Hey all!
I’m at the process of building an enclosure for my 3D printer. Its purpose is to keep the heat inside, while dampening the sound from the printer.
I already have the base to absorb any vibrations, but I need side panels too for said heat and noise insulation.
For that purpose, there are only two options, but both acoustic panels or insulation foam are either not flame retardant, expensive or both.
I thought about that problem a while, and came to the idea, that I could go the DIY route and make either mycelium based plates, or plant fiber (like hemp) turned into concrete, aka. hempcrete.
Luckily, I’m both a mushroom and weed enthusiast with quite a lot of solarpunk spirit, and have everything I need for both. But I just don’t know where to start.
Here’s how I would do it:
Mushroom bricks
- I’d probably take Reishi as culture, because from my experience, it was the most robust mycelium. Oysters weren’t as firm, but grew way faster and with less contamination.
- Make grain spawn as starter culture
- Mix it with plant materials, like hemp fiber, straw, or saw dust
- Fill egg cartons or something similar (uneven surface for better sound crushing properties) with the inocculated substrate
- And let them incubate for two weeks
- When finished, take out of the mould and put it into the oven for drying
- Finished
Hempcrete
- I would probably start with animal litter substrate, basically small chopped hemp fibers
- Mix it with calcium hydroxide (hydrated lime)
- Add some cement
- Pour into mould
- Cure for a week
- Finish?
How feasible is all of that? While I’m all into that for research purposes, I also want something that just works.
How experimental is it? Are there already any well documented procedures for both?
How’s the long term stability, e.g. degradation, mold risk, smell, dimensional stability, etc.? Especially regarding the mushrooms, how can I prevent them from turning either moldy or brown when drying?
What alternative materials are also well suited for that purpose?
If you do go the mycelium brick route, there’s something I’ve always wanted to try with that. Assuming you have access to a vacuum/pressure setup, what would happen if you ran the resulting brick through the whole wood stabilization procedure? I’ve seen people put some pretty wild stuff through that process (like a slice of bread), and it always seemed like this would be a good fit. Eventually somebody’ll probably figure out some kinda α-pinene based alternative to PMMA for infusion too
I can’t comment on the mycelium idea, but I don’t see how hempcrete would help much with your goals of accustic and heat isolation.
I would probably go a different route and use aerated cement blocks. They can be bought off the shelf and cut to size, but you can also mix cement slurry with aluminium powder to have it bubble up before the hardening of the cement takes place.
The cool thing about it is that you can form it to any shape you want.
For acoustic insulation, you need more than just a nice material. You need physical structures that allow the sound waves to break and dissipate. I already thought abour the puffed up concrete, but as a sheet only being a few centimetres thick, it weights too much and reflects too much noise.
Acoustic foam, you know, those with pyramids, is great, but often flammable, and, you guessed it, another source of non-recyclable plastic trash some day. I will definitely consider it, but only if I don’t find something else.
Both the plant fiber based/ supplemented concrete and mycelium are more eco friendly and have great properties, like being non-flammable by nature, not having unhealthy chemicals (formaldehyde, etc.), being shapeable, and more.
Mushrooms in general aren’t great to have in place where people are going to live or be for long time. One of my relatives caught (dunno the english name for it) a condition where mushroom spores cause infection due to inhaling them, when working with mushrooms without respirator, it was pretty bad. Just an anecdote, maybe it’s not really a problem with dead ones.
Sure, mushroom spores can be unhealthy. But they’re only produced by ripe fruiting bodies, and in this case, we have mycelium, basically the “root structure”.
I’m also planning to experiment with hempcrete and mycelium blocks in the future; unfortunately don’t have any advice right now for you.
You could 3d print a square mould with the sound dampening undulations. I’m picturing something with finger joints on the edges so you can assemble into a box with an open front, add a thrifted tv cabinet glass door on the front and some ventilation and you’re set.
Following to see how it goes. Good luck!
Not sure how safe mushroom blocks would be, even dried, feels like a bit of a hazard.
Dried mycelium is supposed to be inflammable, since it is made out of chitin, not wood. That’s why it is quite hyped as building material. Usually, with most other, you have to add flame retardants, but those chemicals can be a bit harmful.
Also, I just love mushrooms (as an organism) and think, that they can also be very useful for things other than food.
