Darren’s Diatribe

Once you have made the mold, the next step is to pour the stone. Firstly, you need to wax the mold to make it easier to get the stone out. I just use car polish, but there are many alternatives.

(click to biggify the image)

You will need lots of mortar mix. Concrete might result in a surface which is a bit rough. The premix sand/cement is the easiest to use.

You will need some sand to support the mold. There will be a lot of weight, and you don’t want to break the fibreglass. Note that once there is mortar in the mold, do not try to lift it as you will break the mold.

You need some sort of funnel to get the mortar into the mold.

Mix a bag of mortar at a time. Note that even if you suffer from pica, do not eat the mortar mix. Although it looks tasty, it is caustic. Use gloves when handling.

Put the mortar in the mold.

Agitate the mortar to get rid of air bubbles. Resist the temptation to do it so much that you make all the water rise to the surface as this will result in a weak stone, and we don’t want that as weak stones are for wusses.

Leave to set for around 24 hours. If you leave it for much longer than this and the mold is a bit tight, you may have problems getting the stone out of the mold. Prise the top of the mold off. You may need to use wedges of some sort. If you over-inflated the ball during making the mold, it may be hard to remove the mold. You may need dynamite, although I do not recommend this.

Tip the stone over onto something soft. Dense foam works well. Your foot will not work well. Someone else’s foot will work, if you can get them to stay still for long enough although, for the record, I do not endorse this.

Use a rubber mallet to remove the bottom half of the mold.

There will be some excess mortar around the neck. Remove this with an angle grinder.

Rough up the surface of the stone with a file to make it easier to grip. Voilà; you have an atlas stone. Allow to set for a week before using.

The final step is to exercise lots so you can lift the stone. And I don’t just mean going for a walk to the local shops occasionally to get a pasty for lunch. I mean lifting weights. Heavy weights. And not just once either. Several times a week, for a long time. Actually, this should probably be step 1 of the process. Get fit first, then make the stone.

How to Make an Atlas Stone (Part 1)
How to Make an Atlas Stone (Part 3)
How to lift an Atlas Stone

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Make. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.