The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Stonework FAIL

    The strip mall down the road recently sprouted ersatz stone pillars around the steel posts holding up the roof:

    Ersatz stone pillar failure
    Ersatz stone pillar failure

    Six days later, more slabs have fallen off the first pillar in the row:

    Ersatz stone pillar - failure 2
    Ersatz stone pillar – failure 2

    And the second pillar:

    Ersatz stone pillar - failure 3
    Ersatz stone pillar – failure 3

    Those fancy(-ish) bases consist of a wood frame covered with a mortar layer holding tiles of imitation stonework. From what little I know of stonework, mortar works only in compression, so you can’t glue tiles onto the side of a concrete lump using mortar.

    Epoxy, maybe. Silicone snot, probably. Mortar, nope.

    This happened barely weeks after the project’s completion, so I foresee poor ROI for the mall owner and plenty of warranty work for the contractor.