[Greenbuilding] Crushing Clay

[RT]

--- In SB-r-us at yahoogroups.com, Black Bean Beel ("Bill Steen" <bill at ...>  
wrote:
>
> I'm kind of intrigued by [Stronzo di Nord's] log spitter idea.  Sounds  
> kind of kool and feasible.

Well, that's a good enough reason (for me) to discard the log splitter  
idea. Probably too much wasted up-and-down motion, wasting time and energy.

But thinking about the problem some more got me to thinking about the  
hydraulic pump part of the afore-mentioned  hydraulic-powered portable log  
splitters.

The pump's innards are basically two gears in the same plane rotating so  
that their teeth mesh together.

Now if it were chunks o' clay instead of hydraulic fluid being fed into  
those meshing gears, the clay being hopper-fed from above, then we'd be  
cooking with (bio) gas.

The gears might be salvaged flywheels from junked tractors or maybe diesel  
locomotive or army tank drive train parts (if one happens to have a  
salvage facility for such in one's neighbourhood).

Maybe one might pre-break the larger chunks by rigging up discs salvaged  
 from old disc harrows (which seem to dot the countryside ) before dropping  
the clay down to the gears for further grinding ?

As to how such a rig might compare to using something like the  
Derelict/Marcus' Chile Roaster or the Dutch Crusher vertical-axis grinder  
, don't ask me, cuz, I don't know. I'm more of a toss-it-on-a-screen  
sifter-kinda-guy rather than a mechanical crusher.

While I have no doubts that the cement mixer with stones or steel balls  
tossed in would do the job, I also know that it would be noisier and  
dustier than #$%%, and a very slow/low-yield process.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  C A >
(manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit REPLY)