Pouring the Concrete Piers

   Concrete is wonderful stuff.  Just add a little water, mix and pour.  During the pouring, I paused every 6 inches of depth or so worked the concrete with the end of a stick to make sure there were no voids, particularly on the outside edges were the concrete will be visible once the sonotube is removed.

 In the top of each concrete pier was placed two 8 mm threaded rod sections.  These rods needed to be placed 100 mm apart.  To maintain that spacing, an aluminum bar was machined on a Bridgeport with exactly the right spacing.  A second aluminum bar was also made and buried in the concrete with most of the 100 mm (4 inch) long sections of threaded rods.  This assembly makes it impossible for the threaded rods to be pulled out of the concrete.  This assembly was carefully positioned relative to the level lines so all the the bolts would fit in a straight line.  Each concrete pier was finished with a trowel.  I later learned that I should have worked the edges of the concrete to remove the sharp edge.   Perhaps I can stone this edge off later.

 

    The aluminum bar shown in the image will be removed and discarded once the concrete dries.

   With all the concrete piers in place,  it is time to get the aluminum extrusions from Misumi USA.  Let's hope they all fit properly.