Rethink Your Life! Finance, health, lifestyle, environment, philosophy |
The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
|
|
Cob: Window InstallationShannon C. Dealy dealy at deatech.comMon Jan 6 02:42:35 CST 2003
On Mon, 6 Jan 2003, Darel Henman wrote: [snip] > I have a question regarding the statement below about replacing a pane. > You describe carving out the dried cob, putting in the new glass pane > and then using new cob over the old. I should think that some kind of > preparations, such as a.) damping the underlying dry cob first before > applying the new, or b.) somehow prepare the surface so that new cob can > be keyed in for a better meld with the old. Do you have any advice on > this. [snip] I ignored this because there are standard techiques for applying new cob to old cob, but of course, many may not be aware of them, so: 1 - Provide a means for the new cob to mechanically interlock with the surface of the old cob. This can include hammering old bent nails or driving wood screws into the surface of the old cob, or drilling holes in the cob (I like 1"+ diameter holes drilled with a masonary bit). Any other technique you can think of that will provide a reasonable mechanical bond will probably do as well. 2 - Before adding new cob to old, dried cob, thoroughly wet the old cob. Usually this will involve repeatedly soaking the old cob with water, the more water you can get the old cob to absorb, the better it will bond with the new cob. Generally, you will not be able to get the old cob to soften. For cosmetic repairs, plasters, and non-structural work (such as what I propose to do with embedded glass), I usually repeatedly wet the surface over a 15 to 30 minute period (for a completely dry wall), for a major repair (adding a new section of wall) where I need a really good bond, I might repeatedly soak the area as often as possible (everytime I walk by) for a few days. What is best for your situation (particularly for major repairs), could vary a great deal depending on your particular cob mix. On my zero dollar house (which uses a really crappy high clay/silt, low sand mix - the local soil with no supplements), I can actually get the surface of the cob to soften in less than two hours, which you will normally not be able to do with a good cob mix. 3 - Add the new cob, preferably a mix that is fairly close to the original if possible. Shannon C. Dealy | DeaTech Research Inc. dealy at deatech.com | - Custom Software Development - | Embedded Systems, Real-time, Device Drivers Phone: (800) 467-5820 | Networking, Scientific & Engineering Applications or: (541) 451-5177 | www.deatech.com
|