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Comments
Brett, I will take you up on your offer. I have never seen an epoxy pond in person, only in pictures, so I want to get off on the right foot.
Here is the slab bin installed. Nothing in it yet so that is why I have the ground level shots.
Thanks for looking.
Thanks for sharing and showing us all this great work as it grows.
Karl.A
I was wondering if it was a waste of time shading the bottom of the pond to make it look deeper in the center because it will be covered with a 7/8 inch layer of epoxy? Do you think this is adequate or it really doesn't matter?
The tip of the stick is at 7/8 inch which should be the height of the epoxy.
A little aside is the log dump area. The board next to the ramp will be covered with bark and dirt when it is installed.
Thanks for looking.
If you don't do it and it shows up afterwards theres nothing you can do about it easily.
If you do do it and it gets lost in the epoxy there no loss except for a little time.
I believe however when you do it and look at it later it will give you depth.
Karl.A
The cars with lumber have to be added along with stray boards, junk, etc. so there is still much to be done on this side of the sawmill.
Thanks for looking.
Terry
I worked in lumber mills as a kid. We had log ponds where you would often see log scalers doing their job. Trucks would bring in wood for different logging sites, scale, then dump in the pond. It was not uncommon to see different types of logs floating in the ponds. Next stop the barkers. During and after milling the lumber woods were sorted to type and grade. You could see Doug Fir, Noble, Spruce, and Hemlock in the larger mills. Small mills might have some select hardwood stacks too.
Most ponds are gone today but you can still see logs piled high with water being sprayed on them.
I have taken my good old time building this kit trying not to rush anything. I have put off pouring the pond long enough and its time to get serious about it. I spoke to Brett and he gave me advice on how to proceed. I will be coloring the pond with Poly GN empire green. I will post my experiences, good or bad I suppose (hopefully acceptable). I will do some experimental pours in containers first trying to ascertain the right color amount and get used to working with the envirotex.
I have the logs raised to what I think is the right height so they are not too high out of the water (half above or less). I will try to add a bit of moss or algae to the logs to help them look more realistic. Enough about what I am going to do. Time to get to work.
A great build thanks for sharing your ideas!!
Jerry
I have experimented with the Envirotex lite used to make the pond and I would to share some of my experiences with you. Those of you that have worked with this material before will probably think this is overkill but I think it is good information to share with anyone making the sawmill pond.
I would like to recognize Carl Laskey for personally reaching out to me on this subject. He gave me good advice and shared some of his scenery materials to use on the pond and the area around it. Many thanks Carl! I will return what I do not use.
I purchased some 9 X 13 aluminum pans to pour the resin into for my experiments. I used Sculptamold inside the pan to duplicate the material I have around my sawmill pond. I also painted it with my dirt paint. I painted the bottom, quickly, just to give me an idea of how much of the painted bottom would show through.
I won't bother showing you the other experiments but I will show you the last one. According the the envirotex instructions you should keep the pour at 1/8 inch depth at a time. If you do the math you end up with an 8 ounce pour for a 9 X 13 pan.
You measure the resin and the hardener out in 4 liquid ounce amounts and stir them for two minutes in a flat bottom container with a flat stick so you reach all the crevices you can and get everything mixed up. As you stir this stuff up little bubbles float out like soap bubbles. Not to worry. The material also has minimal odor. From Brett's instructions, the 8 ounce pour requires 1/8 of a 1/4 ounce of color. I used Pollyscale GN Empire Green. It is actually a hair less but it translates to 1 ml from an eye dropper for me. That is what I used. Stir for another minute and pour. It is very liquid at this point. That is a cant in the middle of the pan under the resin. It gives me an idea how much the resin covers up the bottom.
I neglected to mention that I painted the side walls of the sculptamold to prevent the miniscus or "wicking" that occurs as the resin hardens. It likes to climb the banks as it sticks better to other objects than it does to itself.
As you can see in this picture it really did not make any difference.
The wicking might look significant in this photo but it is not. That black line in the center of the picture marked where the prepainted resin line was at and the envirotex did not creep up the bank any farther than than that without the prepainting.
The other thing I was curious about was how much wicking would occur on the wood structures that reside in the pond. So I planted some pieces of wood in the pan and made my pour. You can see how little the wicking effect had on these pieces. The resin is flat and the reflection of the wall behind the posts makes the resin look a little rough in the picture.
I think this picture shows it a little better. There is some creep on the wood but it is minimal and acceptable to me.
When I start pouring the real pond I will decrease the color in each batch until the last pour is clear.
I have to seal the ends of the entrance and exit creeks, plant my logs and install the structures that go in the pond. Then I will make my first serious pour.
Thanks for looking!
Rick
This has been developing into a contest winner if I ever saw one. I especially find your transfer table fascinating. Great tutorial on using Envirotex to make your pond. Can't wait for additional photos of these features in the completed diorama.
Later, Dave S. Tucson, AZ
Karl.A
There are a couple of other things I want to point out about the envirotex. When I painted the shore I did not mention that I painted it with the envirotex to keep it from creeping up the bank. It did not make any difference as the envirotex, for me, did not creep up the bank where it was not painted.
Once the envirotex is poured it releases tiny bubbles as it cures. It looks like soda bubbling but about 1/100 the size of the bubbles. I did not need to eliminate those bubbles with carbon dioxide from my breath. The little log in the center of my pour did however have small bubbles popping out from underneath it. Those bubbles had to be dealt with. As they appeared I exhaled on them to make them pop. They continued for quite a while. I started exhaling through a straw to concentrate the carbon dioxide. If you use the straw be careful not to send any saliva down the pipe. Apparently, some people use a butane torch or a butane grille lighter to do the same thing as my breath.
My envirotex was liquid for quite a while. From other's experiences I thought I was in a race to get the bubbles taken care of and material spread out before it hardened up. Not the case for me. I am pouring in a cool basement and I did not warm up the envirotex as the instructions suggested. Maybe that is why it was slower to harden. I am just passing on my experience. I do not know if that is the reason or not. I like the results as far as the clarity and hardness.
Phil, I really don't know what the color should be. I think my color looks like Bill and Mike's ponds which are greener than Carl's pond. I have never seen one of these ponds in person. My wife thinks it should be greyer like our Maumee River. Bill used this same color and won a contest with it so it must have something going for it. But then again so did Carl and Mike with their mixes.
With 1/8 pours and a goal of 7/8 inch total height my plan will be to reduce the amount of color from 1 ml per 8 ounces on he first pour to 3/4 ml on the second pour 1/2 ml on the third pour, etc. I will probably have to double up on the reduced paint pours until the last pour or two is clear.
I know this is long winded but I want any of you that anticipate building the sawmill to benefit from my experiences whether they be good or bad.
Therefor the piles, the banks and anything else protruding the surface would be wet above the water line due to ebb/flow, splashing.... this is why I have not really worried about a small amount of 'creep'.... it's actually how it really is. My thoughts.
Karl.A