Concrete project: will this work?

[CurlyDave]

I would pour a new one. This gives you a chance to put the lifting eye in a better location.

The traditional way to prevent concrete from sticking to wood is to spray a coat of diesel fuel on the wood before placing the concrete. The concrete will have the grain of the wood on it if you do this. For small jobs like this one, WD-40 works a little bit better than diesel but is a lot more expensive. For only a few square feet, the convenience may outweigh the cost.

Otherwise make the the top side of the bench the top side of the pour and give it a smooth steel trowel finish. Round the corners with the concrete tool you said you have. If you can do it in a shop, so much the better.

How are you going to attach the top to the legs? Gravity and friction is not a good answer. If you are sitting at this bench when your buddy somehow slides it into your lap, it could hurt your privates more than you would like, and it would screw up the finish on your rifle.

 

[SPIKER]

the plastic was a bad choice it stretched under the crete pouring into the form. To make them for counter tops use either Melamine (MDF with a smooth stick free coating of plastic) OR use standard MDF/Plywood and then melt wax to fill all the voids and grains of the wood. Then take a flat SS metal scraper to remove JUST THE TOP of the wax smoothing it out then hit it with a propane hand torch to level out the little imperfections of the wax. BEES wax or some old candles are OK to use and both can be had cheap enough however the Melamine is the quickest and easiest (not to mention can be had as cheap or cheaper than regular plywood.)


Once ya have sides screwed into it ya go back and use caulk or wax to seal up the corners and make a rounded over corner. There are some moldings that can also be had to put into the corners (still need to wax / caulk) the crack seems for the rounded over look.)


I also agree about having an attachment point to the base legs.

You can ALSO grind that flat (one ya made already) using same methods as making a counter top. Be sure to SEAL the heck out of the TOP SIDE of the thing once ya got it in place to keep water from seeping into it.

Mark

 

[FTG-05]

I'm done with the lifting eye, it served it's purpose. Movement now will be done with my forks.

It will be set onto concrete blocks, final positioned, then I plan to lift it about 2", lay some concrete adhesive onto the tops of the block, then carefully lower the tabletop into final position. Concrete adhesive plus the 310 lbs weight should do all I need it to do.

As bad as it is, the tabletop is really really smooth except for where the plastic deformed it. Oh well. I had always planned on using some left over carpet for the table top anyway. I was just expecting a better surface.

And I misspoke earlier: it wasn't a plywood that the tabletop was formed on, it was some sort of very smooth wood panel that my stone work came in on. I just re purposed it due to it's very smooth surface.

More rain tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. The tamp project weighs about 46% more than the concrete pad does so it will continue to condense the pad subsurface while I'm there or not. Gotta get ready for a wedding this weekend, the wifey unit is already getting crazy about it, like that's a big surprise!

Prolly won't pour until Monday or so, depending on weather and what not. That's ok, the tabletop could use some more curing anyway.

 

[FTG-05]

I would pour a new one. This gives you a chance to put the lifting eye in a better location.

The traditional way to prevent concrete from sticking to wood is to spray a coat of diesel fuel on the wood before placing the concrete. The concrete will have the grain of the wood on it if you do this. For small jobs like this one, WD-40 works a little bit better than diesel but is a lot more expensive. For only a few square feet, the convenience may outweigh the cost.

Otherwise make the the top side of the bench the top side of the pour and give it a smooth steel trowel finish. Round the corners with the concrete tool you said you have. If you can do it in a shop, so much the better.

How are you going to attach the top to the legs? Gravity and friction is not a good answer. If you are sitting at this bench when your buddy somehow slides it into your lap, it could hurt your privates more than you would like, and it would screw up the finish on your rifle.

Oops! I forgot to do this. Thankfully, it came out easy enough anyway.

Last Thursday, I poured my #1 concrete wheel weight. Recalling this thread, I spread grease over my mold and then sprayed it with a diesel fuel/ATF mix. Hopefully, it will come out OK, but that's for another thread.

It's stopped raining today and will be clear for the next week or so. I'll finalize tamp the pad surface tomorrow and then plan to pour it on Tuesday. I'll let it sit one day, then set the first course of 4 concrete blocks, half fill them with concrete and let that sit one day (that should be this Wednesday). The next day, I'll lay the other three courses and fill those blocks with concrete. After one day, I'll glue the 4" solid blocks to the tops of those. So, a total four 8x8x16 concrete blocks plus one 4x8x16 sold block for a total height of 36" for the columns. With the 3.5" tabletop, the bench will be just under 40" high.

Thanks,

 

[FTG-05]

Ok, between the rain and freezing temps, I finally got the pad done yesterday. I used 16 and 1/2 bags of concrete. I first started mixing two bags at a time, but after almost a disaster (the mixer tipped over with two bags in it), I started mixing at a rate of 1 and 1/2 bags at a time. That worked out much better. I felt I had plenty of time to let the mixer work while I spread and worked the concrete into the rebar and into every little nook and cranny.

Pics:

Pad cleaned of leaves, tamped down and rebar emplaced and ready to go:

16 bags in the truck and 8 in the tractor. You can see the tabletop in the right center.

About halfway done. I used the home made tool at the bottom to spread the concrete and work it into the rebar.

And just before dark, I was finally able to get a rough broom finish on the surface. After this pic was taken, I did use my edger tool to put an edge on the pad surface, but I got too tired to take a pic of it.

Thanks for looking!

 

[EddieWalker]

What did I miss? Why are the pieces of rebar and wood sticking up from the pad?

Eddie

 

[FTG-05]

Look to the right of the third/halfway done pic. Those are some of the concrete blocks I'll use for the columns to hold the tabletop. I welded the column rebar to the pad rebar frame so it would be precisely placed and be fully embedded once the pad was done. The wood blocks are nothing more than a safety pad to prevent a fall or trip from turning into an impalement injury.

Today, I placed and filled the concrete block columns. It started raining just as I was mixing the last bag, so I didn't get any pics. Depending on how much it rains tomorrow, I should not only get pics but also finish the job and my shooting bench will be ready!.

Thanks,

 

[Indygunworks]

Looks like you did a pretty good job. Make sure you seal the concrete though.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm still lost. Are you going to put a table and chair on top of those pieces of rebar? and sit on it?


How are you going to keep it from wobbling around?

Eddie

 

[bcp]

I think he is building one of these shooting benches



Another photo
2010_07_23_IMG_0108.jpg Photo by cockcroft | Photobucket

Bruce