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Papercrete Tow Mixer

ByLilyAnn Earthbag House, Projects
3 Comments

Last year, making batches of papercrete involved filling a barrel with newspaper and water, and grinding it up by hand using a drill with a special attachment.  CLICK HERE to see last year’s post about it.

Using that procedure, we could only make relatively small batches of papercrete, and mixing it up that way always made my arms ache! Toward the end of the season last year, Keith began collecting the materials to make a papercrete tow mixer, using the one on makepapercrete.com as a model.  (Be sure to check out that site for a great demo video and to order step-by-step instructions if you’re interested in building one yourself!)

A neighbor near our property obtained the rear axle of a Jeep and welded it to the frame of an old boat trailer for us, and then Keith’s dad, Lee, assembled the contraption this winter while we were away.

Now to mix papercrete (a batch about 3 times the size of what we could make before) all we need to do is fill our mixer about half way with water, toss in 45 lbs of newspaper, drive around until it’s ground up, then add 45 lbs of Portland Cement and drive around some more to mix it up!  There’s actually room for more if we want to make an even bigger batch.

We’ll be putting a layer of papercrete, about two inches thick, on both the inside and outside of the earthbag walls to protect the earthbags and provide extra insulation against cold and heat. The papercrete will eventually be covered over with a lime plaster.

See photos and a video of our papercrete mixer below!

Papercrete Mixer Blade
The axle was turned so the drive shaft pointed upwards, then a livestock watering tank with a hole in the center was affixed to the axle assembly and a steel blade mounted onto the drive shaft. As the wheels turn, so does the blade!

 

Papercrete Mixer Leak
Unfortunately, quite a bit of water leaked out the first time we filled it. It still worked, though! Lee later sealed up most of the leaks with more glue and grease.  We also lost water out from the top when the blade started spinning, so we’ll need to do a better job of sealing the lid!

 

Soaking Newspapers
We threw 45 pounds of newspaper into the mixer and made sure it was all soaked.

 

Partially ground up newspapers
First we tried to pull the tow mixer with a lawn mower. It wouldn’t budge. So we switched to pulling it with a Jeep. It worked! Here’s the partially ground up newspaper after a short drive of a few hundred feet.

 

Papercrete Tow Mixer behind Jeep
Lee pulled the tow mixer for awhile longer. In this photo you can see the half-built earthbag house in the background.

 

Paper pulp
Looking good! Time to add 45 lbs of Portland Cement and drive a few more minutes.

 

Papercrete ready to use
Here’s the papercrete! Not bad for our very first batch. MUCH easier than the old hand-grinding method. We discovered that wetter papercrete is easier to use in the mortar sprayer.

 

Here’s our video of our very first batch of papercrete made with the tow mixer:

 

Any questions?  Feel free to use the comment box below!

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