How to Create a Custom Cement Cigar Ashtray

This is how we (the wife and I) created a cement cigar ashtray. We learned a few things along the way that we would definitely do differently, which I will note along the way.

Materials and Tools: Plastic butter knife, toothpicks, florist foam, paint brushes, sealer/glue, plaster of paris, cement, water, buckets, foil and a shoe box.



Step 1 — Creating the Model: I carved a prototype or model of my ashtray from florist foam using a butter knife. Florist foam is very soft and super easy to carve. I used my fingers to smooth the transitions and round corners. While carving, this stuff makes an incredible mess; be sure to lay down paper in your work area. This is the creative step and is the most fun. I had a few cigars out to test the size of the bowl and rests. This was by far the most fun step of the process.



Step 2 — Attaching the Parts: A single piece of foam was not large enough for what I wanted to create, so I used two blocks of foam. Once I was done carving both pieces, I joined them together using toothpicks... this idea was Ong's. I imagine that you could join multiple parts with just about any method.



Step 3 — Sealing the Model: Since I was using two separate pieces, it was important to seal them together. This was to prevent the plaster from running into the joints. We also thought that the plaster might seep into the pores on the foam; turns out that this was not the case. The pores on the florist foam is too fine. For my next ashtray, I will not be using sealer; it ended up being a pain at almost every step.



Step 4 — Creating the Mold: Once the sealer was dry, it was time to create the plaster mold. We used a shoe box lined with foil; plaster is very wet and would have killed the cardboard. We could have used plastic wrap, but the foil is easier to work with. For this step, we needed A LOT MORE plaster than we thought; take note and make too much. We attempted to glue the foam to the bottom of the shoe box with rubber cement, which turned out to be a complete failure. When pouring the plaster in, the foam decided to float. We freaked out... but while freaking out I was holding the model down with my (gloved) hand. Upon letting go, the plaster had set enough to hold the foam down. This worked out very well.



Step 5 — Removing the Model: We had hoped the foam would be easy to remove; we were wrong. Once the plaster had dries, we had to carve the foam out of the plaster... all while being very careful not to crack the mold. The plastic is much stronger than we thought it would be... so be careful, but not not like handling eggs careful. This step took a lot longer than estimated; this was mostly due to the sealer. The sealer bonded with the plaster more than the foam, so it was like gluing our model to the plaster. Not fun.



Step 6 — Pouring the Cement: With a clean and dry mold, we made our cement. As to not repeat an earlier mistake, we made entirely too much cement. Cement sets crazy fast, so too much is a good thing. Pouring the cement was fast and easy. Since our foam floated while making the mold, our mold was not quite level. We had to level the cement by placing a paint brush under one side of the mold.



Step 7 — Removing the Mold: After letting the cement dry for 48 hours, we broke away the plaster. All was going well until we got to the bowl. The plaster had been re-wet by the cement and had turned into clay. I suspect that letting it dry for another day would have made life easier, but I was in a hurry to use my ashtray. We chiseled, scraped and dug to remove as much plaster as possible. Here again, the sealer was an issue... it bonded with the cement over the plaster and was not part of the ashtray.



Step 8 — Clean-up: There was still patches of plaster and sealer all over, so we washed it with hot water and soap. Turns out that the glue came off easier with dry rubbing. After a whole lot of scrubbing and rubbing, it was ready for use.



Step 9 — Enjoy: Light up a cigar and start smoking!

In the end the project was fun, but ended up being a lot more work than planned. By skipping the sealer, we could have saved a lot of trouble. Any plaster that seeped through the cracks was easily removed in Step 5. The other thing that I would have done differently is to use concrete instead of cement; I have no idea what the difference is, but concrete is way cheaper and would have done the same thing.

I will be doing this again... in fact, I already have my second prototype carved out.

Intro, and sample project.

I've wanted a blog like this for a while and have finally sat down and started working on it.
Ever have a project around the house or with your computer that you were particularly fond of, or couldn't quite finish? Then this blog is for you. I hope that I can build a community around this blog that will allow it's users to post a multitude of hobby related projects and allow an exchange of ideas feedback.

Here's one that I've thrown together, no particular reason for choosing this one.
1/31/08 - I've made some progress, note changes in bold.
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Netflix has a video streaming service called "watch instantly" or "watch now" depending on what part of the site you're viewing. Because Netflix hates deaf people, none of the videos have closed captions (with the exception of a few foriegn films that aren't dubbed in English).

I have hacked together a method of viewing subtitles on many (but not all) of the titles available on "Netflix' watch instantly".

First you need to download a program called Media player Classic.
There's a fork that I find works best: "media player classic: home cinima"
Then you need to have a video file at least as long as the movie you're watching, which consists entirely of black frames. I used a program called VirtualDub to create mine and I've made it available for download HERE. (it's a zipped file, unzipped it's about 7mb and it's about 2 hrs long.

Then find a title on the Netflix website, then go to a subtitle website such as this:
http://www.divxsubtitles.net/
Try to find the subtitle file for the title you wish to view.
Once you've found the file you're looking for, download it and unzip it with RAR format compatible unzip utility.

Now, rename the AVI file (which you unzipped after downloading from my link above), to match the file name of the SRT file you've obtained from the subtitle website. (rename both of them if you like, as long as they match - the files also have to reside in the same folder)

Begin playing the "blank" video with the subtitles, and use Media Player Classic (MPC) to re-position the subtitles to the top of the MPC window (there are keyboard shortcuts for this and it makes oh so much easier), hide the menubar and anything else obstructing your view, then you can position the window above your IE window and set it to always on top.
(Select: View--> Options. In the options window Click "Default Style" under the Subtitles menu on the left. Make the font size quite large and position the subtitles top and center. )

Now you can begin play of the Netflix movie, and restart play of your subtitle file. This is where you'll discover the last big hurdle in the process; synchronization.

I haven't worked out a way to easily synchronize the netflix video with the SRT file.
Still no easy way to get this, keyboard shortcuts help.

I do however have a brief video of my method in action, however one of my rats bit a hole in the USB cable for my camera and UPS says it'll be a few more days before a replacement gets here. :(
Turns out that a Kodak U-8 cable is NOT the same as a USB miniA cable. but with some shrink tubing and patience I was able to repair the cable for my camera. (yay) However I've not uploaded the video to the internet. I don't think I will now because it's shakey-er than I remember.

It seems that it takes a fairly good video card and a fairly good CPU to make MPC and WatchInstantly go at the same time. a 1Ghz sony viao laptop will never be able to do this. (I tried everyting) A 1.3Ghz Lenovo laptop almost works. I used a different program for displaying subtitles and it seemed to work but once in a while the Netflix video will "hiccup" and I'll be unsynced again.

Lastly I can't justify working on this any more because I've found that it makes me go way over my ISPs 10GB traffic restriction. They add on a per GB charge for going over and it's cheaper to increase the number of netflix disks "home at a time" than it is to use the Watch Instantly feature.