Aircrete Planter Box and Mushrooms
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I have been building a planter box using some left over extra faux stone panels for the exterior aircrete surface and dismantled pallets for the interior framing. I wanted to see how far one bag of cement would go. It looks like I need 2 or 3 more to finish. Still much cheaper than bricks and mortar. I drove some deck screws into the polyfoam panels on the inside before the pour and they seem very stuck to the aircrete.
Learning lots and getting my aircrete recipe dialed in.
The mushrooms need to be finished by cutting some gills underneath the caps, skinning the caps and paint. I wired them with some telephone line so I can wire some colored LED's into the caps. I'll play with that later
Here are my conclusions:
Plastic wrap seems to be the best way to keep aircrete from sticking to a mold. The drawback is te wrinkles in the plastic when you pour the aircrete in.
I also learned that by using a panel of some type as part of the mold, it can stay part of the permanent completed structure, maybe making the skinning process easier or unnecessary. Has anyone else tried a different way to skin the aircrete blocks, either before or after the aircrete pour? -
@upwinger Wow! You might have to go through that one more time. This is cool!
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The pre-skinning idea was a success!
It feels alot like drywall. I can probably pull it off of the block because of the stremgth of the clothe material, but it seems glued on pretty well. Skinning curved surfaces like the mushrooms is a real "learning curve" !!! LOL
This experiment was kind of a proof of concept. A form can be successfully preskinned at the time of aircrete pour, AND it released from the acrylic mold easily,. AND spraying the acrylic with cooking oil made plastc wrap unnecessary. However, I did use plastic wrap between the form and the clothe skin,, but I dont think its required. My next block will be plastic wrap only on the bottom..It helps sealing the bottom from blowout leakage. along with the weatherstripping tape...
