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Moai Finished


Sam S.

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My summer project is now complete. Moai made from a foam base/core, wrapped with chicken wire, then hypertufa. Layers of hypertufa sculpted, and then carved - but mostly sculpted with the tufa. Had a difficult time moving it, but got it moved from the garage and leveled out. Its about 5.5 ft tall. Thanks to plans posted on another forum by Wavy Davy.

 

 

moai2.jpg

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1 hour ago, Sam S. said:

Layers of hypertufa sculpted, and then carved...

 

That's very nice! I have some jewelry made using real tufa for the molds. The stone was sawed into slices like fat pieces of bread. Then the pieces rubbed together so they would seal ok. On one piece I carved the design and made the sprue paths. The two pieces were then held together and molten gold or silver poured in. I didn't realize you could make a synthetic stone for what you have done.

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I'm not sure how you would move that one for $1400. Even with the lighter weight of hypertufa, I still had a difficult time moving this from my garage to the yard. I used around 3 and a half - 90LB bags of portland, in addition to the perlite and peat moss (which don't weigh much). So I'm guessing in the neighborhood of around 300 LBS. My materials were around $100 total, maybe $150 tops. I'm fortunate enough to have a brother in law with a HVAC business. He had a hydraulic dolly we shimmied it up onto, then strapped it on there to move to the backyard.

 

My intent was to make three of these, using circa 1990's Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas as inspiration. Not sure if I'll make it that far - maybe smaller scale.

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Ok I'm jealous, it looks great.

We have a Tiki bar in the yard and I want to make things like that but have no talent drawing for designs or know how to make something like that. The real Tiki stuff sold is way more expensive than I care to spend so I try to make things but it's quite intimidating from scratch. I wish you had a tutorial and pictures so we could copy your build. 

 

Very nice, wish it was in my bar. :emotion-21:

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dtel -- something like this would be great around your Tiki bar and native MS plants. I have some bananas I luckily was able to grow from seed from the Seedman (in MS), but they are now inside over the winter as they don't survive outside here. Here's the basic plan I followed --- I found Davy's templates and drawings a bit difficult to decipher. I did take photos of my process throughout and will post below. I can also share my template later on if anyone wants it. I basically followed the template from this link, although the dimensions were a bit difficult to follow in certain areas.

 

My mix was equal parts (eyeballed) of portland cement, peat moss, and perlite. I added a bit of sand to it, and mixed with water to a consistency of a mud pie. The pictures don't show it, but I wrapped the whole thing in chicken wire, then filled in some of the gaps with expandable foam. After layering, I was able to carve and shape it -- mostly I used an angle grinder - sometimes with a diamond wheel (more aggressive) and sometimes a grinding or flap disk (less aggressive). It's very dusty. Hard part for me was the bottom -- when I went to move it. In retrospect, it might have been better to cut a board around the size of the shoulders, then fill in the bottom with a layer of hypertufa so that the dolly had a better point of contact. It's a fun project -- no need for intimidation.

 

EDIT: Tried re-sizing photos and won't let me upload. I'll have to look into to post...

 

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30 minutes ago, Sam S. said:

It's a fun project

Thank you, I will be watching.  I would like to try that one day, I could really use one and and if I get brave or a little experience maby some other Tiki designs. The Tiki designs look kind of simple, but when you try to reproduce them it does not take much to make them look silly, but your looks great. I love projects like this, especially if it is to make something I I could not pay what they want normally, if you can even find them.  South Mississippi is not even close to Tiki central by far, the only thing i found was about a 36" tall Tiki and it was from a place in Florida,

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On 10/15/2019 at 8:49 AM, Sam S. said:

My summer project is now complete. Moai made from a foam base/core, wrapped with chicken wire, then hypertufa. Layers of hypertufa sculpted, and then carved - but mostly sculpted with the tufa. Had a difficult time moving it, but got it moved from the garage and leveled out. Its about 5.5 ft tall. Thanks to plans posted on another forum by Wavy Davy.

 

 

moai2.jpg

I think you are a warlock! I never see these very often but now im seeing them everywhere.  I just hope they don't start chasing me! Im not a fast runner. Saw a big one down by the river in St Charles MO this weekend. Thats very cool by the way.

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5 minutes ago, mr clean said:

 Saw a big one down by the river in St Charles MO this weekend.

 

I wonder if that's the same one that I saw at a local concrete & gravel store in Saint Charles, MO. It recently walked away and I never saw it again.

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10 minutes ago, Edgar said:

 

I wonder if that's the same one that I saw at a local concrete & gravel store in Saint Charles, MO. It recently walked away and I never saw it again.

Stop it Edgar! I just wet myself! Thats a nice area. We just took a short road trip and stayed just 2 days. We stayed at the Drury Inn across from the Casino. Every thing around the hotel was new. The town itself is very historic. I love looking at the old homes. Do you live in St Charles Edgar?

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