Subject: [Cob] straw chopper

[ocean]

i found the problem with the weed-whacker in the barrel is two-fold - 
one is that the swirling string creates a vortex which whips the straw 
into a little whirlwind flying out the top, event with a slotted lid... 
  but the second problem is worse, unless you are using an electric 
whacker, this is that the damned stinky two-cycle motor, in this 
vertical position, spews its nasty, unburned, carcinogenic 
gasoline-laden exhaust directly into your face!

Try the electric blower/vacuum/mulcher i just posted.  It works 
great!!!!
On Oct 27, 2006, at 7:12 PM, Barbara Roemer & Glenn Miller wrote:

>
> Ray, your idea of putting some chicken wire in the bottom of a five gal
> bucket in which you're chopping straw seems like a good theory.  You 
> might
> find you need something sturdier than chicken wire.  At a recent CA 
> Straw
> Building Assn plaster workshop, we chopped straw in a fifty gallon 
> plastic
> trash barrel with a slot cut in the lid.  It used a string trimmer, and
> worked very well - fast and shielded the user from much of the chaff 
> and
> dust.  We sifted separately, though.
>
> Barbara
>
>