Vectric Customer

I've looked at this a few times... and for the first time I realized that you machined the concrete?! Impressive!!

Since I wanted a perfect surface, I purchased a sheet of ¾” melamine for the Face Side of the form. I used six bags of High PSI concrete I got at HomeDepot costing about $6.50 per bag. The type they can use for concrete countertops. I also used some wire mesh to make sure the concrete didn’t crack. I screed and troweled the cement making it as level as I could. This would be the Back Side, however, after it set, I had high areas. I let it cure for two days before I purchased a 4” diamond grinding wheel from Harbor Freight for $20, machined the end of a 5/8” bolt on my lathe so it would fit into a ½” collet. I ended up milling about 6 mm, mostly around the edges to make each section exactly the same thickness. It took about 1-hour per section to grind. It also took me about 3-hours to clean all the concrete dust out of my shop. Glad I had a leaf blower and a lot of fans. Thanks for looking.

Gary

Wow beautiful project

Wow!

garylmast wrote:

I've looked at this a few times... and for the first time I realized that you machined the concrete?! Impressive!!

Since I wanted a perfect surface, I purchased a sheet of ¾” melamine for the Face Side of the form. I used six bags of High PSI concrete I got at HomeDepot costing about $6.50 per bag. The type they can use for concrete countertops. I also used some wire mesh to make sure the concrete didn’t crack. I screed and troweled the cement making it as level as I could. This would be the Back Side, however, after it set, I had high areas. I let it cure for two days before I purchased a 4” diamond grinding wheel from Harbor Freight for $20, machined the end of a 5/8” bolt on my lathe so it would fit into a ½” collet. I ended up milling about 6 mm, mostly around the edges to make each section exactly the same thickness. It took about 1-hour per section to grind. It also took me about 3-hours to clean all the concrete dust out of my shop. Glad I had a leaf blower and a lot of fans. Thanks for looking.

Gary

They do make dust shrouds with vac attachment for just this purpose, tough to find though. I used to do epoxy cement floors on the side, I've got 1,000's of hours of diamond grinding under my belt.

Outstanding work, could not even imagine attempting something like that.

They do make dust shrouds with vac attachment for just this purpose, tough to find though.

I avoided using my dust collector because I saw how the fine dust from MDF clogs the filters and cleaning them is quite a chore. I was afraid the dust from the concrete would have worst effects. I had to replace the filter on my smaller dust collector earlier this year because of a fire which cost over $300. The two filters on the larger dust collector cost over $1,100 plus freight, so you can see my hesitation.

However, I did buy a dust shoe off Ebay for $36.00, and once it gets here, I am going to adapt to fit the shop vac. I know there will be plenty of times I will end up using it. I did use the shop vac for cleanup of the cement dust, and that filter clog almost instantly, but was a whole lot easier to clean.

Gary

garylmast wrote:

They do make dust shrouds with vac attachment for just this purpose, tough to find though.

I avoided using my dust collector because I saw how the fine dust from MDF clogs the filters and cleaning them is quite a chore. I was afraid the dust from the concrete would have worst effects. I had to replace the filter on my smaller dust collector earlier this year because of a fire which cost over $300. The two filters on the larger dust collector cost over $1,100 plus freight, so you can see my hesitation.

However, I did buy a dust shoe off Ebay for $36.00, and once it gets here, I am going to adapt to fit the shop vac. I know there will be plenty of times I will end up using it. I did use the shop vac for cleanup of the cement dust, and that filter clog almost instantly, but was a whole lot easier to clean.

Gary

Shop vac for sure. not a collector. We mostly used shop vacs with our industrial grinders [including walk behind grinders that used 3 contra rotating 10" wheels] doing stadium floors and factory aisles, you do have to keep up and shake them out pretty often.

I said "mostly", we did have a vac specifically made for high dust flow that had levers built in so the filter could be shaken with no need for the usual shaking nightmare, that thing was a thing of beauty but super expensive so we only had 1 of them and it seemed I rarely got to use it.

Wow. Absolutely amazing. I'm really impressed with machining CONCRETE on a CNC. Wow.

Amazing project Gary. Very interesting to see how your using the CNC throughout the process.

Cheers,
James