Concrete pads for under double wide piers

The cheap skates that installed my double wide place concrete block on edge directly on the ground.   They are supposed to sit on pads.

The plan is to cast what amounts to beefy pavers  to act as a foot.

Each 80 lb bag of concrete yeilds .6 cubic feet of mix. I want to add lime and the net says to use 1:1 cement to lime.   By doing this I am cutting my sand and gavel ratio in 1/2.  Going to skip the lime.  Would only be a good idea if I was not using the quickcrete mix as I don't know whats in it for sure.  Just being careful.

An 80lb bag of quickcrete yields  ".6 cf " or ".6 x 1728" or 1037 ci of mix.
A 2x4 is 3.5" high.

If I make my form 22x22x3.5 inches it will take 1694 so two 80 lb bags will give a comfortable margin of 380 ci.  This gives me 2 inches on each side of an 18x18 inch pier. I would imagine this will dramatically reduce the psi on the ground and keep the house level longer.  Keeping it dry would help greatly.... but that is not always possible.

Still need to work out what to do on top of the pier.  If I start the bottom block row correctly I can come out with top block at a right angle to the supporting beams.  But I want to think about casting top caps maybe with angled tops.  Just thinking

For each 80 lb (36.3 kg) bag of QUIKRETE® Concrete Mix to be mixed, add approximately 6 pt (2.8 L) of fresh water to the mixer. Turn on the mixer and begin adding the concrete to the mixer. If the material becomes too difficult to mix, add additional water until a workable mix is obtained.

Forms are done.  Tomorrow we pour.

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Tomorrow is today:   This did not go well.  Under calculated the amount of mix by nearly 1/2.   Used X when I should have used Y sort of thing.  And the old mixer does not clean out well.    The mixer does not have a stop where I wanted the barrel tilted.   It fell and dumped the mix on the ground. Duh!

And worst of all my elbow feels like there is a spike through it.   Actually getting better now.  But no heavy lifting for a few days.   Sigh  Do you suppose moving the lathe apron and gearbox around has anything to do with it.  And the vibrating table with a chunk of concrete in the bottom does not help either.  Was thinking my back would be the part giving me grief.  Oh well.   This will give me some time to fix the head gasket on the DYT4000 and with that out of the shop maybe I can move the backhoe in and use it for a shop crane.  LOL not that it would be the first time.

Given that the block will be 1 cf and weight 150 lbs I will be casting them all in place.   I can do the outside ones by myself but will need someone to fill a tub/sled on a rope to pull the mix under the house.for the interior ones.  Maybe even make a tub on push mower wheels.

Casting them in place will also make it easier to get a good fit to the ground.  I am thinking, famous last words, it is level under there and I can mostly just set the from on the ground and pour. 

Sidney Lathe Apron Gears

I am back working on the Sidney Conehead Lathe.   When I first put it back in operation gears in the apron were too mangled to turn.  Either from a lathe crash or attempts to move the carriage with the gears packed with swarf.

Two videos on the subject.  If the first I make some progress with a file but no joy.

And the 30 second version.

In the second I manage to get a bit more movement and finish off the process by running the gears with valve lapping compound.  AKA lapped the gears.  This one may still be uploading.

This afternoon.  I ran all the parts I had been working on through the parts washer and coated then machined surfaces with WD40.    For some reason they don't look clean in the picture.

There is still some fitting to do to make it right but its on the way.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestion.  Even ones that don't work out help in that they get the juices flowing.




The apron is assembled but I am going to tear it down and add some wicks.  Shoot a bit more video to replace some not so good stuff.

Future foundry posts will be to No Man's Land Foundry.

A while back I setup the  No Man's Land Foundry blog.   In the future I will be posting foundry related ramblings there.

Hydrated Lime in Refractory Motar

From:  Traditional Oven

Refractory mortar mixing formulas

10 : 3 : 1.5 - Sand, Calcium Aluminate cement, Fireclay.

If you found hard locating refractory cement don't worry, here is one mixing formula with Portland cement plus lime available in ordinary building stores.

There are two Portland cement types, get the common gray in color, the other one is white decorative used for around pools etc. where a white effects are required.

Lime is calcium it takes over the cement in hot conditions (Portland will gradually burn out, it is used only for the mortar to set while working.)

10 : 6 : 2 : 3 – Sand, Fire Clay, Portland cement, and Lime.

First mix all dry ingredients well. Then in small amounts start adding clean water at room temperature while continuing mixing.

Mix into peanut butter consistency.

and...

Mix it in wheelbarrow or straight in a bucket. After mortar looks mixed well, leave it for couple of minutes and then remix one more time. It will have slight thicker consistency after 2 mins., you may have to add a SPOON of water and mix to a peanut butter consistency. Prepare smaller quantity at the time, e.g. for one dome arch. Amount on the picture is nearly for all 3 aches, for making complete rectangular dome ceiling. ... Hoy, Rado that stuff looks quite mushy in there, oi it is mushy is it not? ... Oy ye, ye mate it is mushy, it always is mushy, ye.