Testing the Different Block Molds

We spent a full day testing the various molds I purchased with the machine. This was the first time for anything other than the lego mold. We also spent some time getting to know the machines fine tuning. We've been having problems with some of the soil sticking to the bottom mold along the edges. When you lift the block a chunk of it is still stuck to the mold and of course leaves a proportional sized chunk out of your block. Not cool...This only happens about 20% of the time and we didn't have the same problem with the first soil we used. We spent a fair amount of time on our first full production day tweaking the compression, the moisture of the mix and even varying the use of oil on the mold. We could never seem to eliminate the occasional stuck block. So, today we checked the plate risers for the bottom mold and also made sure all the screws for the molds were tight. We also took the opportunity to try out all of the molds. Here are a few of the things we learned;

• There are 6 large bolts on the bottom press plate. At first I had no idea what they were for as they were not actually touching the lego bottom mold, screwed down to below flush. I realized what they do when we started testing the half block molds. There's a partition in the middle of the half block molds which needs to touch exactly with the top plate in the closed position. You can use the risers to adjust the height of the bottom mold plate in the box relative to the top. Once it's set just right then it 'cuts' the block for you. Too high and the top plate hits it (and could damage it), too low and the block doesn't get cut properly.
• The lego half block mold had the same sticking problem as the full lego mold
• The plain blocks came out perfect every time
• Considering the time it takes to really get the machine set just right after changing the molds you don't want to do it too often. It doesn't take too long but will impact production so maybe once per day at most.
• We think after further examination of the sticking problem that the new soil is a little too fine to work well with the lego mold. Rather than try to doctor the soil to be of use with the lego mold we're going to go full steam ahead with the plain blocks so we can get the bodega done.
• The Roman arch mold works great. We'll definitely be making bunches of those.