I had every intention of making an iPhone application and have it in the app store by now making me some money. I made it my new years resolution! I wrote about it here http://www.seizethepage.com/mac-and-ios-application-development/ Unfortunately for me, I never got around to it.
Sorry, but I got caught up in a new hobby after the kitchen remodel in April.
My new hobby is artisan concrete.
I taught myself how to make my own custom concrete counter tops during the kitchen remodel. It was fun and very rewarding. We could not find any style or color of granite that we liked. Granite is over done, played out. It has limits. We decided that we didn’t want it, and wanted some pre-cast custom concrete tops.
I must say that there is just something about taking a custom recipe mix of dust and making it a liquid and then a solid that will be appreciated for years to come.
Since then I have been learning about making sinks and other cool projects with concrete.
After the kitchen remodel I was consumed by concrete and with summer coming on full blast, I was not near a computer unless I was at work. I live in the backyard from sun up till sundown in the summer time and never made time to sit inside and code an application for the iPhone.
Sorry for that. Maybe I will give myself an extension of a year to try it again.
As many of you that read this blog know, I am doing a concrete sink project that will be in the shape of a guitar and used outdoors. It is a really big project with the counter top being 8 foot long. I have been taking my time with this sink because it will be my first sink. If I wanted to do it like my kitchen counter tops and make it with the hand pressed technique I could have already been done, but I want to try something new.
If I were to do the hand pressed look which makes it look more like granite or marbled, I would have to slurry coat the entire thing to fill in the voids, and also do this deep inside the sink. Then I would have to sand it several times to get a glossy finish. That’s OK, but I really do not want to slurry this one if I do not have too. Nor do I want to sand and sand and sand. I want a more machined look, crisp, smooth and clean.
This can be achieved two ways. I can either wet cast or spray the concrete.
If I wet cast, that’s simply a wetter mix that is really flow-able and I can just pour it into the mold. This is good, but my counter top thickness is 1.5 inches and the sink is 6 inches deep. In order to wet cast I would have to build my mold up in tiers so that I could pour the counter top, cover it with more melamine, then build sides around the sink and pour some more. This will require more concrete mix and more melamine.
If I spray the concrete, it will be a GRFC mix (glass fiber reinforced concrete) and I will not have to use any metal bracing in the concrete like I would have to do in the other two types of concrete casting. Whats so cool about doing this, is that not only will it use less concrete, but I will not have to build up a two tier mold, will not have to add metal bracing, will give me a smooth finish with less if not no bug holes to fill.
I really really wanted to do GFRC but I have never done it before. When I researched it I kept finding out that I needed a really large air compressor. I needed a hopper gun specifically designed for spraying concrete, and I had neither of these things. I only have a 2.5 horsepower 15 gallon compressor.
I read in very few places where some guys were getting by with even smaller compressors. This made me think it might be possible after all. Next I needed a gun to shoot the concrete with. Luckily a friend of mine has a drywall hopper gun. With a few modifications to tilt the hopper bucket further back using a 45 degree PVC fitting, I think this too will work.
Drywall Hopper Gun used to Spray GFRC
After I got the hopper gun I plugged it into the compressor to see how it works. Now I know why they say I need a large compressor. When you plug the gun in, its constantly blowing air. All the trigger does is dump whats in the hopper in front of the moving air.
I came to an realization that in order for this to work I was going to need to regulate the air and be able to turn it off and on when I needed it, so I could save the air and this way my compressor would run out of air so fast and I have to wait on it to fill up. A quick trip to Lowes to find what I needed and all was well.
Now to test.
OK, so I need to test this stuff out, but on what? Not going to waste an effort, so I remembered this small plastic pond thing that I picked up at Lowes several months back that wanted to one day make a sink from.
Pond Liner used for Concrete Sink
Well today was that day. I quickly fashioned a standard mold, its quite small actually at 19×24 inches. I affixed the pond thingy with silicon, added my tail piece for the sink drain made from a PVC pipe and rubber gasket, then 3 other pieces of PVC for the faucet, a typical 4 inch bathroom faucet. Now I am ready to spray, or try to.
