Archives for Dec,2008

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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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

First Open Source CEB Wall Section Laid

Here is the process of laying up CEB blocks for our digital fabrication facility:

First Brick Laid

Laser level plus 1/2″ treated plywood plus shallow insulated gravel foundation equals first brick laid: