Posted by Rick K on May 29, 2008, 9:27 pm, in reply to "Rick's 2008 spring project"
Well, it was a long an somewhat productive weekend. I poured a lot of concrete (about 3000#). What I thought was sore muscles turned into some sort of a 48 hour flu, slowing things down quite a bit. At least I had an excuse to lay on the couch and watch the Indy 500 with my 6 year old son.
Anyway, here's what happened...
I finished up and painted the post for the Kirkman #2. Note the slightly mushroomed head on the top of the post. It does make for a better fit for the Kirkman post adapter. 
Here is the adapter installed. 
The railing in previous pictures got installed into a concrete retaining wall. The forms are still in place in this picture. The clamp was needed to prevent the 2x12 concrete forms from bowing under the pressure of over 1200# of concrete. 
Here is what it looked like after removing the form. It is still a bit wet... looking better as it dries. I cast some 3D reliefs in the concrete to make it look more gothic. 
Now, out to where the Kirkman 300 is going...
As I starting digging, I found a lot of tree roots and realized that if I did not pour a much more solid base than I originally planned I was going to have problems over time.
First I poured a 3 inch slab.
I laid the previously cast "edging" on top of the slab and poured more concrete in the middle (rather than gravel and sand), making for about 6+ inches of concrete total. 
I messed around a bit with a castlestone pattern. When I do lay the stones for real there will be a 1/2 inch bedding of sand under the castlestone to allow for leveling and such. 
Time to get serious about the street lamp post...
The cross arm will be 1/2 inch stainless steel rod with the ends threaded and with stainless acorn nuts screwed onto the ends. I drilled out the post with a 9/16 hole to accept the rod before welding it in place. 
Even I know better than to say "Dear?, can you hold the end of this 100# pipe for 20 minutes or so while I drill a hole in it? An engine hoist came in handy for holding the other end while the drill press did it's magic. 
The cross arm was welded in place, a couple of lamp brackets were fabricated and welding in place on the sides for flag or flower pot holding. The ends were welded closed. The mill scale and welding slag was ground off to give a good surface for painting. 
And looky what the UPS man brought me this afternoon... it sure it PRETTY ;-)
Catch Ya All next weekend.
Rick
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