The Liberator Beta v1.0 Specifications

Download Open Document Format (ODF)specifications for The Liberator Beta v1.0 here.

Before you continue, here's a brief description of our offer.

We are offering a high-performance, open source, Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Press - The Liberator. This is a CEB machine shown here. It does not include the tractor or power source - just the machine with manual, hydraulic controls. The machine includes a large hopper and a shaker grate for sifting soil into the hopper. The power source is external. This is part of our strategy to obtain a high-power, low-cost machine.

A CEB machine like this is not a toy. It is not designed to be loaded by hand - as it would take about 32 people to load it by hand to keep up with its proven demand for soil. Soil handling is a major requirement at this scale, and requires a tractor laoder plus some way to pulverize the soil. If you are interested in a machine that you can load by hand, just get a hand-operated (non-powered) Cinva Ram or similar. You will save yourself the cost of purchasing a machine that you will not be able to use effectively without a tractor and soil pulverizer. We learned this the hard way with our first prototype. Read about our experience in this blog post.

Doesn't it make sense to have a dedicated engine on the machine? We don't think so. Any construction site at the scale of building intended for this machine will have a tractor or skid loader on site. Auxiliary hydraulic power can be used from these machines to operate the CEB press. We favor the Power Cube for a power source. You can get a PTO-driven hydrauilic power source for about $800.

For more information, scan all of our experiences with this CEB press under the CEB category - http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?cat=13 .

Correction on footnote 12 - It should read Nov. 1, 2009.

Brick thickness data with error bar showing the standard deviation: