Cob: sandy soil

[Howard]

I found a tumble type cement  mixer to not be as useful as a paddle type mortar
mixer for anything other than concrete.  And if you take the rubber scrubbers off
of the paddle mixer for mixing cob it will do straw very well.  Put the scrubbers
back on for mixing plaster.

Howard

Scot Robinson wrote:

> Sara,
>
> I am really curious as to how the cement mixer works,
> if you use it.  I am going to start building a cob
> home in the spring and thought of using a mixer to
> help speed up the process slightly.  Please let me
> know how it works out.
>
> Does anyone else have experience with a mixer?  Does
> it work well?
>
> Scot
>
> --- Sbay <Hi_eagle at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for all the info.
> > I'm building it a 15 ft round with flat on one side
> > for my windows.
> > Sort of a half moon shape i guess.
> > I'd like to do just a shed roof cuz it seems easiest
> > we got lucky and got a bunch of windows free.  They
> > are in great shape and all four have double pane
> > windows in them that work!
> > They are pretty big and so that's what determined
> > the shape of the house plans.
> > I'd like to have already gotten started because the
> > weather has been so great here in Minnesota!!
> > It's been so warm and wonderful out.
> > I think it will take quite a while to dry however so
> > I'm thinking I might need to build the roof first so
> > we can move in with semi wet walls.
> > It will be getting very very cold soooooon!
> >
> > My clay that I had brought in gets extremely hard,
> > not really crumbly at all.  Maybe I just got sandy
> > clay??
> > I was thinking of just using it with a very small
> > amount of my sandy soil like 70%clay 30% soil and
> > mixing with either a cement mixer or a bobcat.
> > Anyone have experience with either?
> >
> > Sara
> >
> >
>
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