Mold test is a success
Title says it all I guess.
I cut and welded the steel for our prototype last night, deciding to tack rather than weld in full which turned out to be a brainwave. I was originally allowing for half an hour a divider, with 8 welding rods being needed for each. It turns out by tacking the mold at the base and welding the steel not covered by concrete provided a quicker, neater and far less intricate solution to the problem. End result is steel was cut and welded in about 5 minutes.
The wife and I made up an MDF mold for the whole experiment to sit in, the idea being that would keep the concrete tight against the steel divider as if it were stuck between 2 full size blocks. My greatest concern is with no taper to the shape of the steel divider it may have been stuck by slip force. This turn out to be partly true and I now have an idea for a prototype divider removal tool 🙂
We also took the opportunity to try a wet mix. One half was tamped as each shovel of concrete went in, the other was simply slumped into the mold and let to set. Preliminary results tell us we need to tamp the mix to ensure a clean and consistent gap free finish.
Turned out to be a great day in terms of outcomes and productivity, we also managed to get several hundred redgum seedlings potted on to grow tubes and another several hundred seeds sown for the next lot of seedlings. With some luck we’ll have 2-3 thousand seedlings ready to plant by Christmas.