Had a thought as I approach epoxy pour

MR-1
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I got the adjustable feet for my mill as well as the drainage system for the corners.

Thinking of dividing the pour into a left half and a right half across 2 seperate days.

First pour will involve lowering the left side about 1/8 of an inch. Then set up a divider/barrier down the centerline of the front/back of the mill. Pour the right side so that it is level to gravity. Once cured relevel the mill then drop the right side 1/8 of an inch to then pour the left.

That will give me a bit of a set of gutters for coolant to automatically drain towards the corners.

The area between the stiffeners/anchors where the Y-rails attach kinda annoys me with it be an impossible to squeegie area and will require air to blow out of there. A little bit of a slope may help the coolant flow out of there on it’s own.

And other issue for the epoxy, while others are doing color tints I am sitting here thinking how it would be awesome to have some Trump trading cards to seal down under the surface by placing them on top of the brush coat/seal before the self leveling pour.

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Concrete is typically quite stiff, and you can trowel in a slope as you want - I would have the pan level and mark (marker or tape) your target levels which may include a slope. You can use that as a base to trowel and finish the slab. I have done a lot of slab work as a contractor, and you can place concrete and slope it quite a bit without having it “slop” to the low side. You can also do some additional final polishing a few hours after the concrete has been place, but that is typically only for the surface, not much mass can be moved at that time.

I think having this as a “continuous” pour makes more sense strength wide, you do not want a cold joint between the two sides. If a crack or failure happens, that will likely be the spot. Mind you the “slab” really does not have a lot of stress on it, and once the concrete is quite cured it should be quite strong.

I agree though, a completely level slab might not make sense from a drainage point of view, but the fluid should not get much more than a tiny bit deep before it would flow, especially with a smooth epoxy finish.

Cheers,

Mike

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You can do whatever you like to the concrete.

That is not the issue.

The epoxy will self level and negate what you try to do with the concrete if you slope it during surfacing

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I think he’s talking about pouring the epoxy so that it’s pitched from the center like a roof to help drainage by pouring it when the machine isn’t level.

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That seems like a really good idea.

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I think its overkill. Even if your mill isn’t level one of the four drains is going to be low spot. My 2 cents.

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I have another CNC mill that I use with a water bath for cutting carbon fiber. Despite it also having a drain for runnibg filtration to capture the carbon fiber waste, the large flat area is still a pain to get water off of.

My main concern was not the open areas of the mill but rather the areas of the corner posts and the stiffener pieces thatbattach to the Y rails.

Water getting in there and staying in there will be a bit of a pain.

My solution was to take the Y rails off after my first epoxy pour, nearly to level of the drains.

I then blocked the areas between the posts and the stiffeners, removed the Y rails, then did another pour through that area to make it higher than the surrounding poured area.

Should make it harder for standing water to be in that area thanks to being higher.