100 CONCRETE BLOCKS PER HOUR

Image Gallery Designed and built by Lemuel E. Shaw of California this highly productive machine has been producing 800 blocks daily with one operator and a helper

This article reprinted by permission from Popular Mechanics. Copyright © 1946, The Hearst Corporation.

If you've never heard of Hi Sibley, you should have. Because back in the mid40's Hi was living-and writing about—more of a MOTHER-type life than most MOTHER readers live today. Do-ity-ourself adobe houses, "organic" gardening, homestead bees, and a hundred other back-to. basics projects . . . ole Hi and his wife did 'em themselves and then published the results of their work in a good dozen magazines of the day. The following Hi Sibley article originally appeared in a 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics ... but it's just as timely and valuable to any self-reliant home. steading family now as it was then.

That's right! 100 blocks per hour . . . provided you have the help and the space and racks to cure the blocks properly. In Fig. 1 you see the outfit complete, ready for work. It's a self-contained unit mounted on its own two-wheeled, pneumatictired trailer with a supporting caster wheel under the drawbar. There's nothing to take apart and put together again when you move the machine. Merely disconnect the water hose and the power line, hitch it to a truck, and away you go.

Figs. 4 to 7 inclusive show how it works. Fig. 2 details the metal mold and Fig. 3 the ejector plates and assembly. In Fig. 4 the mold, supported by a crane, is being lowered into place on the molding "board", in this case a steel plate somewhat larger than the mold. In Fig. 5 the mix is being scraped and troweled into the mold. When full the mold is vibrated by means of a footoperated take-off drive, and then the excess material is struck off the top with the fence or striker board. Next, the crane is hooked to the mold and the ejector is swung into place. In Fig. 6 the operator bears down on the ejector and simultaneously presses a foot pedal to raise the mold off the formed blocks. In Fig. 7 the finished blocks are being moved to the curing racks.

Fig. 8 shows the main frame, entirely a welded job using 3- and 4-inch pipe, steel plate, and steel channel. Only general dimensions are given as some of these parts must be sized to fit during the assembly of other parts of the machine. With the exception of the motor, which is only a representation, the crosshatched views in Fig. 9 are intended to give a general guide to proportionate sizes of the machine parts and their relative positions. To make the manner of assembly more clear, certain parts have been omitted from these details. No detailed dimensions have been given in Fig. 9 because these will vary somewhat according to the materials and parts which you have or which are available.