Success and new challenges
The much-awaited Silica came to San Cristóbal via the ADO bus from Mexico City late Tuesday afternoon. This important ingredient was not on the truck of other materials that came last week.
Stan helped organize the HUGE stack of cut wood parts so we could find the correct pieces to assemble a few mold sets.
As Stan figured out the inventory and tried to do a next to impossible job of organizing the wood pieces I was kept busy assembling the mold boxes.
To do this I first use my nail gun to attach all the pieces together. Then the promoters use some drilling guides I made and they drill all the fastener holes. Next, the sides are removed along with the nails and everything is screwed together. Once the molds are completed they are treated with used motor oil to act as a waterproofing and so the cement doesn’t stick to the tools.
On Wednesday we mixed and cast the first set of combustion chambers. The woman promoters are fast learners, they could quickly tell when the mixtures were too dry or too wet. The sand was almost 50%+ gravel. We got some screen and I screwed it to several of the stove frames and we were off and sieving.
We are using a pumice-like material (tepezil) in substitution for perlite. This has presented a new challenge, as we don’t have enough to make all the stoves. We were to get a specific amount in volume, but we were shorted. We will order more to complete the program.
On Thursday we cast the remaining parts. The day got away from us and we had to work until about 7pm. We like to leave the community by 5pm. All the promoters seemed to be having a good time mixing and making parts. the women are quick to pick up on the mixing and the proper amount of water for each mix. We saw them say it is too dry and put it back into the mixing tub to add more water.
We are challenged to get the volume of the mixes closer so we don’t have excess or have to mix up more to finish. This is a next to impossible task since we have random sized fillers that will act to different volumes. We hope to get within 10-15%.
Friday we finished up the top mortar and de-molded the first set of combustion chambers. They de-molded fine and look great. We then cleaned up the tools and cast the second set of combustion chambers. We were able to leave by 2pm. Once we have a stove stand made (bricks), we will assemble the first stove.
We decided that it would be best to take the weekend off, (no work in the community) as it seemed like everyone needed some time off.
Stan and I both did a lot of computer work. I got my laptop back up and running (had to reinstall windows – lost all files). 90+% is stored in the cloud so I didn’t lose very much.
