Cob: messed up building / mechanical mixing (fwd)

[Shannon C. Dealy]

I think this was meant for the list.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 16:14:14 -0500
From: Ryan Hunt <ryanhunt at hugllc.com>
To: Shannon C. Dealy <dealy at deatech.com>
Subject: Re: Cob: messed up building / mechanical mixing

As far as machines go, I've used a large vertical auger mixer with great
success.  They are called TMR mixers in the dairy industry.  We can mix
up to 7500 lbs of cob by loading it with a skid loader.  Unfortunately,
though, these also require a tractor to run them and unless you are good
buddies with a local farmer who might have one, they are expensive to
get your hands on them.  They cost around $20K for the smallest ones
like we have.  I'd like to see somebody offer them for rent to other
cobbers.


Shannon C. Dealy wrote:

>On Fri, 15 Aug 2003, Donna Strow wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>
>>My parents want to know, what happens if you have a workshop and the
>>building is messed up?
>>I told them I assumed the whole thing was about taking reasonable risks and
>>fixing whatever went wrong... right?
>>
>>
>
>Depends on what you mean by "messed up", a bad design is hard to fix,
>but many construction mistakes aren't that big a deal, especially with
>cob -- I underestimated the shrinkage and settling of a wall and didn't
>set the support beam over a window high enough above it, so over time it
>eventually started putting weight on the top of the window frame.  To fix
>it I just grabbed a hammer and chisel to remove cob from below the entire
>base of the window, this allowed it to shift down as the beam above it
>settled, one of these days (now that the wall has finished shrinking and
>settling), I should fill in the area at the base of the window with cob to
>seal it up.
>
>
>
>>My father says, if I don't have an army of hippies like my mentors did, I
>>should tool up with a cement mixer (he says fine for cob) and a pickup truck
>>first (total $1500.)  He's right about one thing -- I hate getting my feet
>>muddy!
>>
>>
>[snip]
>
>A cement mixer won't work for cob (it's been tried repeatedly), the straw
>won't mix in.  For mechanical mixing people have reported some success
>with mortar mixers (but never make more than 1/2 load at a time, the straw
>in the cob will overload the unit), roto-tillers (I've been meaning to try
>this one since I was recently given one), and tractor/skid-loader/bobcat
>(basically anything with a bucket, though the skidloader/bobcat works
>better since you can spin them around on top of the pile for mixing)
>
>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) 929-4089 |                  www.deatech.com
>
>
>