DIY Light Transmitting Concrete (+ HD Video)

Step 6: Breaking The Mold

 Once the concrete is cured (2 hours?) pull off the polymer clay and cut off the plastic ring. The concrete will not stick to the clay...in fact, it's practically repelled by it!

Comments

[MoGryph]

Looking at the almost-final product you have here, it looks like you might be able to get a second "brick" in a shortened amount of time.
Perhaps, while it's still in the mold but cured a number of hours, you can spray something such as spray-on silicone or even PAM, onto the surface that still has fibers sticking up out of it, and lay down a second layer of cement, let that cure, and then separate both.
Perhaps twisting the 2 pieces at the separation point, or running a long blade (such as a hacksaw blade) between the two would separate it without breaking the strands - not sure, maybe the lubricant would cause the fibers to slip right out of the concrete, but it might be worth testing out. If the fibers get a bit damaged from whichever method you separated them with, you're going to sand it down anyhow, so you'll probably end up sanding past the frayed parts.

Thanks for the fantastic Instructable!

[drakesword]

what about a second layer of clay?

Or build the mold so it forms on its side with the clay going up the middle and both ends?

like this

{|__[]__|}
Mold Clay Cement Clay Cement Clay Mold

[drakesword]

Just hit me. use longer strands mount all of them in wax like it was previously said. then layer concrete and melted wax and shazam layered.