Eccorok'd all over again.

Despite my previous not-so-wonderful experience using Eccorok for the kitchen countertops, I thought I'd have another go at it. This time the project was smaller- making a curved vanity to fit in the silo bathroom. Since I had enough Eccorok left over from the countertop job, and my labor is still free, I could fabricate a $1000 vanity (yes, I got bids) for nearly nothing. Here is the form, made from leftover panels of Skyblend particleboard and other materials I had on hand. The sidewalls are strips of 1/4" plywood bent to the desired radius and held to the form with wood blocks. I cut a piece of XPS foam board for the under mount sink opening and glued it to the base with caulk. The three stubs of PVC pipe, also caulked to the form base, are for the faucet plumbing penetrations. The interior surfaces of the form were given several coats of shellac, then caulked around the perimeter.

I mixed the Eccorok using a cement mixer in the yard, and tinted it with carbon black to match the slate flooring in the bathroom. There are no photos of the mixing and casting process because it was done in EXTREME HASTE- unlike the countertop job (done in the winter) where the Eccorok was very slow to harden, this vanity (done during late summer) set up so fast that I ran out of time trying to pack the material into the mold before it hardened. Within 35 minutes, the Eccorok was rock-hard, and I got to spend a couple hours with hammer and chisel trying to clean the chunks out of the cement mixer that afternoon...apparently, ambient temperature is very critical when working with this stuff! Anyway, here is the rough cast vanity after it cured for a few days and was stripped from the form:

I "wet" polished the vanity using diamond sanding pads and a small amount of water from a spray bottle- just enough to keep the surface wet, but not so much as to make a mess in the barn. Then it was coated with the same Ecotuff Clear Coat used for the countertops. I used smaller pieces of Eccorok (randomly cut from larger squares that I cast along with the vanity), to make my own backsplash tiles. Here's the install:

I'm done with Eccorok for awhile.