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Post by amanitovirosa on Mar 17, 2016 23:40:17 GMT -5
...Nope.... , I built the press. 4 inch angle iron frame, 2, 12 x 12 by 3/4 inch thick steel plate 'crushers' (very heavy pieces of steel!) and a 20 ton hydraulic bottle jack. What happens is, with 1/4 inch spacers between the crushers, the lava rock is just compressed to a solid mass, before it gets to the 1/4 inch bottom out, no good. Vibration would be required to disperse the mass and allow the crushers to proceed further, but there is no possibility for vibration with compression. No pics because this was a fail, must go to Plan 'B'. Lots of vibration with a 12 lb sledge! Cheerio. AV.
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Post by shoggoths on Mar 18, 2016 7:53:12 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your attempt G.
Sorry to hear it didn't works.
I know now I should have buy this big bag (30-40 lbs) of 1/4 lava rocks when I had the chance ...
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Post by Apoplast on Mar 18, 2016 8:59:16 GMT -5
Hi AV - That sounds like quite the rig. I would have loved to have seen the squeezed lava rock! I'm having trouble even imagining it. But it sounds awesome! A quick internet search makes it seem like scoria (the type of rock used for "lava rock") is either mined in broken form or using explosives to free it, or it is broken to size using something called an "impact crusher" - which sounds like all kinds of dangerous fun. This makes it seem as though you can either just pick it up with a shovel (like at this cinder cone in Mexico where I've hiked around the rim - not my photo), or you have to go to impressive effort to get it to the size you want. This makes me unsure whether I expect to hear about your new impact crusher you've built, or the bag of lava rock you bought at a landscaping supply place. I feel like this could go either way...
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Post by amanitovirosa on Mar 18, 2016 9:16:17 GMT -5
...failure is unacceptable. I will 'persuade' the lava rock into a smaller size using a different method..........hmmmm, now where did I put that dynamite???....haha, stay tuned.
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Post by amanitovirosa on Apr 1, 2016 20:28:18 GMT -5
...AP - Believe me, I have looked EVERYWHERE in the GTA and nobody has this stuff. If I could get it, I would. I dismantled the press and tried a few different ways to crush the rock. I found the easiest was to just let the steel crusher plates do all the work, I couldn't find the dynamite, I thought it was behind the baloney (Hal ), my wife must have moved it. Here's the setup. ...these are the plates, the 'Pursuador', in blue was just too cumbersome. One of those plates probably weighs 3 times as much as that 12 pound sledge, but is actually lighter??? (weight disbursement). ...this is what's left of the lava rock after 2 or 3 drops of the top piece. Lots of weight, lots of vibration. I then put it through a filter screen to eliminate all of the dust... ...it actually works pretty good, have to watch the fingers though. I just counted all of mine, still have 10 so I'm ok. I can do a 7 pound bag of the BBQ rock in about 20 minutes. ...thanks for looking and Happy Growing... AV.
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Post by Apoplast on Apr 1, 2016 21:13:34 GMT -5
Hi AV - Wow, necessity really is the mother of... Giant metal plates! That's impressive! Now take an analgesic for what I am sure must be a very tired back, lifting that plate over and over, and think about what mountain you'll move next.
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Post by amanitovirosa on Apr 1, 2016 21:19:11 GMT -5
...it's actually a lot easier to lift the plate than to wield the Pursuador, dusty, not really heavy work. Move a mountain???, easier to dig it up no???
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Post by lloyd on Apr 1, 2016 21:27:41 GMT -5
You should have seen AV lifting a huge load of bricks and carrying it up a whole set of stairs.
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Post by nelzabe on May 31, 2017 8:29:58 GMT -5
If you're still looking for an alternative, Amazon Canada has a 9L bag of Growstones now for about $13 and is part of their free shipping deal over $35. However, I've read in some orchid forums that Growstones can be a bit alkaline and sometimes have salt residues from the glass expansions, so that might need some investigation before using with CPs. There are also decent deals on LECA balls, with 9L less than $20 on Amazon. Good luck!
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