Posted by Rick K on May 4, 2008, 10:12 pm, in reply to "Rick's 2008 spring project"
This is a concrete "base" that will form part of the Street Lamp post base. It was cast in two pieces by putting a doubled up piece of sheet plastic between the two halfs of the mold. I also inserted a length of 4 inch PVC pipe in between the two sheets of plastic to form the center "hole" it will go around the base of the lamp post (2.5 inch schedule 40 steel pipe) and be glueed together. There will be a bit more to the base that will go on top of this part... more pictures of that later.
The mold for this concrete base was gotten from here:
Concrete base mold
There will be a considerable amount of "Castle Stone" on the ground around the lanterns. The stone is actually concrete, cast in plastic molds.
castle stone molds
I have been cranking out about 20 square feet a week for the past 5 weeks, almost done.
The Kirkman "Champion" will be on the center of an "L-Shaped" park bench setting. A ways to go, but here is the start of the outline of the area. 
The edging for the stone is made of sections of cast concrete, poured in wooden molds. 
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A possibly interesting tidbit of info is that the mold release that I used on the inside of the concrete molds was made by melting parafin wax, and then adding an equal amount of kerosene to the molten wax. They mixed well, and formed a wax that stays molten at a much lower temperature than parafin normally would. That allowed me to smear it on the wood that made up the concrete molds using a paper towel and not burn my fingers in the process. The concrete almost falls out of the molds when it is time to demold. It is necessary to recoat the wooden forms every 2-3 pours.
Thats about it for tonight... more to come.
Rick
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