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November 6th, 2011 — Concrete, My Thoughts, Projects

Well if you read the first part of the series on the concrete sink project you know know that I had just poured a slab base for my cabinet to put a concrete sink in.

This is my first attempt at making a concrete sink and I am blogging about it in parts.

In this post I wanted to post several pictures of the cabinet as it is now completed. Also the sink will take the shape of a guitar. I worked on the guitar mold for quite some time now and tonight I completed it.

The cabinet was a simple build with 2×4’s and later I put older would on the facing of it so that it looked rustic.

The guitar mold was fashioned out of the pink 2 inch thick foam from Home Depot. I used 3 layers of it glued together. I then sanded it slightly and coated it with plaster in 2 coats then sanded it down to a fine finish and coated with a two part epoxy. The epoxy should allow me to reuse the mold on future guitar sinks later on.

Quick little funny, tonight as I was looking at the mold and marveling at the glossiness of it and daydreaming about how the sink would look, I noticed that the 2×4 boards I was using to keep it off the work bench was now glued to my mold. WHAT WAS I THINKING !!!!!???!!!

I quickly reacted and tried hard to get the boards a loose from the mold trying desperately not to destroy my hard work.

I succeeded with minimal damage and learned a valuable lesson. I think I can fix the rough edge I made. Everything should be ok.

Here are some pics of the cabinet base.

Here is a small video of the concrete sink mold getting fabricated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm0JpAAbeAA

Stay tuned for the next installment Concrete Sink Project Part Three

Concrete Sink Project Part One

October 23rd, 2011 — Informational, Projects

After casting and completing my kitchen counter tops in concrete. I decided that I wanted to try a concrete sink in the shape of a guitar for the backyard. I’ve often needed a place to wash my hands after doing work stuff, and hate to go in the house with dirty hands putting grime and mess on the knobs and stuff.

Having a sink in the back yard would be great and would bring a little of the inside out. It would also allow me to try my skills at sink making, something I have been wanting to do for a while now.

This video covers me and my brother in law making a slab to put the cabinet on and then the cabinet gets made that will support the sink. This is part one of the video, part two will follow in a later post as the construction continues.

This is not a how to video with steps, this is just a video with a lot of time-lapse pictures  showing the progression of the project.

The cabinet will later be faced out with old rustic wood taken from old homes. I know a place that salvages wood from older homes to make flooring with and I can go and get scraps. This will work really well on the cabinets.

Custom Concrete Countertops

October 23rd, 2011 — Fun, Informational, Projects

For years now wifey has wanted a new kitchen, so she and I have been thinking and saving for this project for over 2 years. She saved a lot more money than me on this one

We did all new floors, cabinets, counter tops, and appliances. A complete redo!

I have a history of doing ceramic tile flooring so I took it upon myself to do the flooring for this remodel.
As you can see in the pics / gallery below, they turned out well.

Now the cabinets were done by a local cabinet shop Wilbourn Cabinets of Grenada, MS. They do fantastic custom cabinet work. The tile back splash wall behind the stove was another task I completed.

The counter tops…yes the counter tops….This may surprise you but I made them and I made them out of concrete.

I know what you are thinking…. “a concrete counter top?” ….. How Ugly?

No not at all. Concrete is not just for sidewalks anymore., no it is fast becoming the new popular item in most kitchens these days. It is quickly replacing granite. Yes it really is. See granite is what everyone “thinks” they should put in there kitchen. Everyone is doing it so why not me right? Well I don’t always want to do what everyone else is doing. I want my kitchen to be unique and custom and with engineered stone or concrete you can do just that. You do not have to be limited to the puke colors that granite offers. We thought about granite and other leading products but we never could find one that wasn’t too busy and that we liked. One actually looked like vomit. I knew that with concrete the shapes, the color, the texture, all could be up to me and I could get what I wanted from it.

Whether it be color, shape, feel or whatever you like, concrete can give you what you want. No Limits!

This is a great video I found on YouTube that explains some things.

Continue reading →

Running Stairs for Excercise

September 27th, 2011 — Health, My Thoughts

Sometimes for exercise I like to go to a place local to me out at Grenada Lake. There are some emergency spillway stairs that are 110 steps up and down. Its very hard to jog them for a lot of times.

For several years I have visited these steps and I usually can do it twice. That’s going up and down one time and then do it again and I am usually spent! Well then I got to where I could do it three times. To me this was a big accomplishment cause I have heard that no one in the area has done it more than five times. I shall keep those two people that have done it five times anonymous.

So anyways I did it three times on several occasions.

Yesterday I had a wild idea that I wanted to go run the stairs three times and try to get a fourth. Then being the avid camera guy and media junky that I am, I thought to myself …Why not video it?

