Threw this together a while back but never put a thread up. Since I won’t be able to find it on FB in a couple years figured I’d post it up here.
Started with building a sturdy base. Plan was for this to be pretty rustic looking so went with 2x4 and 4x4 lumber, sanded nice and smooth, then used kreg joints and glue to hold it together.
Then started working on the form for the top using melamine board. Since the concrete facing the boards will be the finished side you caulk around the edges to get a rounded edge on the concrete.
Not pictured, doing the pour or the rebar and re-mesh reinforcements that were embedded. I was a sweaty mess covered in concrete after hand mixing and pouring and couldn’t get any pictures. I do have a post pour picture after screeding it. It took several days to cure and I kept it wrapped in plastic and wet it to prevent it from curing too fast and cracking. I also vibrated the crap out of the mold using my sander and sawzall to get as many air bubbles out as possible. I used Quikrete 5000 and one bottle of their charcoal concrete coloring per bag (pour took almost 3 bags).
I don’t own a wet sander so I rolled the top out in my driveway, put on a good dust mask and went to town using 220 grit in my random orbital, then 320, then hand wet sanding with 800 grit.
If I were doing it again I wouldn’t go quite as thick and maybe mess around with floating some foam inside the concrete to lighten it up. As it is it takes two strong guys to move it. The top is easily removed from the base because I never glued it on. Instead I got it perfectly centered then glued four plywood squares under it at each corner along the inside edge of the base to prevent it from being able to shift. It’s a pretty cool conversation piece that I have about $100 in supplies into.
Looks awesome. Cheng is like a candy store for concrete work.
I have the wet sander they sell with grits up to 5000 if you ever wanna borrow to make it look like glass.
I have 3 large butcher blocks I got for free I wanted to turn into desks. I was thinking just using 2x4’s to make bases for them and like what you did. I’m curious though, you only used glue to hold the base together? (I am not a wood worker and never have been so this is a first for me when I go to do this) How durable is that glue?
Looks great though. I know of some people that do concrete counter tops. pretty much they just use the existing counters and pour the concrete over. Not sure how they do the edges though/faces of the counter. When I saw how thick you made it I was curious how heavy it was going to be. haha!
I wouldnt use glue alone for the bases, use dowels as well. Harbor freight sells a cheap tool ive used that worked well. It lines up your drill bit for both sides so you get a perfect alignment. Make sure you clamp the hell out of it while it drys.
Not a fan of yours now. I don’t see a piece of sheet metal with your car or the state in the middle of it. lol That’s pretty damn sweet. Really dig the look of it and can see its a pretty long process to get where you are at.
Thank you as well for sharing that video, gives me an idea now on how to build the base (3 of them) for those butcher blocks. The question is… how much swearing, time, and mess ups will I have. haha Never done any of this before. I did fully rip down my bathroom and rebuild it myself with tiling the shower and ceiling of the shower. (slanted ceiling or I wouldn’t have done the ceiling)
It really wasn’t that hard. I debated putting a Lake Erie inlay in mine but my wife really wasn’t a fan of the inlay.
I had a Kreg jig I got as an Xmas present a while back and never used but after using it I’ll definitely be using it for more projects. Really easy to make a nice strong joint, especially combined with glue. I spent more time sanding my lumber down than actually building it the frame.
The worst part was hand mixing the cement in this plastic tub using a hoe. Next time I’d mix it in a bucket and use a mixer in a drill.
Dry sanding went really quick using a random orbital and the wet sand I gave it by hand combined with the sealer gave it the exact sheen I was looking for (not too glossy, but not dull like regular concrete either).
If you’re debating just give the concrete part a shot first. A few bags of concrete, some dye and a sheet of melamine are cheap enough. If it comes out shitty smash it up with a hammer and drop it off at the dump.
