Such blocks are quite a suitable wall material for a warm box, garage, barn, and other outbuildings. Purchasing ready-made blocks with delivery outside will cost pretty much. But if you are not too lazy, you can make them yourself, and any physically strong adult can cope with such work.
Will need
Materials:
- steel sheets 3 and 4 mm thick;
- vibrator from a sharpening machine;
- bushings from an old silent block with washers and bolts;
- sections of profile square pipe;
- round bar;
- large sawdust;
- sand, cement, water, etc.
Tools: welding machine, concrete mixer, containers for storing and dosing the components of the batch, shovel, trowel, etc.
The process of manufacturing heat-insulating blocks from sawdust concrete using a metal vibroform
The frame of the mold for making sawdust concrete blocks 20x30x60 cm is welded from a metal sheet 4 mm thick, and the side walls are welded from a 3 mm sheet.
The height of the mold is 25 cm, because after it is filled with molding mixture, it is compacted by a vibrator and the height of the block becomes 5 cm less.
The vibrator is a rigid rectangular metal sheet 30×60 cm, to which a sharpening machine with removed sanding wheels, protective covers, etc. is bolted in the center.
Vibration is created when the machine is turned on due to the rotation of eccentrics, consisting of massive bolts welded to the bushings of old silent blocks with washers, and tightened on the shaft with engravers and nuts. The bolts are directed in one direction to increase the unbalanced masses, and hence the vibration effect.
A batch of sawdust concrete consists of two 10-liter buckets of sand, one 10-liter bucket of cement and four 15-liter buckets of large sawdust. We pour these ingredients into a concrete mixer and mix thoroughly, sometimes helping with a shovel when the unit is turned off. Lastly, add 10 liters of water without stopping the stirring process.
We fill the metal mold with the finished mixture to the very top, i.e. the filling height is 25 cm. This is done specifically to compact the mixture in the mold using a vibrator, which has limiters made of profile square pipes that prevent the vibrating platform from falling into the mold below 5 cm As a result, the height of the block is standard – 20 cm.
We install the vibrating platform on the surface of the mixture in the mold, turn on the electric motor of the machine and press the platform with our hands or even our feet to speed up the compaction process of the molding mixture.
As soon as the vibration platform stops “sit” on the upper edge of the molding box, the compaction process can be considered complete. We remove the vibrator, put a cover with a handle in its place to prevent the corners of the block from falling off when removing the frame and remove it. We place the frame next to it, and it is again ready for molding the next block.
Read more: Quick Guide: 3 Ways to Level Your Walls