I know you are saying, why video it? Well here are several reasons.

• It may be cool to see how it looks doing it
• Just in case I actually succeed in doing a fourth time.
• It would be cool to show others how its done
• If I trip and stumble it will be something for us all to laugh at

This is a very challenging exercise. It really gets exhausting. At the top of the stairs it feels like you have little children hanging on each leg. Incredible pump. This is great for HIIT (high intensity interval training) if you are looking for something to do to burn fat fast.

So here is the video I put together using a pair of DVR sunglasses to give you the effect of what I see, then two point and shoot personal hand held cameras set up on tripods to catch 2 angles. I edited this in iMovie on the Mac.

Stop Posting Videos in Portrait Mode!!!

September 16th, 2011 — Informational

I have to take this moment to just flat out complain about people using their wide screen cellular devices that are plenty capable of doing hi res video, only they do it in PORTRAIT MODE! It sucks! This is no way to present video.

For instance today there was a terrible plane crash in Reno Nevada today at an annual air show. I plain nose dived straight to the ground only 200 feet from onlookers.
This was devastating and I quickly went to YouTube and found only 3 videos had been uploaded so far. The clearest video you can tell was from maybe an iphone or android phone only the person didn’t turn the phone sideways to take advantage of the widescreen recording. This makes the video awful and you cannot see a lot of what is going on. Here is the link the the video and also a screen shot to show you what I mean.

Look at the wasted space on each side of the video. This sucks!

Look at this same thing on Facebook. Its soo much better in widescreen.

Example This:

And when clicked:

IS MUCH BETTER THAN THIS:

And when clicked:

See it sucks! We are missing a lot of whats going on here.

Sorry my Facebook friend. I had to use you as an example. You were the first video I could find recently.

So everyone…

REPEAT AFTER ME: I WILL NEVER TAKE A VIDEO WITH MY PHONE IN PORTRAIT MODE. I WILL NEVER TAKE A VIDEO WITH MY PHONE IN PORTRAIT MODE.

I WILL NEVER TAKE A VID…..

You get the idea, so STOP DOING IT !!!

Today  I spoiled my outside dogs a little bit more. I say outside dogs because I have Jack the Dachshund who is my inside dog and then there is Louie and DL who stay outside. They have a really nice duplex style doghouse that I built for them years ago. I even put electric heating pads in the floors of each room. Yes, Louie and DL each have their own room. The electric heating pads help to keep them warm in the winter, but I wanted better for them.

Sometimes around here it gets really cold, sometimes in the teens, and I want to be sure they are warm. I know they are animals and can deal with it, but while I am in my warm bed, I like to know they are well taken care of too, so I consulted with some friends and looked online and found a nice solution that is rather easy to make.

It seems that in August/September of 1990 in a magazine called Gun Dog, there was an article about how to create a simple dog house heater for hunting dogs. It involved using a metal gallon paint can, a porcelain light bulb fixture, a 60 watt bulb and some wire, to make a convective heating device.

Here is what to do:
Go to a paint store and buy an unused 1 gallon paint can with the lid. Punch 1/4″ dia holes on the lid and sides of the can. Keep the holes small enough to prevent much light from getting through yet still allow convective heat to escape. Punch a hole in the bottom about 2″ in diameter. Enough room for your wire to be manageable.

Mount the can keeping 4″ of clearance on all sides to allow heat to circulate. You will need to run the wiring to the correct location first of course. Connect a porcelain light bulb socket inside the can, wire it up and put a bulb in the base, put the lid on.

Accessories that can be included (after all it is built by guys) are a dimmer switch to control heat and an indoor-outdoor thermometer to keep tabs on the temperature.

I quickly snapped a video using my cell phone this evening to show you what it looks like inside the dog house, so you can get an idea. The can is very hot, I cant even touch it. It has the dog house nice and toasty. I am looking forward to see how it does in the colder days ahead.

January 13th, 2010 | Informational

I was on my way to work today and I usually leave the house 15 minutes before I have to be at work. This is to allow for the idiots and slow pokes on the road and sometimes it is just not enough.
That was the case today. I left the house at 7:44am and got to work at 8:05 due to slow old people on the stupid cell phone.

What is with these prehistoric morons driving 20mph while on the cellphone and can not merge onto the interstate at all!

I mean this guy I was following this morning was trying to merge onto the interstate and he  ended up stopping at the end of the on ramp with me and several others behind him.

This is how accidents happen people!

I mean who could this guy have been talking too? He was so old, surely all his friends were dead right?

This is one of my biggest pet peeves.

Please comment below.