The Ultimate DIY Rocks!

[MeuserReef]

OK, I got home, took my "scuplture" out of the salt casting bed and although it looks nice, it seems like the 2.5:1 salt to grout ratio is too thin. I mean it literally looks like there is a bunch of salt chuncks held together with a thin layer of grout. Im afraid that once I get to the kure part, there will not be much "rock" left once the salt dissolves.

Should I up the grout portion of the mix to perhaps closer to 1:1?

Any ideas?

 

[Insane Reefer]

That would probably be a help. I've never worked with grout before, but it is basically white cement, lime and sand, premeasured, which makes adding stuff in (like salt or aggregates) more difficult.

 

[MeuserReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12774770#post12774770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Insane Reefer
That would probably be a help. I've never worked with grout before, but it is basically white cement, lime and sand, premeasured, which makes adding stuff in (like salt or aggregates) more difficult.

agreed. I was thinking that on my next attempt, I would mix one part grey Portland Type I cement, 1 part white grout, 2 parts salt crystals.

The whole point of the grout was avoid grey rocks, but only if it works!

 

[Insane Reefer]

During the kure, the rocks will naturally lighten to a pale grey that most people don't find too disagreeable, and some will argue is better since the diatoms and green algae that will grow on the rocks are less noticeable. I still like white rock best, kured with a bit of tannin (tree leaves, tea leaves, coffee grounds or even wood chips) at the end to bring on a more off-white tone.

You might PM Sunkool - I know he has made rock with salt and grout; he may have some specific tips he can share with you.

 

[MeuserReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12775012#post12775012 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Insane Reefer
During the kure, the rocks will naturally lighten to a pale grey that most people don't find too disagreeable, and some will argue is better since the diatoms and green algae that will grow on the rocks are less noticeable. I still like white rock best, kured with a bit of tannin (tree leaves, tea leaves, coffee grounds or even wood chips) at the end to bring on a more off-white tone.

You might PM Sunkool - I know he has made rock with salt and grout; he may have some specific tips he can share with you.

Thats what I was hoping they would do (the rocks lightening up as they kure), especially since I decided to use the grey cement in round 2.

I took the salt/grout rock that I made yesterday and busted it into marble-sized pieces. I then made a mix composed of:

• 1.5 parts Type I Portland Cement (grey)
• 1 part White Tile Grout
• 2 parts Solar Salt Crystals
• 1 part marble-sized grout/salt chunks

This gives me a 2.5:3 cement/aggregate ratio, but it still came out rather porous looking (at least I think it did)
The mixture seemed much more "concrete-like" and I think I will have much better luck with it. Im going to let it sit in the casting salt until friday just to make sure that it is not going to break when removing it (its sort of leggy, with branches and overhangs and such).

FINGERS CROSSED

 

[impur]

Well i went at it again. And as usual i took more pics

Got my ingredients

My box for molding

Dig out my mold and add some texture

I threw some salt in to create some more surface area

 

[impur]

ready to mix ingredients

Then i started dropping small bits into the mold

 

[impur]

cover it in the damp sand

Then i wrapped it in a large plastic bag and i'll leave it for 3 weeks in my garage where it'll get nice and warm. the damp sand will keep it moist. I'll move it straight to a bucket of water to cure and change the water regularly. Hope it cures faster than my last batch.

 

[impur]

I'd like to add some legs to this piece, so i might see how far its dried this weekend and add the legs to it. See any problem with doing this?

 

[Insane Reefer]

Looks great
Now, I was noticing in the mix-up of the mud that it does look a bit "sticky", which often leads to denser rock. However, the salt might be responsible as I seem to recall that almost every batch I made with salt seemed to have an odd stickiness too.

Keep us posted!

 

[Insane Reefer]

In theory it is fine, and I sometimes do it with my rock, but I've had a hard time adding bits on using the salt rock; for me it was all at once or not at all. Maybe you will have better luck than I did.

 

[OCEAN SIZE]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12764486#post12764486 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by impur
Good post OCEAN SIZE, i was thinking along the same lines. I got out all my ingredients last night and will go to work this afternoon on a few rocks. I will cast in a styro box with sand. I planned on putting a large cup of water in there then covering with a plastic bag and sealing it up in my garage. Its stays nice and hot in there during the day and the large cup of water should help provide moisture so i don't have to open it up every couple days.

