Get Your Hot Tips Here
Those of you who have gone on
the Buddy Rhodes Concrete Station know that there are amazing tips
to be mined there. Buddy has
himself learned many a trick from the beginners' minds of zealous new artisans. You too can join up and share your pictures, questions, and your own hot tips. All of the tricks below were pulled from Station entries.
Pinholes
Here's a trick just discovered by Station regular Steve Millard of
Millard Enterprises in upstate New York. Reminding the readers that he uses BR products, Steve writes that he stumbled on to this idea for those pinholes he finds a pain to fill. After casting
and polishing, he applies the
penetrating sealer and at least one coat of satin sealer. After all is dry he takes the color paste (dry, not liquid) and rubs it around the surface with his
hand, where his pinholes are. Then he brushes the extra powder off with a fine
brush. At this point all holes are filled, and he mists the surface with water.
Being sure to get pinholes wet, he lets that dry and finishes sealing with multiple
coats of satin sealer.
Adding glass
Blair Sisson asked how much recycled glass can be added to
Buddy's mix, per bag. He was going for the terrazzo look and wanted to add as much as
possible without affecting the integrity of the mix. He got answers from both Steve Millard and Nick Relampagos, and this is what us voyeurs learned from the discussion.
Sift out the
aggregate that is in the bag, using a 1/8" screen. Replace it with the
same amount of glass (by weight). Then add 30 lbs of glass
per 2 bags of mix (or 15 lbs per bag). You can also seed the bottom of the
mold for additional glass. #2 glass works well.
Buddy chimed in, "I have put over 30 lbs of added aggregate to one 70 lb bag of BR Mix without overloading. Give it a test."
Or Seashells
Gregory Nelson wrote that his wife and daughters collected a huge bucket of shells. He made a few samples by mixing the shells straight into BR bone mix. When ground, the shells were exposed but a lot of them were cupped the wrong way. He asked if anyone had a trick to
expose the shells more, or if he should use a better mix to shell ratio. He considered sticking some shells into the mold the way he wanted them first,
or pouring right side up and seeding the pan.
This time Buddy chimed in, "You
got it! All those techniques work. Sea shells are thin and it's hard to get a good
side. On some shells you can take a belt sander and get a flat side. Using a
razor blade, swipe a thin layer in the object and place in the mold. If the
object is too smooth on the backside, epoxy a screw or bolt head so the
concrete has something to grab onto. Another way is to saturate a batch with the shells, say 30 or so lbs to a
70lb bag of BR Mix, and lay down a half inch layer, backing it up with a
shell-less mix. Then polish it out and back-fill the voids."
Scrim and fibers
Matthew Jones asked about reinforcement using the pressed method for custom outdoor molds. He wondered if it is overkill to use the scrim
and GFRC butter coat. He also wanted to hear of experience with the PVA additive instead
of fiber glass.
Buddy answered this one,
"It
doesn't hurt to add both the scrim and chopped fiber. For larger projects it
might be the way to go. The BR Curing Polymer really adds strength along with the
reinforcing fibers and/or scrim.
Poly fibers work as well. The nice thing about them is if they are sticking out of the
concrete surface you can burn them off.
Custom Color Paste.
This Guy's Hot tip is not from the Station but sent to a customer in response to an e-mail to info@buddyrhodes.com.
To make your own color use
BR
Color Paste in Bone, plus your choice of color or color combinations. Mix the Paste powder with 100% BR Acrylic Additive to a yogurt like consistency.
Separately, make a color slurry using a teaspoon of (well stirred) BR Ultra Fine Pigment and water in a small container. Then add this color slurry into the concrete paste to the desired hue. Fill the voids and bug holes and remove the excess. Let sit overnight and polish. Repeat if necessary.
