The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:43 am**

I want to produce at least 25,000 1m long kerbstones.

I will draw an exact diagram/give detailed dimensions in due course but for the time being this picture gives the general idea of the shape of the kerbstones I need to produce:

I am producing these in far from ideal conditions (ie, hot temps, outdoors in Africa).

I was going to use a machine from a company called Doubell Machines (www.dme.co.za) but they seem to be having problems producing a mould that makes acceptable kerbstones. I am hoping they sort it out and come to my rescue, but should they fail I need to look at other alternatives.

How would you go about producing this amount of kerbstones?

I am now thinking of fabricating a number of steel moulds and using a dryish mix of sharp sand and 10mm aggregate with a high mPa cement and a water reducer and a release agent place the mix in the mould and vibrate it on a vibrating table. Then the key will be curing the kerbstones well for several days.

What sort of mould would you use?

What sort of mix would you use?

Do you know any companies that could produce satisfactory/suitable moulds?

The machinery would need to be airfreighted to Southern Africa so super bulky and heavy equipment would not be suitable. Also, top of the range industrial equipment may not be that suitable for such a small production run; hence why I liked the Doubell machine.

Any ideas on this subject would be most welcome.

Posted: **Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:34 pm**

is there a specific reason why you need to make them there ted?
i would have thought it would be cheaper to buy them from SE asia and have them shipped in
i would imagine the heat is going to wreak havoc with your production run
what about one of those fancy kerb laying machines that was on the forum a while back?
25 clicks of kerbs is a lot of kerbs,you'll be busy till xmas at least laying those beauties
cheers LLL
mouldmaker may know summat about the moulds

Posted: **Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:04 pm**

It is cheaper to make them here. Labour is very cheap and sand and gravel abundant, although it takes a biut of searching to find good quality aggregates.

Cement is the difficult thing to get hold of. The price fluctuates substantially from one week to the next. The local dust is good but can be pricey. It has more than doubled in price in the last month but the price is coming down again now.

The dust imported from China to alleviate the current southern African cement shortage is simply awful though.

Posted: **Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:07 pm**

I think those kerb machines are a bit of a joke... a bit of a 'buy a business of a shelf affair' sold in the same way as PIC often is.

Curing is going to be most important/key. I will have one or two guys whose job will be simply to water the kerbstones.

Posted: **Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:49 pm**

Treat yourself to a top quality European mould. It will cost around 8 grand for a top-of-the-range kerb mould, but that's only 30p per kerb. Rekers would be a good name to contact.

As for concrete mix, it's difficult to say what would work because concrete is so bloody variable from place to place. The aggs are different, the cement is different, even the water is different, so it can only be trial and error. There are couple of people I could put you in touch with for specialist advice on concrete mixes, but be warned they ain't cheap - they ain't even dear: they're bloody expensive, but then the cost per unit manufactured that's needed to cover their fees is not that scarey.

The Brew Cabin

Fabricating one's own kerbstones - How would you make a mould/do it?