There was a risk that the PVC, by itself, would be too soft to resist lateral wearing over time, as the lamp shaft wobbled within its base. There are a lot of stores now, and design ideas can be viewed on sites, for example. for a mold maybe use bottom of a milk jug or line a pie pan or right size bowl or container with plastic wrap or foil keeps clean. I emailed Quikrete, described the dust situation, and asked, Will it work to trowel on a thin layer of QUIKRETE Concrete Repair (No. But I doubted that would happen. I'm not 100% sure what it is made of, but its thin and small and very heavy so I assume its solid metal inside and out. Heres how it looked after wiping down with a wet paper towel (focusing, here, on the stains visible especially near the top edge, and disregarding the vertical lines that are merely reflections of other items in the greenhouse): Needless to say, I was kicking myself for prioritizing the cellophane, as a protection for the concrete, and disregarding the risk of damage to the lamps appearance. I have exactly the same problem with an old floor lamp which I took apart to modify. I found that it did spit out a fair amount of dust. (LogOut/ The webpage for Quikrete Sand Topping Mix listed some of the applications it was intended for, including large crack repair, thick beds for ceramic floor tile, and filling cores in masonry block walls. Besides, I didnt like to throw things away when I could fix them. Where the concrete was thin, dry, and rough, I found that merely tapping it with my finger would cause it to crumble: I desisted from further tapping, in hopes that complete curing might save the rest of it. But plainly it would have been better to have a less cluttered workspace. With the aid of my aluminum trowel, I did wind up with a level surface. This product can be controlled with your voice through Alexa-enabled devices such as Amazon Echo and Amazon Tap. The Quikrete Sand Topping Mix data sheet said curing would take seven days at temperatures of 50-70F, or five days above 70F. I should have thought to weigh the old concrete base before discarding it, so as to know how much new concrete Id need. I would have thought that the mottled flat surface caused by the cellophane was going to be the final look, but now I saw that it had faded into a result that was only mildly rougher than the parts not affected by the cellophane. That plywood base could presumably be secured with flathead screws, run into mollies inserted into the wet concrete and lined up with pre-drilled holes in the plywood, marked on paper. My bet was that there was enough of the glue, and enough coarse sand to adhere to, such that it would remain suitably attached for a long time. The Fora platform includes forum software by XenForo, My First Time with Concrete: Replacing a Heavy Lamp Base, VerticalScope Inc., 111 Peter Street, Suite 600, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2H1, Canada. Maybe they were supposed to be there, as part of the antiquing, but it didnt seem like it: they were rough when scraped with a fingernail. I made a point of not putting the milk and OJ in the trunk with the concrete mix. Learn how your comment data is processed. I found that a fingernail could scrape away the excess dried Liquid Nails from the metal base, but there were still spots where the white, dried Liquid Nails was visible between the metal base and the mouse pad. Measuring the Quikrete into the mixing bucket was not an exact science. Maybe duct tape, wrapped around the base, could have mitigated this result. But they do have to get moved when the floor is cleaned, and that's regularly. But the main thing keeping it together in my case is that piece of steel. I ws thinking like narrow bricks or barbell weights if I could find the right size and figure out a way to get them to stay in place. Could I use some other kind of adhesive to attach one of those mouse pads I had found on eBay? I need to fix a lamp, but fear that when I turned it right side up, the new concrete would fall out. Using this method, did you find that any excess Liquid Nails got squeegeed over the edge and onto the metal base? On that, a search led to a variety of recommendations for sealing dusty concrete. For a mixing bowl, I used a plastic bucket. Probably the more feasible solution would be to apply something else paint, perhaps, or a different lacquer after sanding or perhaps removingthe existing lacquer and optionally cleaning up the underlying metal (with e.g., Brasso). At this point, we will take questions from the audience. I could have added power washing at 1750 psi for whatever it might be worth, but I didnt want to wait more days for the concrete to dry. Thank you for the compliment! There did not seem to be a clear stopping point. On closer inspection, I could see that the concrete surface looked a little rough, and also that my trowel had pulled some Quikrete from the far side and pushed it to the near side. For instance, it seemed that a circular form, lined with plastic, could be used to create homemade weights for dumbbells or other purposes. On the way home, I stopped off for groceries. I didnt have access to such a printer, though, nor did I have experience with the kinds of materials it might handle. It seemed that I might have overdone it, when I added those extra 4 ounces of water at the start. So I wasnt able to take the easy route of tightening a nut against the base metal, and a pair of nuts against each side of the steel stabilizer plate. Now I was ready to reassemble the lamp base. For cleanup, I had a hose and a bucket of water, and some rags and paper towels, with a plastic trash bag and a scrap heap nearby. Glad you liked it, Marie. To my mixing bucket, I added the prescribed pint of water. Eliminates the need for roughing the surface before the application.. Shop products from small business brands sold in Amazons store. The resulting mix didnt seem workable or plastic-like, so I added another half-cup (4 oz.) Put some rubber feet on it to keep it off the ground a bit. Without that central attachment, I wasnt confident that mere adhesive would be enough to hold the concrete weight in place. I LOL ! Resin Expert (Anonymous, 2021) said I could even use a superglue for spot fixes. And silence. Instead of thinking about water control, I was focused on the mechanical assembly. Using only the specified 16 ounces of water may also have helped. Warmest regards Therefore, I looked around and identified another place specifically, a crack in the sidewalk, pre-swept where a bit of leftover concrete could be useful. The Vinyl Conrete Patcher is design for repair less than thick. All I managed, at that late date, was to add some duct tape around the washers at the bottom of my inverted lamp base, and jam a piece of foam into the lamp shafts central hole, to prevent concrete from pouring down into that. If the surface of your concrete is soft enough to easily gouge with a screwdriver or your dusting is more severe, then aggressive grinding, shot blasting, or scarification of the concrete surface is going to be required. It was time to try to wrap this up. Like sealers, though, coatings penetrate the pores to create strength and provide top layer protection. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. The State of New Jersey (n.d.) warned that breathing the dust produced when dry-grinding concrete (which, by the way, is illegal in NJ workplaces) causes silicosis, a disease that kills hundreds of U.S. workers each year. The base is hard, sturdy, and feels very solid. I've never had such a problem either. So I deferred that. I doubted my little job would produce much of that, but it was something to be aware of: apparently it would be best to buy a wet-or-dry tool and find a way to keep water flowing across the work surface, which could require more days for the concrete to dry completely. Well, que sera, sera. But the problem is frequently traced back to installation. Apparently I was going to get a light layer of concrete on the outside of the lamp base, whether I wanted it or not. The absence of any such note probably indicates that it has been working OK in the meantime. I've looked for replacement parts but can't find any with two holes for the two uprights shafts. The admixture for those thinner (i.e., <1) applications seemed to be Quikrete Concrete Acrylic Fortifier which, according to the data sheet, would provide improved bonding. My lamp base was around 2 deep, so apparently I was supposed to use the bonding agent instead of the admixture. Specifically, it seemed I was supposed to observe these instructions: If the area to be resurfaced requires topping from 1 2 (25.4 51 mm) in thickness, first coat the damaged area with QUIKRETE Concrete Bonding Adhesive (#9902). It is possible that a hard rap (e.g., dropping the lamp onto pavement) could cause the concrete to fracture along the plane of that piece of steel. The tube didnt seem to have an expiration date. For the moment, I used some little old rubber feet that I had lying around. It helped that there seemed to be water oozing up: the surface was wetter now than it had been when I finished the original troweling. One option was to reattach the felt pad that I had peeled away from the old lamp base. In this case, I believed it would probably be good enough just to attach the mouse pad, and then stand the lamp on that pad on a flat, level surface for a day. I viewed the concrete horizon levelly and, with my finger, lightly tapped down any bits of sand that were sticking up. It is primarily caused by the slow disintegration of a weak top layer of concrete. I finished my last cleanup, verified that my screwing around had not altered the original levelness of the lamp base, put cardboard over the plastic film, and added a sign, just in case any unexpected visitor to the greenhouse decided that my pile of cardboard and cinderblocks looked like junk. (LogOut/ If your issue cant be solved with a sealer, try a coating made of acrylic, epoxy or urethane instead. Inside the greenhouse, I didnt touch the concrete, but I did remove the cellophane. The lows did not drop below 50F. It seemed that pointy spots in the concrete could poke or wear through the thin felt pad. When I refer to adhesives, I am thinking of what I found online, when I went looking for a somewhat thicker pad that I could attach to the concrete base. The best I could find there, on my budget, was a $5 spray can of Thompsons Water Seal, recipient of good but not great ratings, advertised as useful for concrete waterproofing. Unfortunately, I wasnt looking for waterproofing. Press J to jump to the feed. Eventually I quit, wanting to believe that the flow of dust was diminishing. But as long as the concrete lump held together, this steel piece would make it virtually impossible for it to fall out. One-year update: everything seems fine. In fact, I was afraid the whole thing might be fragile. I was planning to use a wire brush, but had apparently misplaced mine, but it didnt matter: even the bristle brush was sending off small clouds of dust from the surface of the lamp base. The McLean Company (2020) continued: Whats nice about dust proof sealers like sodium or lithium silicate densifiers is that theyre easy to apply, relatively inexpensive and dont alter the appearance of your flooring surface. Somebody said that chemicals in the concrete could be hard on the skin, so I put on some theoretical plastic gloves and goggles. Mix the linseed oil and thinner of your choice in a 1:1 ratio (see also SawmillCreek). Lisa, I doubt it would stick by itself. of water. I decided to let the concrete cure for the full seven days mentioned above. It did appear that at least I had worn through some of the really fine stuff. It didnt seem to have done so. The next day, I looked at the sidewalk crack. So I went ahead and ordered a big-enough mouse pad from eBay. As I looked again at the base, it now seemed obvious that I was looking at an antique lacquer finish, not the bright finish of actual brass. At least 75 % of the concrete crumbled or fell out in half-a-hand size chunks. The most common reason, however, is excess bleed water at the surface. If there is too much water in the concrete mix, this water will rise to the surface during the finishing process (troweling). 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