Heath Fabrication

Sick amount of work ... so much more to come … tho’ air nailers make things more pleasant. Except $20 made-in-china cheapo crown stapler … hissing/leaking after *one* rail of staples. Painful reminder buying cr*p quality tools is nearly always a bad idea.

The curved parts for the Hearth base mold “buck” were cut on my Craftsman Professional 14” band saw ($100. craigslist deal a few years ago J) . Bought/assembled a Harbor Freight mobile base to muscle it around...feels like the saw outweighs me by 100 lbs, tho' spec says it's 160 lbs.

Friday after Thanksgiving was 4+ hour road trip to Globe Marble  ($450. for 7 bags of Surecrete GFRC premix, catalyst, and mold release) then up to Yonkers for yet-another-craigslist-deal (4 gallons of polyurethane molding rubber for $200, ~half-price). Was gonna try to get away with buying only a gallon of the polyurethane rubber, tho’ likely would've had to buy more. 

My original estimate to complete mantel was $500 … probably more like $1k when all is said and done. Store-bought cast stone mantels similar to my design start at ~ $3k (for both sides) though that *would not include* the top, side, or hearth.

'Nother Minor Update

Pic of the kitchen-facing side, work-in-progess:

...and (almost) completed mockup of 'bolection' style surround: