Једног дана сам видео гомилу старих гума које се користе као потпорни зид и то ме је навело на размишљање о томе за шта су старе гуме добре. Имао сам неколико размишљања о томе шта да направим, али ми се највише допала идеја са шиндром. Чињеница да би били савитљиви ме је заиста закачила. Једва сам чекао да почнем!
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Информације о гумама
Тканина гуме је комбинација челика, најлона, арамидних влакана, рајона, фибергласа или полиестера. Гума је природна и синтетичка (стотине врста полимера). Постоји много хемикалија као што су хемикалије за ојачавање, средства против деградације, промотери адхезије, лековита средства и помоћна средства као што је уље. Током мог истраживања такође сам пронашао типичне проценте мешавине гуме (синтетичка и природна гума) у различитим типовима гума. Гуме за путничке аутомобиле су 55% до 45%, гуме за лака теретна возила су 50% до 50%, гуме за трке су 65% до 35%, а гуме ван аутопута 20% - 80%. Затим сам желео да знам које друге проблеме могу изазвати осим утицаја на животну средину због састава гуме. Нисам размишљао о овоме, али има савршеног смисла. Открио сам да гуме представљају савршено место за размножавање комараца. Уз све болести које данас преносе комарци, ове гуме представљају потенцијалну претњу јавном здрављу и безбедности. Коначно, желео сам да знам које друге методе рециклаже гума постоје. Пронашао сам компанију под називом Руббур Цонцептс која користи компресијски калуп за претварање половних гума у реплику кедровине и шиндре. Такође сам открио да се старе гуме уситњавају и користе у комбинацији са асфалтом за асфалтирање путева.
Материјали за шиндре
- 36 Гуме за тркачке аутомобиле
- Оштре оштрице бријача
Материјали за кров
- (3) Листови шперплоче 3/4"
- (2) 8фт 2"к4"
- Сцревс
- Разно дрво које сам имао
Клијенти/сајт
Као што видите, ово су моји клијенти. Власници кокошака желели су да покрије кокошињац. Разговарао сам о својој идеји са њима и они су пристали да ми дозволе да је направим. Нисам ни слутио...
Покушаја и грешке
Као и код сваког пројекта, увек постоје грешке или криве учења како би неки рекли. Дакле, ево где ћу вам рећи шта није успело (код мене). Почетни концепт пнеуматика био је заснован на коришћењу радијалних гума и то се веома брзо променило. Прва гума коју сам покушао да исечем била је, у најмању руку, веома смрдљива. Покушао сам да користим точак за сечење на крају бушилице (окреће се на око 30.000 обртаја у минути) и открио сам да, иако би пресекао руб гуме и све челичне каишеве, не би пресекао гуму, већ се само отопио то. Након што сам удахнуо облак запаљене гуме и покушао поново да носим маску за дисање, одлучио сам да можда није најприкладнији" метод. Та конкретна метода је трајала око сат и по са произведено само 8 малих шиндре. Следећи метод који сам испробао је била убодна тестера; није чак ни пресекла гуму. Гума је била превише слаба и тресла би се, па убодна тестера није могла да је исече ако гума не мирује. Нисам извукао ни једну шиндру из тог покушаја. Последњи метод који сам користио на радијалним гумама је била ножна тестера и рецимо да би Требало ми је више од годину дана да исечем шиндре које су ми биле потребне. Тада сам сазнао да постоји само један део радијалне гуме који нема челичне каишеве, а то је бочни зид између газећег слоја и ламеле. Покушао сам да користим помоћно сечиво (резач за кутије) и исекао само бочни зид, али је било теже исећи кривине и држати их равне ивице.
Коришћени метод
After several failed attempts with radial tires, I spoke with a local tire dealer and found that Racing tires only have Steel belts in the side walls, not in the tread. He happened to have an old tire so I took it home to see what I could do. I drilled a hole in the tread and used a key hole saw to start cutting. It went rather smoothly but it did take two people and still took about 45 minutes to make 12 – 14 shingles. I knew these were the type of tires I needed but I needed a lot of them, it turns out the the guy at the local tire dealer knew someone who had a ton of old Racing tires. Before I went to the store to buy brand new hole saws, I tried a utility blade (box cutter) (just for laughs actually) and found that it cut through the tire like a hot knife through butter (Image 1). This method cut the time down to minutes. After cutting the side walls off, I had a round thin circle of rubber(Image 2). Then cut it so it was a long flat sheet about 8" x 80" (Image 3).
