Cob Solar cooker: Making the form

Making a large parabolic solar cooker from cob. (Straw,clay,and sand mixture)

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• cob
• solar
• green
• building
• cooker
• oven
• alternative
• energy
• appropriate
• technology
• devellopment
• help
• DIY

[Sonuchka4]

I don't know much about cob/clay. Could you also make it out of muddy clay/sand and fire it? Would that be stronger/more weatherproof/more smooth? Kind of like making an upside down wood-fired cob oven? Thanks!

[gaiatechnician]

@Sonuchka4 If you are going to do something for frying, I suggest something different. Attach your alu foil to 1 ft by 1ft tiles and then put them on some sort of a backing. Alu foil automatically wrinkles when you try to curve it for a parabolic dish.

It simply cannot be laid without wrinkles on a dish. (you can lay it flat on a trough) Email me or check out the Dolios and Petisos Solar Cookers. They are the closest things in the real world to the concepts I try to develop.

[Sonuchka4]

(beginning of text below). First of all, how heavy is your cob solar oven? Is it easy to move? Second, how resistant is it to rain/weathering? How long will it last? It is likely to break if dropped? Third, how can you make it smoother? Paper Mache? Clay? Thanks!

[gaiatechnician]

@Sonuchka4 Hi, I took it apart. I just do these things as proof of concept.

As far as i know nobody else ever made a solar cooker this way.

I couldn't afford to do more than a few days putting the concept together and then making the thing. I work at stonemasonry during the summer so I have very few test results. I come home at about 5.30 pm and check the temperature of something that cooked at about 3 pm. Not much else I can do. Check the clam shaped solar cookers too Brian

[Sonuchka4]

Thanks for all your videos gaiatechnician. You're the only one I've seen who thinks about how to make them for people in the developing world (who are the most likely to need them). They don't have satellite dishes lying around! I'm going to Haiti soon and would like to try this cob method, but if I want a dish that can fry foods, I need a perfect paraboloid with a precise focal point, and a very smooth finish so that the aluminum foil doesn't have wrinkles.

[gaiatechnician]

@Sonuchka4 I know it might be a pain (because I have many videos) but you might check out some of my newer video's, The clam shaped solar cooker ones, etc. Maybe bring a laser level with you to Haiti and you might be able to do the clam shaped thing. The Haitians should be experts in using clay for building, etc. I have a friend in Haiti who is also enthusiastic about solar cooking.

Brian

[gaiatechnician]

@Sonuchka4 There is not too much involved in making cob.  But I don't think firing it will work. You could limewash (whitewash) it (hydrated lime) instead or use linseed oil to waterproof it.

[gaiatechnician]

@fergawdsache The string and "mechanical mathematician" method is really easily adjustable. (So if you make your cob holder a little wrong, you can adjust things so that less cob is used. And you know the focus right away. There are also times when you do not make a full parabolic dish or you make one longer on one side than another. Again, this can more easily be obtained with this method. Thanks Brian

[Twomidgetsonahorse]

hey, invest in a tripod for your cam. I got motion sick just watching this