Inside an Airstream with the Memphis Blues Again: Saga of the 300 lb Shower Pan

Alright…

For all those folks who thought nothing has been happening on the airstream for the last month, let me tell you a story... “the Saga of the 300 lb Shower Pan”

As you may recall, Jack and I had plans to cast a concrete shower pan. From a practical standpoint, a concrete cast was a good way to create a customized shower pan for a small, oddly-shaped space. From an aesthetic standpoint, this was a great way to start off the Airstream project – respond to one thoughtfully rounded object with another. Plus, Jack had plenty of experience casting concrete objects at this scale and I was eager to learn the intricacies of the casting process.

Once that rusty oil drum came along (see previous post) the shape of this shower pan fell into place

Casting the shower pan itself went along quite smoothly. The saga was in the mold - specifically the piece that would create the central void in which a person would stand.

The mold starts with a rough form, then a variety of materials (plaster, filler putty, primer, paint, etc) are added, sanded, added, sanded, added, and sanded until the form is accurate and concrete-resistant. This process already lends itself to being a time-consuming experience, and knowing how much to add and how much to sand at each particular stage makes the difference between “time-consuming” and “saga.” I have never made a mold like this, so you know where this story is headed...

The saga-creating problems came primarily in adding too little material and sanding too much in the plaster/joint compound stages. This wasted time and left a plaster surface so thin that it became very unstable. Every time the form came close to being finished, a huge chunk of the surface would flake off and the add/sand/add/sand process would continue. e

As if this wasn’t enough, I realized halfway through that I had not mirrored the form when making the mold. This meant the final shower pan would come out mirrored from the original design. Oh, mold...

Fortunately, the mirrored shower pan still worked. It simply fit differently. I had grown quite fond of the form un-mirrored though...

There are plenty more gory details regarding the mold, however, eventually it was pronounced "pretty damn good" or at least "good enough to cast." So we cast it.