IR is it 2 weeks of drying or 28 days, then into the water for kure?

Great posts yourself Impur.

Hate to ask an obvious one - but why can't I see the pics? I'm signed in, etc (obviously) and can't see them on Firefox 3 (brand new - yay) or on Opera? But I see some pics people post? I can't wait to check out your rocks!

 

[Insane Reefer]

Don't know what to tell you, Ocean Sized. Maybe try IE? We had a guy, must have been a year ago or so, who had that problem, but he never said how he fixed it or if he did.

Might be something in the filters - maybe images from certain places are default blocked? That was my big complaint with FireFox when it first came out - too many settings to change to make it functional.

Hope you get it worked out

 

[Paul_PSU]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12779280#post12779280 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OCEAN SIZE
Great posts yourself Impur.

Hate to ask an obvious one - but why can't I see the pics? I'm signed in, etc (obviously) and can't see them on Firefox 3 (brand new - yay) or on Opera? But I see some pics people post? I can't wait to check out your rocks!

I use Firefox and can see all the pics. Must be a setting like IR said.

I am running Firefox3

 

[Insane Reefer]

Yeah - Impur has his images hosted on Photobucket, which might set off a flag of some sort...
Maybe it is blocking images over a certain size? His are sort of largish...

 

[OCEAN SIZE]

I'm surprised Opera blocked it too. I made a small change in NoScript that opened it up. After countless browser hijacks and working in the encryption industry, I'm a privacy and security enthusiast.

GREAT rock work Impur ! Well documented visually (says thousands of words obviously) and the rock looks nice and loose. Reminds me of kaelini rock. I bet it turns out extremely porous.

I'm looking to use a tiny bit of salt as well, probably a mix of different sizes, but used very sparingly just to insert occasional random gaps. It looks like you followed the directions verbatim and are having great results.

I very much appreciate you taking the time to document what you've done. If we can work it out, I'll try to give you a frag someday when I'm visiting Portland.

Only one question IR - I was thinking of putting a bag *inside* the styro box, then sealing that. I guess it wouldn't matter, as long as evaporation is low and humidity is high?

 

[impur]

Thanks guys. I'll be sure to document it if i add the legs and when it comes out of the mold and into some water! I'm liking the porosity of this rock. Dropping the smaller bits of the mix really aids in this.

 

[Insane Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12780036#post12780036 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OCEAN SIZE

I very much appreciate you taking the time to document what you've done. If we can work it out, I'll try to give you a frag someday when I'm visiting Portland.

I can has cheezburger?

Only one question IR - I was thinking of putting a bag *inside* the styro box, then sealing that. I guess it wouldn't matter, as long as evaporation is low and humidity is high?

I actually put mine in the box, folded over the top - it helps when it comes time to remove it, esp if you can get someone to catch it as you pull it out. It can be sort of pesky to work around that way, and either way works equally well, so up to preference...

 

[Insane Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12780465#post12780465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by impur
...if i add the legs and when it comes out of the mold and into some water! I'm liking the porosity of this rock. Dropping the smaller bits of the mix really aids in this.

You can make huge "solid" masses of rock using the "marble" rule, that will be so porous that it will sieve water. Of course when making larger rocks, you can scale the size of your marble up somewhat, but drooling prevents packed masses that won't do much for filtration and take forever to kure out.

As far as your legs, one thing to try is to scrape up some of the cement juice from the side of your mixing container and using a finger, really rub it into where you are adding the legs, almost like you were brushing your teeth with your finger. And while it is still moist, add the legs on. This has been the way that is most likely to work for me, maybe it will help you.
And even if they don't stick, they will be custom fitted, and you can aways epoxy them back on after all is said and done.

 

[Azazael13]

I can finally see the pics again


For those of you who had problems, there was an issue where someone hacked the DNS address for Photobucket earlier in the week, so that might have been why you didn't see the images.

IR I think I am about to make some more rocks, might need to get another mega post since I have been out for awhile