I get into long conversations about composition with my friend Karl. He’s back in school and telling me how he’s learning the basics of composition. Cool. What’s that?

Threading Pedz Legs……. “Ol’ Pedz Leg!” 

The last Pedz top I poured and featured here was a real coooooooool orange. Orange with real nice red glass. The orange pigment I used was NOT specifically for cement. Now this little fact made a BIG difference in the cement curing. It DIDN’T. I waited about 6 days before attempting to pop the Pedz from the mold. It crumbled immediately. Good news was that I was able to salvage both the stainless reinforcing and the red glass. Both were installed in the new yellow Pedz top. (I really wasn’t happy with the “real coooooooooool orange” anyway)

I used the same  type pigment but yellow and added 75% less. The new Pedz top released from the mold great and will be ground on the 11th.

The new yellow top after grinding:

I’ve been working to get the Pedz out of the way so that I can get moving on Mrs. Wonky. Some people find working with stainless pretty difficult. I love working with the stuff. No painting needed; just a little polishing and some Sheila Shine to keep it looking nice and oil free.

My first threading on the lathe. The Pedz legs. Threaded and polished.

Pedz legs bent and welded.  

Polishing out welds and heat spots. 

Preliminary set up. The Pedz 

I’ve been messing around with different concrete mixes for the Pedz tops. I started by reading the book “Concrete Countertops” by Fu-Tung Cheng. It’s a great book that tells a lot about doing these kinds of things. As those types of books go, I needed to change a few things, like buying materials locally that don’t cost an arm and a leg. That meant a little trial and error. So below are the first tops that I’m am totally stoked about.  They are super hard and took a mirror shine at 1500 grit grinding. It took almost an hour to break through to the glass aggregate with a 50 grit diamond disc. They were ground yesterday after 4 days of cure. I’ll follow that up soon with a 3000 grit. Cheng says it’s not needed, but I have so much glass in the surface that I think it’ll really bring the shine out. 

Got the 3000 grit diamond discs. MAN what a difference. Those things are like glass. I did make the mistake of using a penetrating sealer. It dulled the polished/ground finish a little. Looks plastic like. Next one will be waxed with carnauba wax.  No sealer