Cob Fibro Cement- !!Wood CHips Ahoy!!

[crtaylor]

Ok boys and girls, I could hardly STAND to hear about woood chips yesterday
without going out and making some test blocks ala' Frank Andressen and the
Austrialia recipie given ( 1 cement, 2 sand, 3 wood sawdust/chips)

[Big thanks to Rog in AUstralia who told us about this!!]

Becaise I am in the Pac Nor'West we hav sawdust a-plenty around here!

We have hardwood sawdust/chips called Madrone...I happened to have a hefty
bagfull scrounged just the other day in plans for using it for Humanure
testing ( yes really)


So I took the 1 cement, 2 sand and 3 woodchips recipie and dumped it into a
bowl and added a small 1 can  of water ( used a 15 oz tin can for all
measurements.

The first mix was beach sand and the wood chips kinda floated around on top
for a bit, then when I mixed them again they  seemed ok...drained and
placed into a simple CARDBOARD box for the formwork..I left them to dry in
the sun...

not willing toleave well enough alone I mixed local red clay  with sand in
it, cement and 3 parts wood...made a very wet messy batch, but the chips
got coated with clay quick.

Next batch was local grey clay and sand, cement,it  made a firm well bodied
mix
( with a subtle but sophisticated flavor .hahah)

this mix stood up in peaks on the drain screen!... all were left to drain a
bit, all went into cardboard boxes used as miniforms


came back 4 hours later and they were all getting really firm...after my FC
soggy paper-weeks to dry experience with was a real thirill.


SO I went back to the lumber mill scrap yard and loaded up the car with as
much madrone sawdust as I could take with me.

then I stopped at the redwood miller and got a big bag of redwood
sawdust..nice and dried out.  This stuff is supposed to fight insects.

will mix up a batch tomorrow.


Because sawdust does notburn well due to lack of oxygen in the mass, and
becuase the clay acts like a 'slip' and the cement a hardener I may be
making some nifty Humbuldt Coundy CHips Ahoy bricks, and try building
something with this.

More news as I churn this stuff out.

Charmaine R. Taylor
Taylor Publishing & Elk River Press
PO Box 6985 Eureka CA 95502  1-888-307-7650
'Books for people who want to build'
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/

**1/2 arce gently sloped, wooded land 4 sale in Florissant, CO,
smack in the Rocky Mountain Range, email me if interested**