Before we bumped the table and the camera fell, fatal screw up on its part….
We were having an awesome day. After that it was just a really good day for inventing in general.
This is the bottom of the new block box, alpha 2 I guess we can call it. The two pieces of angle iron or for the future stand that will support the block box. The three pieces of flat stock welded in the middle are to keep it from spreading when compressing a block. The angle iron is 2″ X 2″ X 1/4″ . The flat bar stock is 1/4″ X 2″. The spacing is even spaces, about eight and a half inches as I recall.
I cannibalized the ram and screw mechanism from the original block box press for the new one. Here it is installed and ready for compressing the first block. The next picture is of the business side of the ram with the wires in place. The next picture is from the other end. Notice the wires coming out of the bottom.
This is pre-compression chamber I made. Basically it smashes the material a bit before I put it into the block box press. I just put the stuff in there and pound it down with a sledge. Works great.
With the ram back as far as possible I filled up the box press with plastic trash. Most of it had been through the pre-compression tool. Then I put on the cover. I haven’t put on the permanent lid because I wanted to make sure that the new press worked first. Once the lid was on I ran the screw down all the way as you can see here.
When I pulled back the ram this is what you could see at the other end of the block press.
I added some more plastic and ran the ram down one more time.
This is the good part. I removed the cover plate. and pulled the wires up for tensioning with my tensioning tool.
First the wire is pushed through the eye or loop at the ram end of the block. Then that slot you see on the bottom of the tension tool is pushed through the eye or loop and down the wire about five inches. The loose end of the wire coming through the eye or loop is folded over the handle of the tension tool. Then the tool is pushed over the eye or loop towards the end of the block. This action pulls the wire to the loop tightening it. When the tool folds the wire over the eye the wire is tight. If it isn’t the tool can be relocated and it can be done again until the wire is tight.
This is when I broke the camera. So I don’t have any pictures of the finished block. First thing, the three wire block is a much better block. Second thing, removing the block was much easier with the tapered sides. I believe this design will be the final design. There might be some tweaks but this thing here works. I’ll get the top hinged and come up with an exact material list and dimensions so that others can copy it if they want.
I’m getting a lot of suggestions about using hydraulics to make it easier, faster and better. My concern at this point in time is to prove that a wired recycled plastic block is a viable building material. People a lot smarter than I am will come up with making the blocks faster and easier. I’ll leave that up to them.