Day Eighteen – 6.16.15

Today really made me want to get back into a workshop.

I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon at F&M Castings in Oneonta, NY to watch the process of casting one of the countertops for my mom’s new house. I’ve specified concrete countertops and seen them installed plenty of times, but I’ve never witnessed the process of how they are made. Frank has been refining his technique for many years and is a real master. Casting a slab of concrete to be used as a countertop is a very simple concept, but the combination of chemistry and craft required to produce a product that is refined, durable and beautiful, is a fairly complex.

Frank seems genuinely happy to have a spectator who is truly in awe of his work and eager to dive deep into shoptalk. He tells me the role each of the ingredients play in his recipe – hydraulic cement, acrylic polymer, fiberglass, water and ice. The concrete cures very quickly and Frank has learned that adding ice to cool the slurry extends his working time. There are countless tricks which take a lot of trial and error to figure out. Frank shares a number of them as he runs between his sprayer, his mixing buckets and the countertop being cast on a table topped with a thick piece of plate steel.

Being in the shop and watching Frank work reminded me a lot of the process my friend David and I spent years working on to make a chair out of carbon fiber. Each of the steps in casting something – whether its rendered in concrete or as a carbon fiber composite – need to be refined for the end product to work. One misstep along the way and you throw out the “prototype” and try again.

I really enjoyed being privy to the process at F&M, especially to watch the casting of the countertop for my mom’s kitchen that I designed for her.

[the initial layers, which will the finished face, are sprayed into the mold]