Can portland cement be mixed without sand or gravel?

I'm planning to switch from wood to cement because we are soon moving into a condominium where noise should be kept to a minimum. If yes, what is the ratio of water to cement? if no, can i mix it with sand only and what is the ratio. Thanks

Comments

[Re-design]

What are you going to do with it? Tell us what your plans are and we might be able to send you in a different direction.

[lemonie]

You can, but cement on it's own is not a good material for anything really.
What is wrong with mixing in sand (which is much cheaper than cement)

L

[caarntedd]

Yes.

[Burf]

Not knowing what you are going to do with it makes giving you a useful answer difficult, if not impossible, so I can only give you some information.
Aggregate is added to cement to give it strength. Without aggregate, you're basically going to have grey plaster with little inherent strength for both tension and compression. Even small aggregate, sand and pea gravel, will make a significant difference in the strength.
Aggregate to cement proportions should be about 3 parts aggregate to 1 part cement by volume for field/hand mixed concrete. Only enough water should be added to afford workability and eliminate voids in the mix. The less water you use, the higher the strength of the cured concrete.
There are additives you can mix with the concrete for additional workability and strength. Check with your retailer for information on this.
Last, you can buy ready mixed, dry concrete, usually called Reddy-mix and Sackcrete. Easier to use but significantly more expensive than buying the components and preparing the mix yourself.

[rickharris]

Mmmm? You can, and people do mix cement with sand (often by hand) 6:1 gives the mix generally used for mortar to hold bricks together.

Do I really understand that you can see yourself mixing cement inside your house?? Tolerant wife is all I can say.

[orksecurity]

I haven't worked with cement enough to have a valid opinion, but I did want to point out that moving into an apartment/condo doesn't mean you have to give up working with wood. Hand tools, screws, and some power tools (electric drill, some sanders, ...) are much quieter than a full-scale powered woodshop, and really can do just about everything that the fancier tools will -- they may take more time and require a bit more skill, but that means you can take more pride in the result. Even unpowered woodturning is possible, with a treadle lathe.

[Kiteman]

+1

You can whittle a stick over a waste-paper bin in almost absolute silence.