Flint Panel Edging

[Aff]

Like that! SWMBO won't know the difference!

Here you go.

 

[Onoff]

@Aff , evening. I sent a DXF with 4 hinge variants on one drawing, it was 15MB, and my water jet man said:

"I cannot do anything with this drg. Its so memory intensive it just crashes my PC. Please re-send as per the last drg sent".

I then sent as 4 separate drawings, about 6MB each, one for each hinge variant and he said:

"Same problem even with 1 drawing, there are 300193 segments, that’s why it wont work. Can you reduce the amount of segments or nodes please".

Any ideas?

Cheers

 

[Onoff]

Little st/st mounting, bezel thing for the video doorbell. Made from an old door kick plate stick welded with 316 rods. Need to knock up as internal plate with a couple of rivnuts on and tack that in:

 

[EM1L4]

Little st/st mounting, bezel thing for the video doorbell. Made from an old door kick plate stick welded with 316 rods. Need to knock up as internal plate with a couple of rivnuts on and tack that in:

View attachment 298457

What kind of settings did you use for what I presume is .6/.8 SS plate?

 

[Onoff]

What kind of settings did you use for what I presume is .6/.8 SS plate?

Stainless is nom 1.25mm thick. 2.5mm 316 rods. Blobbed on, 40A on the little Parkside inverter.

Not pretty but it'll blend in nicely with all the other pigeon **** from where they roost above!

 

[Onoff]

Yes I know, little things etc!

Thanks to @Matt-H and a member on another forum for the dome nuts !

 

[Onoff]

I built that house for a typical farmer, I told him it would require proper lime putty type mortar, and lots of it.

He wouldn't pay the asking price for that, went off and made a few phone calls to some experts and suppliers, came back insisting hydrated would be fine.

As the whole job was on labour only daywork there was no risk to me if it didn't work.

I was surprised that it set up fairly quickly, much quicker than I thought it would.

The house was built in 2001 and still looks fine, and he field picked the flints for free.

@Gritineye , sorry to come back after so long.

So you reckon for putting my flints in I use the hydrated lime I have and sharp sand. 2 of the sand, 1 hydrated lime and that's it? Just add plain water, no admix or anything?

Cheers.

 

[Gritineye]

That's what I used on that house, but do a small test mix and let it dry, if it's too white add soft bricklaying sand to tone it down a bit.

 

[Onoff]

@Gritineye , afternoon. Mortar test time!

In the black bucket:

2 sharp sand
1 hydrated lime

In the white bucket:

1.5 sharp sand
0.5 "orange" builders sand
1 hydrated lime

All looks a bit "white" to me still...

Not sure if I want to match my brick mortar or contrast against it?

 

[Onoff]

@Gritineye I mixed both mixes up, left to stand for a few minutes then mixed again. Little video:

https://flic.kr/p/2mj9ZYe

Then another video ref consistency:

https://flic.kr/p/2mjhEYB

I've done two test trays with a few small flints pushed in. One on the left has the 0.5 of builders sand in hence a bit yellower and closer to my mortar used on the column.

What do you reckon on consistency?

Cheers

 

[Gritineye]

Hard to tell from here, it's all a bit tricky!

Consistency's a tiny bit too sloppy, needs to be firm enough so it holds the flints up but doesn't mess the surfaces too much. Don't do too much at atime or it might slip down, no rush.

It needs to be gritty, after the fat weathers off the grit will be mostly what you see, the colour of the grit affects the final look.

Go with the yellower one, your tests pots aren't the best cos there's no suction to dry the mortar out.

After they have set firm scrape it back with the edge of your trowel to below the top of the flints, I don't use the flat of my trowel, but some do.
Don't brush the nibs of till almost dry next day or it will smear.

The fist pic here show that house flint work still damp after a few days. Notice some lime pointing to the piers, he didn't like it so it was raked out again

The second is after a few months or so of good drying weather, looks a bit too white, but now after a some years it has weathered off to look about right.

 

[Gritineye]

PS, Doing those arches was a bit of a test of patience and accuracy thats for sure!