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Now that I had a sheet of rubber all that was left to do was make the actual shingles. As you can see in Image 3 I used a piece of chalk to mark where I needed to make the cuts and this is a good time to have someone with you. I averaged 14 shingles per tire and the shingles were 5" x 8". My friends and I used a method that we called "the bend and spread". As you can see, below in Image4 the "bend" portion refers to actually bending the rubber strip to help keep the rubber from kinking while cutting. Image 5 is showing the spread part, while being cut the person bending the rubber should also help spread it so it is easier and faster to cut. I didn't time how long each individual tire took to cut, but with four people and in four hours we cut all 36 tires and made 460 shingles. I was very happy with the time results. Each tire produced about 2ft2.
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
The Roof
As mentioned earlier during the Clients/Site portion, I ended with "little did I know...". Well, I didn't think ahead with the weight factor. The run that was already built for the coop was way too flimsy to support these shingles. The shingles averaged 14 lb per 25 shingles and I had 460. Since covering the run was out, the owners and I needed to think of what we could do instead. They had a big enough garden and the chickens already had access to it so we decided to build a semi-portable roof and place it in the garden area. To the right is the sketch for the new roof and it required (2) 8' 2"x4" and (3) 4'x8' Plywood sheets.
Image 7
Image 8
Image 7 shows the assembly of the sides and front portion of the roof. The other parts of the structure are shown in Image 8. All wood was assembled with reused screws and nails that the owners had. Also in Image 8 you can see part of the removable roof measuring 6'x6'. The top of the roof was 4ft high and the lower portion was only 3ft high.
Shingle Installation
The typical shingles you see on roofs are installed using tar paper, which helps ensure that water will not leak in. Also standard shingles are usually doubled up on the first row to help keep water out. The shingles were a bit thick (1/4")so I was not able to double up, but I did find that the rubber is very tight against the nail and helps to seal the holes much more so than traditional shingles. In Images 9 and 10 you will see a plastic bag that I stapled down for a little extra protection and the process of installing the shingles. The owners did have some roofing nails but I ran out and had to buy a box to finish the project. I took about 14 hours of labor to nail all of the shingles in and it only took four hours to make them all.
Image 9
Image 10
Conclusion
In all, the design worked just as I thought it would. It was put through the Northern California rain test and there were not any visible leaks, although, water always finds a way. I was happy that I only spent $10 to make the shingles, the $10 was the purchase of several razor blades and utility knives. The structure itself was a bit more, but the main focus was the tire shingles themselves. This was a successful project, but that depends on your definition of appropriate technology. At the beginning of this class I thought the definition was that all other technology is inappropriate. I then formulated my definition to "our best effort in leaving the smallest environmental impact". I now know that what is good for one person will not be good for another, so my definition has changed again, "our best effort in leaving the smallest environmental footprint within the ways that we choose to live".
Afterthoughts
During the making of this project I had several ideas that I was not able to implement or test. The shingles did work fine, but if I was going to use them on my roof I would want them to be a bit more uniform and not so wavy. I need to find a way to cut straight lines; I had thought of a paper cutter, but this project needs something with more leverage and durability. Another idea I had was to build a rain gutter to catch the water, then I could have it tested, so I could know exactly what is running off. Unfortunately the funding for this project did not allow such an expensive test. It might have made things easier if I had made the shingles bigger. In case you are wondering what happened to all 72 sidewall rings (Image 11), I spoke to the guy who gave me the tires and it turns out that he also races go carts, he said he could use those to lay out track designs.
Main author
This project was carried out and written up by Brad Thompson.
Caveats and Followups
The longevity of this roofing tile is questionable. The original author will give an update in 2015. Also see SALIRAJA Yurt Project for another upcycled roofing project.