Concrete Sink Mold
I made my mix and poured it into my hopper. I then sprayed a little on a piece of cardboard to see how it would spray.
I felt confident I had most of it all right, and I began to spray my mold. After it set a while I back-filled with my not so wet mix. I did this by hand. Everything looked good and I covered it for 2 days. On the 3rd day I took it out of the mold and I was delighted at what I was seeing. For my first run at this it was pretty flawless. There were a few bug holes to fill inside the sink and seal it up.
First sprayed layer of GFRC
Concrete Sink
This was a great first test run and I think I will do one more of this same sink and make the counter for it larger, before I tackle my outdoor integral guitar sink.
I recently got into a discussion over the internet with some friends about charging the iphone with shake technology.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a reserve battery in your cellphone for emergencies and all you had to do was shake your iphone for 30 secs or so to get it charged enough to use it? Think about it. Your cell phone could be charging its reserve while you run, walk, or while its in your pocket while you are walking!
Some have never heard of such, and here I was thinking that everyone knew about this kind of technology to charge things.
I cant remember when I heard about it first, but many many years ago my Aunt got me a shake light for my Birthday and I was wow’d at the simple technology behind it. It has this really neat wireless switch that works of magnetics. It charges itself with a magnet passing through another magnet with wires wrapped around it. This charges a capacitor and stores the power. It can be charge hundreds of thousands of times.
Here is a video from the company demonstrating all there is to know about the light.
Its a fantastic flashlight and I recommend it to anyone. Its a great light to keep in your trunk as you will never have to worry about batteries corroding. Take it hunting or fishing, camping, anywhere!
REMEMBER: if Apple decides to use this in one of their future phones. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST !!!
After casting and completing my kitchen counter tops in concrete. I decided that I wanted to try a concrete sink in the shape of a guitar for the backyard. I’ve often needed a place to wash my hands after doing work stuff, and hate to go in the house with dirty hands putting grime and mess on the knobs and stuff.
Having a sink in the back yard would be great and would bring a little of the inside out. It would also allow me to try my skills at sink making, something I have been wanting to do for a while now.
This video covers me and my brother in law making a slab to put the cabinet on and then the cabinet gets made that will support the sink. This is part one of the video, part two will follow in a later post as the construction continues.
This is not a how to video with steps, this is just a video with a lot of time-lapse pictures showing the progression of the project.
The cabinet will later be faced out with old rustic wood taken from old homes. I know a place that salvages wood from older homes to make flooring with and I can go and get scraps. This will work really well on the cabinets.
For years now wifey has wanted a new kitchen, so she and I have been thinking and saving for this project for over 2 years. She saved a lot more money than me on this one
We did all new floors, cabinets, counter tops, and appliances. A complete redo!
I have a history of doing ceramic tile flooring so I took it upon myself to do the flooring for this remodel.
As you can see in the pics / gallery below, they turned out well.
Now the cabinets were done by a local cabinet shop Wilbourn Cabinets of Grenada, MS. They do fantastic custom cabinet work.
The tile back splash wall behind the stove was another task I completed.
The counter tops…yes the counter tops….This may surprise you but I made them and I made them out of concrete.
I know what you are thinking…. “a concrete counter top?” ….. How Ugly?
No not at all. Concrete is not just for sidewalks anymore., no it is fast becoming the new popular item in most kitchens these days. It is quickly replacing granite. Yes it really is. See granite is what everyone “thinks” they should put in there kitchen. Everyone is doing it so why not me right? Well I don’t always want to do what everyone else is doing. I want my kitchen to be unique and custom and with engineered stone or concrete you can do just that. You do not have to be limited to the puke colors that granite offers. We thought about granite and other leading products but we never could find one that wasn’t too busy and that we liked. One actually looked like vomit. I knew that with concrete the shapes, the color, the texture, all could be up to me and I could get what I wanted from it.
Whether it be color, shape, feel or whatever you like, concrete can give you what you want. No Limits!
This is a great video I found on YouTube that explains some things.
