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failed sand mix recipe -- help please

21 years ago

I tried my first few tufa projects this week and the sand mix recipe (#5 on the faq) ended up crumbly and useless. When the first pot didn't work I tried again with a wetter mix thinking I hadn't added enough water, but it looks like that pot will be crumbly as well. I mixed up the sand mix (labeled as "sand/topping mix" on the bag) fairly well, so I don't think its a problem with that. What am I doing wrong?

The sand/portland/perlite recipe I tried worked great, so maybe I should just give up on the sand mix?

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Comments (2)

tufaenough
21 years ago
Recipe #5 is a pretty weak recipe.
It's about 1 Portland (or less) to 5 aggregates.
If you don't use too much water and allow your project an extra day or two of proper curing it should be OK.
But the other problem is there are literally all sorts of sand redimixes, from grouts, mortar mixes, and topping mixes.

Recipe #5 is probably best avoided until you get a chance to experiment with it a bit first.
A recipe of 1/3 or 1/4 for your Portland will give better results.
pcrock
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks for the tips. I opted for recipe #5 since the faq suggests it for beginner tufa-ers. I'll follow your advice, though, and stick to the other recipes for now.
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