Creating an Entrance

[ScottAR]

Great pictorial and a neat project!!

Great pics!!

What's the sign gonna say? Inquiring minds ya know... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[GerardC]

Here's a night shot of my entrance. Gerard

 

[GerardC]

No flash. Gerard

 

[Cliff_Johns]

That is a fine looking entrance. Stone pillars are so visually appealing. They give a sense of quality and permanance to the property. Very nice design too. Thanks for the photographs of the building process.

Cliff

 

[Nasty135]

Eddie, Very nice look and a lot of work but it does give you a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when its all done!
Too bad about the big tree ,I also lost a big tree that would give shade to to my house and barn till 10:30-11am and I miss it, It kept the place cooler a little longer.
Can't wait to see the rest of the project!! hint hint /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

This morning I started to build my form for the cap.

First was to cut a 2 foot square piece of 3/4 plywood that I had lying around.

Then I figured a 2X6 would give me enough height to create the pyramid look.

 

[EddieWalker]

I thought I had some masonite scrap lying around, but remembered when I was looking for it that I burned it in my last clean up day. Oops.

I did have some luan, which I figured I can work with.

I measured out a flat spot in the middle to mount a light to and cut the luan 2 feet wide by 10 1/2 inches. This gave me an appealing slope for the pyramid look.

The columns are 21 inches wide with the rock on them, so the caps should overhand 1 1/2 inches all around.

The angle came out to 19 degrees on my chop saw.

 

[EddieWalker]

The other two pieces just needed the corners cut off at 45 degrees and then sanded down to fit flush.

I glued and screwed the main pieces together, but the luan was glued and stapled.

 

[EddieWalker]

The form is togther, but I decided to use silicone to seal the edges and round the inside corners off. Then I used it to fill the staple holes and just ended up coating all of the luan with silicone.

I started worrying that the luan would fall apart from the moisture in the morter. Now I'll have a rough finish.

I will just have to wait and see how it turns out.

 

[EddieWalker]

I let the form dry for a couple hours, then mixed my mud.

I used a premix sack of Type N morter that I have left over from attaching the rocks to the columns. I added two plastic cup fulls of Portland Cement and half a bottle of Charcoal die.

This mix is a result from advice I recieved on another thread called coloring cement.

I mixed half of the 60 pound sack and put it in kind of wet. Then I layed half inch, 19 guage, galvanized fenceing down.

Then I mixed the rest of the morter and added two more cups of cement to it. I put this in a little dryer to help hold it all together on the edges.

In the middle I placed a piece of 3/4 inch pvc to run my wire through when I install the cap.

The picture shows the hollow middle. I could have mixed another sack to fill it up, but I don't think I needed it. This is one full 60 pound sack.

I'm guessing I have about $10 into the cap, not counting lumber.