Concrete Rocks!

First off, I have to say that this was written a couple years ago, and I am just now publishing it. I’m going to try to start posting some current projects, but we’ll see how that goes with my currently workload.

Anyways, I had been doing some gardening and planting around the house. I would consider my success low to moderate. After several months, my list of garden related projects has grown more than anything in my garden.

One of these projects started with trip to Home Depot with my wife and the purchase of a lemon tree. It is a very cute little lemon tree, and we decided that it would be best planted in a planter… a large planter. The requirements handed down were:

  • About 50 gallons
  • Not plastic
  • Not square

I looked around online, and didn’t find anything that directly met these requirements. Most of the large planters were squarish, too small, or plastic.

There is facility near our house that manufactures concrete sculptures, fountains, bird baths, and anything else they dream up. A quick trip there revealed a couple of things: concrete pots are expensive, concrete pots are heavy, and they aren’t typically near 50 gallons.

What is the logical conclusion? Make one.

After some research, I decided to have a go at it. There are quite a few online resources describing different ways to go about making a large planter, some of them kind of agree with each other, but none were exactly what I wanted.

I did have a large plastic planter, and I decided to use that as a starting point. It became the mold, and I essentially stucco’d the inside of it. For the sake of anyone else that wants to follow this pursuit, I am going to include some of the basic steps.

Find something to use as a form. As I mentioned, I had a large plastic planter that probably came with a tree at some point in the past. It obviously didn’t meet the no plastic requirement, but it worked well as a starting point.

Make sure that the the form will hold the concrete. My form had holes, but some duct tape remedied that.

How to remove the planter once the concrete sets? After looking at much conflicting information online, I went with a thin layer of motor oil as a release agent.

Is reinforcement required? I don’t know, but placed chicken wire in the mold. I do not know if it is serving any structural purpose, but it definitely acted as a lath to hold the concrete before it set.

What type of concrete to use? I spent quite a bit of time researching it. Online sources didn’t seem to be in agreement, so I finally just went to a masonry supply store, gave them my credit card, and bought what they told me. It is some type of mortar used for stucco that has fiber reinforcement. I hate to say it, but I’d suggest just going to the store and consulting a professional.

How best to remove it from the mold? This was my favorite part. Notice the piece of 3/4″ PVC protruding from the base of the planter. Not shown is an open flange to mechanically hold it in place that also serves as a hydraulic conduit to the microannulus between the plastic mold and the concrete planter. I pumped water down the PVC which then filled the microannulus in an attempt to “float” the concrete planter out of the form.

Was floating the concrete out successful? Kind of.

It did actually float. However, that didn’t help me to get it out. I ended up tipping everything over and dragging the planter out by its PVC. I made two more, and on those I did not even try to float the concrete planter. Instead I just tipped the assembly over, rolled it around to separate the concrete from the form, and drug it out with the piece of PVC.

It has been a couple years since I created these and they have served me well… two contain olive trees and one a lemon tree. I plan to post the final product in the near future.

IN CONCLUSION:

  • Will I make another? Hopefully not.
  • Is it neat that they were home made? I guess if you’re naive enough like that kind of stuff.
  • Are they heavy? Absolutely… it takes a forklift to move them around.
  • Would I prefer a plastic planter? Absolutely.

While the heft of my home made planters might act as a theft deterrent, I’d argue that thieves could find something more valuable to steal than my olive and lemon trees. Unfortunately, most would argue otherwise.

Creepy Guy by the Water Cooler

You know that creepy guy at work that is always hanging out by the water cooler? Well, I have been working from home quite a bit, and I have a water cooler. By default, that made me the creepy guy by the water cooler. Notice, I said “made” and not “makes”. I have the problem solved! Now there is the pictured creepster to take my place.

I also always wanted an aquarium. However, I didn’t want to worry about keeping up with it, figuring out what kinds of fish get along, deciding on salt water vs fresh water… you get the point. Now there is no need. I have a maintenance free aquarium!

All joking aside, it is always fun to play around with paint. What started as a face drawn with a Sharpie turned into various attempts with paint. If you want to play around with this, I have a few suggestions:

  • Roughen the surface: the aquarium jug images rubbed off fairly easily when transported for refill, so I lightly sanded next jug and it was much more durable.
  • Acrylic paint seems to work fine. I used the cheap acrylic paint from Wal-Mart.
  • If you are going to look through the jug at the painted images, be sure to think it out and paint in reverse order. For instance, paint the things that will be in the foreground before the things in the background.
  • On the fish tank, my wonderful wife had the idea of drawing the outline of everything in black and then filling in the color. I think it turned out great that way. You don’t even have to be careful to keep inside of the outlines because you won’t be able to see it!

This wasn’t the most intricate DIY project in the world, but I thought it was fun and added some color to the pantry. I can’t wait until I break one of these jugs so we can paint another!

If you try it, you can celebrate with some good old fashioned fire water when you finish!

Getting Closer

My KIMG0044Grand National is getting closer to running correctly in its almost stock form. I put a manual boost controller on today. Before you start complaining about everything being zip tied together, I need to point out a couple of things. First of all, I find the term “zip tie” rather offensive. They are called racing ties. Secondly, this isn’t permanent. Even though they seem to have decent reviews, I don’t trust the boost controller I bought.  I will re plumb it in a semi professional manner if it works as advertised.

The biggest reason that I don’t trust the boost controller is that it cost only $11.99 on ebay (with free shipping). The second biggest reason is its theory of operation. It simply has a variable KIMG0043orifice that releases boost feedback on the waste gate side of a combination orifice/check valve. It seems to me that it will change the ultimate boost if I am at Wide Open Throttle vs accelerating at a moderate pace. I pondered tossing this out when I figured out how it works. Then I noticed the smaller printing. It states “HIGH PERFORMANCE” right on the label, so I decided to give it a try. I hope to report back with good news.