EXP RAMP: Build the forms - cook it up! 10/18

I must say that I have been feeling it all week. I think that with work, we are just finishing week 8 (midterm) and I am feeling that wearyness as well as all the work I put into the ramp and then skating on top of it all!! I just wish I had more energy and more time! I need to make art and play my guitar too!! I am looking forward to finishing this goliath so that I can get back to it all!!

random northewest

For Saturday, I finished up some odds and ends on the decks and suddenly realize, shit, I gotta get to working on that coping!! I got up really early, borrowed the carry all and headed out for supplies. 4 bags of commercial grade 5000 PSI Quickcrete, 12 2 x 4 x 8s, two boxes of screws and two 2 x 4 x 10s. I am in the nickel and dime-ing stage where you just get this here and that there and you spend 100bucks!

oregon

I spent the rest of Saturday building the form for the blessed concrete coping on the south end! I guess I wanted concrete coping on the south end so I could make an ode to Slayer every time I slash that shit! "South Of Heaven" is the entire embodiment of a frontside slasher on concrete coping!!

I got a bunch of info from this dude who goes by TheCreature on Concrete Disciples. Big thanks to that dude, whoever, where ever you come from!! That is the cool thing about the web! I also looked some stuff up on Old Man Army. There is so much good info on both of those sites. I am forever grateful!!

So I tried to use the best ideas from all the sources I had. I went with the 5000psi high early strength Quickcrete. I was reading all kinds of stuff about how stuff doesn't set up or it chunks out as if you ride it too soon. I got the Commercial Grade because it sounds like it might be strong? But it probably is just for fast setting shit. I just hope it doesn't chunk out. We'll have to just shred it and see I guess.

So I got it all formed up on Saturday. I cut a piece of 2" PVC in half with a circular saw. Then screwed each piece from the inside to a long strip of 3/4" plywood. In the future I would go with 1/2" cause that shit is heavy.

The ironic thing is the plywood I chose was originally used to form the foundation of my parents house! I love putting that personal shit into construction of ramps. As I said before, I have wood from the original ramp from when I was a kid in this thing (just a piece or two).

I am using 2 x 4s to space the form out from the ramp surface. I have not put the plywood on the ramp yet so this plus a layer of 1/4" masonite gave me 1 3/4" of coping off the lip. SO when you subtract the surface of the ramp the coping should stick out somewhere around 5/8" - 3/4". I hope!!

Once I got the form built I used the old wood clamps to get the 2 x 4 x 10s up near the lip. Once they were in place I screwed them in. It is so nice to have clamps around when you need a 3rd and 4th hand! Clamps rule!!

I had to use the tie downs again to actually repel the form off of the lip! It was just dangling there. The funny thing about the weight was that since the already heavy 3/4" was used to pour the foundation, it was impregnated with concrete. The shit is soooo heavy that I could barely get the form up on the deck!