RotoCob

I had the opportunity to mix some cob with the rototiller. A neighbor tossed the sand and the clay into place with the Bobcat. Then I went at it with this noisy gasoline drinking machine. It works really well! It made a great cob, the type for building mass walls. It mixes the straw in very well, though it chops it up a little more than I wanted... I just added more long strands for the wall mix.
I guess the straw can get caught up in the tines if its not a little wet.
Great way to mix the mud.
http://ilovecob.com/archive/making-roto-cob

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Cob
• Natural
• Building
• Adobe

[iloveadobe]

The blades do break through the straw, but that's ok. You can add straw as you go.

Ya. It's a lot of work making cob. It's good for you though.

[RivenBloak]

@iloveadobe I agree it's good for you but a JCB is quicker.

[RivenBloak]

@cheaphardwarez a three tonne swing shovel works well.

[B4realalready]

Glad I don't have laundry duty at your house!

[TheDudeRulez09]

at first I thought this would be a great alternative to conventional mixing methods, but then when I seen that it cuts the straw up then, i realized that this would not be good for cobbing but great for earthen plaster making and earthen flooring. Cob walls need the tensile strength of the straw.

[magua73]

Have you ever heard of adobe? And no, I don't mean acrobat or reader! :)

Well adobe is pretty similar to cob as building material, that is clay, earth, straw and water, but whereas adobe you make bricks of it and let it dry, with cob you build with it while still wet.

[goodvocalcover]

wtf is cob lol

[xhellabentx]

love the beats

[cheaphardwarez]

Just to much work and time. There has got to be a better way, something like a mulling machine used to coat sand with oil for sand metal casting only for the purpose of coating straw with a clay sand mix...

[usmartine]

One smart man! Can this be done in a small cement mixer though?