Robin..UR....Prototype Natural Oyster Mat Project

It started with a thought and a "want" for a natural, eco-friendly oyster mat. It was brought to my attention that it has to be cost effective, so I started work on a prototype. I have some information, but not all because there were some question that needed to be worked out, so "two" prototypes were made.

Prototype One.. 2 inches of sand was placed inside the form

• then 36 oysters placed in the sand 
• watered down the sand and oysters to compact the sand for a two inch leeway for concrete.
• then concrete placed in over top of the oysters (about 2.5 to 3 inches)
•  then smoothed out the concrete for proper finish
• then set to dry    

Prototype Two..cement  was put into in the form

• then 36 oysters were placed into concrete
• then set to dry         

It took .03 second longer to put the oysters in place on prototype "one", also the clean up time after they were dry, plus the time of adding the sand into the form in the beginning, this was time adding up and did not look encouraging. 

Another problem in prototype "one" was that there was no way of seeing the concrete and some how took more product when finished, which made weight a problem. In prototype "two" it was simple, because when you wiggled the oysters into place it finished the concrete for you, also allowing you to use less product, better timing, and cleaner looking oyster mat.

Prototype #1                                                                                               Prototype #2

  While both were fun to make it will come down to the final numbers, (Cost, time,weight, and  transportation efficiency)