wide variety of soils in earthbag before?

I wonder if it's even common to find a mix like this in nature, since I know many people can dig the fill right out of their land. Most of the rock around here, if you find any, is smooth round river rock.

Hey John,

Yes, that's pretty much it! I figured it out a few days ago and have the whole setup almost painted and ready to go! I'll post pics and maybe a short review soon!

Hi all,
First of all, I want to thank you all who have helped me so much with my past earthbag questions. I keep pretty busy and have difficulty finding time to post a proper thank-you. You guys, and this site, have been a great resource.

Anyways, my next question is, how much gravel is ideal for earthbag construction mixes? Most sources that I see say that approximately 20% clay to 80% sand and gravel mix is ideal. However, what I have not seen yet is what the ideal ratio of sand to gravel actually is. So I wonder, what is the absolute maximum and the absolute minimum amount of crushed gravel that should be present in an earthbag?

Personally, I'm stuck in a position where I need to purchase the sand and gravel mix separate of the clay mix from the local gravel pit. Attached is a picture I took of their sample of sand and gravel mix, which contains three-quarter inch crushed gravel pieces. After looking at the picture, I would like to know if this looks like too much gravel. To me it looks like a lot, but after adding the clay mix, do you all think this looks like a good choice? They have other mixes available, like plain sand, but my sources say that something with a bit of small gravel bits is more ideal. Can strong earthbags be made with just sand and clay?

Anyways, would love your thoughts. Hopefully this hasn't already been discussed elsewhere and can help others.

@Travis: $179 brand new isn't too bad! I have a tough time trusting a lot of HF stuff to be lasting quality, but if it has your endorsement then maybe it would have been a better option. However, since I've already sunk a bunch of money into what is currently a useless frame, I think I'll try a bit longer at seeing it successful.

@Brian: That's all great general mixer info. Any ideas about my situation and how to get this design working? I'd really like an idea of what the original builders and writers of these plans intended as the washing basin shaft.

Thanks for the replies all!

@James: that looks like a neat design on your mixer there, but I'm not sure how I would replicate it on mine. Nothing that I see in the plans and finished product seem to resemble that bar with rollers. As for the bar sticking out of the front, good thinking! I had no idea what the point of it was, and wasn't able to find the necessary joint at my store anyways, so I left it off. Would probably make pouring much easier!

@William: thanks for the added diagram and input! It may be hard to see, but the front of my frame actually already has the threaded 2" "nipple" attached to it. I'm still not entirely sure what it attaches to, the 12" pipe section? The threading would require a coupling between them as well, and 12" is much too short to even fit through the basin I believe. The hole in the top of the agitator cone inside the basin won't even allow a pipe of this diameter through. Was the 12"pipe what you meant for the shaft?

Hi all,

I recently began working on building a homemade cement mixer based on original instructions from an article of Mother Earth News from 1980. The design uses galvanized steel pipe and the recycled basin of an old washing machine to make a "cheap" mixer. The republished online article is somewhat vague, so I found a couple more sites that fleshed the design out a bit more and included pictures. All links below....

https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/homemade-cement-mixer-zmaz80sozraw
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.wikihow.com/Make-a-Cement-Mixer%3famp=1
https://www.google.com/amp/s/homequicks.com/homemade-cement-mixer.amp

The problem that I'm personally having with all three sources (I can't find anything else online from other people who have made them) is that they all talk about putting the wash basin on a "shaft", but they do not say what the shaft is not is it included in a parts list. The third link, from homequicks, gives a parts list and calls for this shaft to be attached to the pipe "nipple" on the front of the frame, but won't say what that shaft is.

The actual drive shaft of the washing machine, from what I can see, would never connect to this threaded piping nipple. I have no clue what to use to complete this project that I've already sunk around $100 in. Customer service for Mother Earth News says all the staff from 1980 have retired and that nobody left is familiar with the design. Has anyone built this? Anyone have ideas?

Pics attached showing the incomplete form as I have it now.

Hey Michael, thanks for reaching out!

I don't have the best quick drawing skills, and am not sure exactly what you'd like to see in more detail, but here's the drawing from the book I'm using as my main reference showing methods of attaching the roof to the wall. They say even 2x4 lumber will work, but don't talk anything about slant and seat cuts. The picture seems to show some kind of very shallow cut, but I don't know anything about proper method to determine the angle and whether such a cut would be code compliant anywhere.

Anyways, see attached photo for what the book vaguely explains to do.