 

[Onoff]

Consistency's a tiny bit too sloppy, needs to be firm enough so it holds the flints up but doesn't mess the surfaces too much. Don't do too much at atime or it might slip down, no rush.

Thanks for that.

If a flint is "small" i.e has a decent looking, say fist sized face but not much behind, or is conical for instance, then will the suction of the mortar hold it there?

 

[Gritineye]

Should do, fill in behind with bits of brick or summat.

The flints can be touching together, they will only touch in one spot, if you leave a gap between them like brickwork the roundness will make the mortar at the front much too wide..

 

[Onoff]

Mixing....I mixed for about 5 minutes with the paddle in the cordless. Left for about 5 minutes then mixed again. Is that right?

 

[Onoff]

This morning the tray mixes are setting but in no way firm/hard. In the plastic tray though moisture can't get out as @Gritineye suggested. This along with his thought the mixes are too wet to start with I guess.

Planning this afternoon to drill a load of holes in the back of the pillar recesses, then put in rawlplugs. As I build the wall I'll put in a stainless wood screw to help the mortar key in.

 

[Onoff]

I tipped out the two test trays yesterday afternoon. Both still very damp of course and the mixture in both, "crumbly" between the fingers.

The mixes are such that I could break the samples in half by hand easy enough. So tipped out they've been able to dry out a bit more overnight. For each sample there's half with the topside facing up and half with the damp bottom facing up.

Doing the "fingernail" test and the one on the right, that was just 1 lime :2 sharp sand seems harder to dig into. More like what you'd expect on a church, old flint building etc.

The one on the left, the 1 lime : 1.5 sharp : 0.5 soft (for colour), although more of a mortar colour, well it seems softer and you can gouge it with your nail easier.

I'm wondering if there's an option to up the lime content (if that's what increases strength) but still make it less white?

Hope that makes sense!

Or should I just give the samples a few more days to dry out as in will everything just get harder with time?

Cheers

 

[Gritineye]

The one on the left, the 1 lime : 1.5 sharp : 0.5 soft (for colour), although more of a mortar colour, well it seems softer and you can gouge it with your nail easier.

I'm wondering if there's an option to up the lime content (if that's what increases strength) but still make it less white?

Hope that makes sense!

Or should I just give the samples a few more days to dry out as in will everything just get harder with time?

Check my first post on this:

'use a stiff mix using sharp grit sand around 2:1. For a yellower look add some builders sand'

Your mix is different, add yellow not substitute for grit, which might make it a bit fatty.

However it's all a bit suck it and see, no hard and fast rules, cos materials vary around the country.

Drying takes time, lime work is slow, one of the main reasons it went out of general use.

Apart from that carry on have fun!

 

[Onoff]

Check my first post on this:

'use a stiff mix using sharp grit sand around 2:1. For a yellower look add some builders sand'

Your mix is different, add yellow not substitute for grit, which might make it a bit fatty.

However it's all a bit suck it and see, no hard and fast rules, cos materials vary around the country.

Drying takes time, lime work is slow, one of the main reasons it went out of general use.

Apart from that carry on have fun!

Ah I see, 2:1 then add builder's sand on top! Sorry, didn't read that.

Won't that weaken the overall mix though? Is adding a buff/yellow cement dye an option and then just stick at 2:1? This Wickes one is apparently lime resistant.

Bostik 1kg Cementone Colours for Cement - Buff | Wickes.co.uk

Bostik 1kg Cementone Colours for Cement - Buff

www.wickes.co.uk

Worse that can happen is it falls out and I have to redo it!

Think I might start with the panel furthest from the eye as my test bed.

 

[Gritineye]

A few shots of new flint work to see here there are others but a couple of interest at 30:40

https://www.my5.tv/alex-polizzi-my-...pisode-3-06803167-afd6-4514-b55a-3f2ba6d4e223

Notice the difference between the new low wall and the patch behind Alex, presumably both done with the same mix, but drying out differently.

I'm often in Alfriston, but it's been screened off, so must go and have a look sometime.