In recent years, the popularity of concrete furniture and products has surged due to modern style trends, durability and sustainability. A robust building material, it’s no surprise that we are seeing concrete used in a diverse range of applications. It is hard-wearing and does not require maintenance or replacement often.
We recently spoke to Mitchell Bink from Mitchell Bink Concrete Design to learn about the process he employs to craft amazing furniture made from concrete. It was very interesting to see how much work and care goes into the fruition of his pieces.
Watch the video to hear more about Mitchell Bink's experience:
Mitchell has been through much trial and error during the 12 years he has been in business.
“When I first started out, I didn’t know what was the best equipment to use. When you’re starting a small business, you can’t just go out and buy every tool required. We put our time in versus money, and through that learning process, you discover what are the best sanding grits and sanders to use.”
In learning over the many years he has been working with concrete, he has found ways of improving the quality of his craft. Mitchell speaks about one of the issues he’s faced in the past:
“What I have found over the years is that when you get that deep scratch pattern and pigtail through, when I do my grout process, the grout falls into the scratch pattern when I seal it, you will see where the grout has gone into the scratch pattern. One of the first things I really liked with Mirka, is that it doesn’t give me the scratch pattern I typically get on concrete with other brands.”
Many tradespeople find that the biggest loss of efficiency in their workshop comes from wasting time and money because of the need to rework their project. If you are not getting the right finish and you have to spend an excess amount of hours on the task, your bottom line becomes affected.
Mitchell has also found that Mirka has helped him save time and money when applying his process with Mirka tools. “It saves us time. It’s not the cheapest equipment you can buy, but where we get that back is the time and the quality we produce.”
Another way that Mirka helps to save time is through dust free sanding. “The first time I used the Mirka vacuum, I could immediately see how well it was working. It was actually pulling the dust from the pores of the concrete and I could physically see how well it worked.”
Whether in the workshop or on-site, sanding dust-free is a necessity in reducing clean up time and especially when in a client’s home, it is a must-have for professionalism. “If we have to do any repair work or anything on site, you don’t want to make dust. What I found is so good in taking it on-site is it’s literally dust-free. If I have to sand something inside a finished home and not put dust into the air, it’s a major benefit for us.”
As many people who work in similar industries would know, health and safety is very important in a workplace. With sanding, apart from dust, one of the main issues workers face is injury caused by vibration.
“A lot of the other brands will give you a lot of vibration through the hands, when you’re sanding as much as we are, those little things at the end of the day just make Mirka a pleasure to sand with. There’s even an app you can download that tells you how many hours you’ve been on the machine.”
Watch this video to learn about Mitchell's Concrete process:
The process can take many days, Mitchell walks us through the process in the video below.
Here is a guide to Mitchell Bink’s concrete furniture process:
Day 1: Make moulds and prep the moulds for casting on day 2
Day 2: Batching out the concrete mix and cast
Day 4: De-moulding
Day 5: Process the concrete
Sand the concrete with 60 or 80 grit Mirka Galaxy discs with Mirka Deros 8mm sander.
Sand the concrete with 120 grit Mirka Abranet Ace discs with Mirka Deros 5mm sander.
Grouting
Sand post grout with 120 grit Mirka Abranet Ace discs with Mirka Deros 5mm sander.
Sand with 180 grit Mirka Abranet Ace discs with Mirka Deros 5mm sander.
Wet polishing
Acid washing
Final steps:
Seal the concrete. Sometimes this includes several coats, occurring over multiple days.
Sand post seal with Mirka Abralon and Mirka Deros 5mm sander (the grit depends on how smooth you would like the finish)
