Patio Table Idea

[peachfront]

Thanks, folks, this is extremely helpful to me in my planning. Love the link to the "friendship" table.

[NatureNut]

Bill says that the top is made just like stucco-ing a house, right in the rim of the table top. Take the glass out, use it as a form to cut some sturdy fine mesh screening and lay it in where the glass was... then stucco it and lay the slabs on, and maybe grout between them.

Jo

[johnjsgems]

At the Farmington, NM show each year the major raffle prize is a slab topped coffee table. I'm thinking of making something out of all my losing ticket stubs. Maybe this year.

[colliel82]

If you are using slabs of different thickness why not try lining the bottom of the mold with clear sticky back shelf paper...sticky side up. Then place your slabs where you want them. The sticky shelf paper should hold the slabs in place. Pour concrete over the slabs and when its dry turn it out of your mold and peel off the shelf paper. This is how the glass mosaic stepping stones are made.

[NatureNut]

LOL John. Collie, that sounds like a great way to do it.

[johnjsgems]

I have stepping stones here that my dad made. I think everyone in their club made them. They lined forms with plastic, placed the slabs and poured the concrete over. If you are making a patio table and want it thick put wire inside. If thin you would have to be really careful flipping it over. Or pour it in a frame, cover the bottom and leave frame on. If you want to polish the slabs in place, I know where you can get a great deal on wet polishers.

[chinook203]

I have been wanting to do something like this for awhile. I like the idea of using the marine wood or something fairly light. Great ideas......

[mrscatmandewe]

I have made a few of these tables. First I started with tile, then made tables out of stone. Will not go back to all tile tables.

[NatureNut]

Chris, did you use grout then? Did you use anything for reinforcement or a backing? Did you make them upside down or rightside up? Any pics?

[Rockoonz]

I have been collecting pieces to cut into tiles like you would use for counter tops, then use regular tile setting materials. A glass sheet over the top could protect it and eliminate the need to polish them, 600 grit on a flat lap would probably be good enough.

Lee

[peachfront]

OK, thinking about this upcoming weekend, if we can avoid heat advisory and/or torrential downpour. I'm really wanting to get serious and do some work on my stone mosaics. So...right now I have slabs, some polished, some not, of different thickness. Most actually came from RTHers, since we STILL don't have our flat lap going. Anyway, one of the slabs is a large light blue slab of sky-colored Agate from Fallon, Nevada. It is NOT
polished, and it is both rather thin and rather large. It seems to cry out to be used in a mosaic where it will be the "sky."

I am thinking of starting with the sticky paper and working upside down to make a FLAT tabletop even though my stone slabs have different thicknesses. So I'll put the frame for the concrete on top of the sticky paper. Now I will saw up the slabs into mosaic sized pieces to make a sky and a picture out of stone. After I have placed all of the slabs in the right place on the sticky paper, I will mix and pour the concrete. Now wait. After a suitable interval of time, maybe a couple, three days, I can remove the frame and also flip the table top over
and remove the sticky paper. Grout? Maybe. Then paint it a few times with clear polyurethane coating...

What problems do you guys foresee with this plan? It seems like it would work.

As Lee reminds me, I can also measure the concrete countertop and have a round piece of glass cut at the auto glass place to fit, but now we are talking about a three piece table. The glass top, the concrete with the stone mosaic picture in it, and the base...I used to get round table tops cut at the auto glass place all the time until I decided I was too clumsy to mess with glass, hence, the reason I'm thinking of experimenting with the polyurethane coating instead. That, and the fact that we have a HUGE honking container of polyurethane coating...

We also have a lot of concrete and papercrete supplies. I would like to start with concrete, as it's a well-known technology but to go lighter on my table tops I would ultimately need to switch to papercrete.

Finally, my last question: Is it too "corny" to have a picture made of stone, complete with sun, stone, and fields? I can't decide if it would be nice or a little too retro. I might do a picture of a bird against the sky. Birds can't ever be "corny," right? I haven't really designed the mosaic picture yet, I just like that nice sky blue piece of slab I've got...

[RockIt2Me]

If you are worried about the weight of concrete, you might consider a hypertufa mixture.
This is portland cement mixed with things like perlite to make it lighter. www.hypertufa.net/

Nancie

[frane]

I have always heard that you do it just like laying down a tile floor with a plywood backing(or with a table maybe just the metal or iron backing, thinset and grout for the seams. You can use a sealer like you would with your grout in between. That is my plan anyway. I have a friend in Texas that I will be asking to make the table frames for me. He does beautiful welded iron work. We can pick up the frames next spring when Ben graduates and we will move him back here. That is the plan anyway. I am hoping to make a scene but haven't decided on a design yet. I am really looking forward to seeing how your project comes along!
Fran

[NatureNut]

Not corny at all Mary. I'm looking forward to seeing your project take form also.

Nancie, that's an excellent suggestion!

Now I wish I had taken a picture of the bottom of the table to see if there was wood, or screening, or just concrete/grout/plaster,etc... oh well.

[peachfront]

After some meditation, I have changed my plan a little. Since it has been so long since I've done mosaic, I'm going to do a couple of other projects first. I'm firm that I want my patio table to be done by the indirect method, so that I can use stones of different thicknesses, yet have a flat smooth table top. Fran, the method you describe for tiling the mosaic is the direct method but it's my personal belief that the direct method for a table top would result in a bumpy table top. It would work for factory-cut tile but for human cut stone? I'm not ready to say that I can cut a tabletop's worth of slabs that will all be identical thickness. This is a precision project, and I want to do a few lower stress, lower precision projects first.

Nancie, thanks for the link...my husband has spent a lot of time studying papercrete, and he has even stayed in a B&B where he could study/get hands-on with architectural papercrete, and one thing I've learned is -- there are a lot of recipes out there! We will definitely check it out.

So anyway, my new plan is to work up through the exercises to re-acquaint myself with the needed mosaic skills. This weekend, I am making a petrified wood picture frame (direct method). Next, my husband and I, working together, will make a badly needed concrete birdbath -- also the direct method, since birds actually LIKE having a bumpy bottom on their bath.

Only then will I move forward to indirect projects like the garden table top. I have several small thunderegg "stars" that will be part of the scene...otherwise I don't have the picture fully designed for my first table top. I keep getting different images. If I'm using "stars," then I can't use the light sky blue because it will be a night scene. Perhaps I will have to make two garden end tables. One night, one day.

Only then will we be ready for "precision projects" like the Tiffany style lamp a friend wants or a direct method table top that is smooth enough to set down a stemmed glass of red wine.

[RockIt2Me]

Now I want to make a table.
I am thinking of laying the slabs on contact paper as in a previous post. Create a form, pour in a lightweight cement mix (hypertufa), lay in some reinforcement wire. It will still need a base and legs....I will have to think about it some more.
What town are you from, Peachfront? I am from Thibodaux originally, my family is still there. Live in NW Arkansas now.

Nancie

[peachfront]

Hi Nancie!!! I have lived in Mandeville for 20 years, before that New Orleans, Metairie, and (shudder) Kenner. We love Arkansas, got married in Hot Springs. :-)

[mesha74]

i know this a old post but i thought of this too they used to do this till the 80's but i wanted to combine slabs and update it into orgonite table with quartz legs i thought using fire agates and fire opals would be pretty too.

[Pat]

That is such a good idea!

I'd do it myself, except that I would realllllly want to pick up each rock slab and turn it over to see what was on the other side.

[Jugglerguy]

Have any of you completed the projects you planned four years ago? I'd love to see them.