Archive for December, 2008
Monday, December 29th, 2008
A New Member of Factor e
HI, I’m Jeremy, another member of Factor E. I’ve been here for about a month now and I’d like to introduce myself and talk about how things are going.
My background is in multimedia information technology, which I have an associates degree in. I’ve educated myself in and gotten jobs doing several different things like …
3 Comments » - Posted in Challenges,Quality of Life,Volunteers by Jeremy
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Lifetime Design Buildings at Forty Three Cents Per Square Foot
We have demonstrated $4/sq. ft. costs for lifetime building in the last post – based on using on-site earth as a low cost building material. When our CEB machine is optimized to 3000 bricks per day, this option becomes really attractive as a viable option for global village construction.
When our sawmill comes on-line, we …
13 Comments » - Posted in Compressed Earth Block Press,Global Village Construction Set,Natural Building by Marcin
Friday, December 19th, 2008
November Progress Report
With the roof on the CEB workshop addition – we can relax our pace and document progress. Our wireless internet is down – is works intermittently in winter – so we are in the process of installing a land line.
It is useful to summarize both October and November here – which focused on building …
1 Comment » - Posted in Accomplishments by Marcin
Friday, December 12th, 2008
It’s Over Our Heads
The roof is coming into place quickly. We will have the entire structure closed off – including a living roof covered with soil and straw – hopefully by today. Through major catastrophe – a part of the wall collapsing because the bricks haven’t cured properly in the freezing weather – we still managed …
2 Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Compressed Earth Block Press by Marcin
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
The Brick that Broke the Camel’s Back
I have a lot to say about where I am, about what I’m doing, about what I’m feeling and about bricks. And no pictures to say it with. So, please be persistent and listen to what I have to say and perhaps we’ll all be the wiser for it.
After two years of homesteading, the …
16 Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Animal Rights,Challenges,Compressed Earth Block Press,Guests,Infrastructure,Natural Building,Open Source Technology,Organizational Development,Quality of Life,Visiting,Volunteers by Brittany
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
Torch Table: Day 1
As we go about finishing the CEB workshop addition, we are setting up our open source torch table development in the greenhouse. It’s been a long time since we started this development – but building the open source tractor and other details took priority over the torch table.
We discussed the computer-controlled torch table in …
5 Comments » - Posted in Digital Fabrication,Flexible Fabrication,Industrial Swadeshi,Open Engineering by Marcin
Monday, December 8th, 2008
Supernatural Wall
The CEB wall is not only made from local earth, but it also has composted manure mortar.
This was not our first choice, but part of emergency Plan B. The ground is pretty much frozen here, and we can no longer make earth slurry mortar. In our case, mortar is particularly useful in evening …
No Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Compressed Earth Block Press by Marcin
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Solar Turbine Convergence Breakthroughs
In a historic convergence of December, 2008 – Solar Turbine work of OSE merged with a UK linear concentrator development team. Both teams have arrived at essentially the identical design, down to critical details – for a breakthrough, low cost solar concentrator system. Two versions will be field tested – one with steam power, …
4 Comments » - Posted in Solar Turbine by Marcin
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
First Open Source CEB Wall Section Laid
Here is the process of laying up CEB blocks for our digital fabrication facility:
2 Comments » - Posted in Accomplishments,Compressed Earth Block Press by Marcin
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
First Brick Laid
Laser level plus 1/2″ treated plywood plus shallow insulated gravel foundation equals first brick laid:
