This was another diamond in the rough. Though like a diamond. It took lots of work to take it from the rough, to something more pleasing.
Marilyn brought this home from a sale. Three pieces anyway, The Hexagon section (which we would soon manufacture) was not part of her find. Her find had the base legs, a flat piece that fit on the base. Then the ornate top.
Something was missing. We weren’t sure what. Each one of these concrete sections were about all I could lift …. one at a time. These pieces together were fairly massive.
Corners of the concrete top section were damaged and knocked off. A portion of the Foo Dog on top was broken and missing chunks.
We both looked at it a long while. We both thought it would make a very cool landscape light. But how?
I decided to try to create a wood form to cast a concrete section we wanted. A hexagonal form to match the lines of the concrete slab that sat on the legs. The slab on top of the base legs, had a raised 1/2 inch hexagon. It all made sense and additional section was missing, and such a piece should be there.
Since we wanted this to be a light, that meant the hexagon had to be hollow, and also have windows for the light to shine through. It suddenly was getting more complicated.
The two existing base sections I was successful in using a hammer drill to bore a wiring channel up through both pieces.
The form was a bit complicated and involved some math that hadn’t been used for a while. Some saw angles I don’t normally work in too. Plus a bunch of forethought since none of this could be screwed or nailed. The parts had to all come apart after the concrete hardened.
I finally figured out what I thought would work. Put it together dry several times. Until I thought all wood corners would not get caught. Hours of work.
For a mold release agent I used about a pound of vaseline. Smearing it liberally on all the surfaces that would contact the concrete.
I used chopped fiberglass fibers, mixed with the concrete to be the reinforcement. Probably better than the original product?
I did the concrete pour. The mold came apart fairly easy about 4 days later. I managed to pull everything apart without breaking the new concrete casting.
While I was waiting for that concrete to cure I started repairing the Foo Dog and all the dinged off corners. I used quick setting 2 part epoxy and roughed in all the repairs and rough re-sculpturing. Then used a dremal tool to do the finish work and finish sculpturing.
Once all the sections were sealed and primed. No one can tell it had ever been repaired. Or that we had to manufacture a missing part.
This was wired up for 12V landscape lightning. It still sits at the edge of the walkway around our pool.
