making concrete buildings

[granddad gnome]

Feeling a bit of color at the moment so I thought I might let you all know what I have been experimenting with over the last few months. A friend at the club was disposing of a building from his indoor layout, so I scrounged it, as I thought it would make an ideal structure on my outdoor layout. It being made of stirrer sticks clued onto polystyrene it would not have lasted long. So i decided to make one in concrete. This is what it looked like

 

[granddad gnome]

I made a mould out of blue dense insulation board cut into 2" x 2" strips on the band saw clued onto property for sale boards.

 

[granddad gnome]

Making a mould. I first made a drawing of each side and then started to glue up the mould.

 

[granddad gnome]

Now I started to infill the mould with timber planking. I made my own coffee stirrers from a piece of old fencing panel cut up on the band saw. These planks were then backed with another piece of timber plank glued on edge. This is so the concrete has something to grip and therefor hold all the planks in place on the front of the finished section.

 

[granddad gnome]

A bit of small mesh as reinforcing, fill with a 3 to 1 mix of Portland cement and grit sand. vibrated a bit with the aide of my old sanding machine clamped to the bench . Then wait 2 days ,strip mould and we have our first section of the new storage unit for the Gnome Valley Railway. Cleaning up next

 

[granddad gnome]

Cleaning up the finished panel after de-molding is a bit well boring shall we say, as you have to scrap of carefully the cream of the concrete that seeps through and then a good wire brush gets the texture back. follow this with a very light rub down with fine oil and another wire brushing and you have an very acceptably weathered look.

 

[granddad gnome]

panel made so far

 

[granddad gnome]

I have worked with concrete all my life and was also a mould maker, and designer, so the next part might present a few problems as I want to make the roof out of concrete but also have it removable. All things are possible if one has enough bottles of beer handy. so watch this space.

 

[mike]

damed clever! i likes it

 

[Steve]

Brilliant a master class , More

 

[Philbahn]

Good concept. Well executed. Good luck with the roof

 

[nicebutdim]

That is excellent, something for the winter me thinks.

 

[granddad gnome]

Morning all. Back again,

It's Pre-assembly day.
First I'll show you the products I use for assembly,

The Contact adhesive is use to put on the fixing strips across the back of the timbers before filling with concrete, the Polyurethane glue is use for fixing the panels together. You will note that I put it in an old saucepan of boiling water before use as this thins it down and makes it runner to use. the Silicon is for sealing up gaps between the floors (show this later) it help prevent light seeping between the levels when putting in lights and the wood glue is used mixed 50/50 with water to help hold the timbers in place before filling.

 

[granddad gnome]

Method of assembly is straight forward but a dry run is advisably.

Notice the use of a old broken grinding wheel, this I use for cleaning up the edges etc to see that everything is square. A set square to check that everything is square. and a clamp to hold it all together.

 

[granddad gnome]

Now for the problems.
Do not forget the edge of the end panel as I did on the first one, Rember to put timber up the edge of the panel to match up with the sides.

 

[granddad gnome]

SWMBO has just shouted (Yelled) from the kitchen for some help. Back later.

 

[MRail]

Glad to hear you've got her working.

 

[granddad gnome]

Glad to hear you've got her working.

Her Working, it's me on jankers.

 

[MRail]

Yes, I know those!

 

[Madman]

Looks great. Alittle labor intensive, buy hey, the Roman structures are still standing after two millenium.