Cement Countertop Grinding

Lessons learned, you are going to make a mess!  Even when you are just going to work for a couple of minutes suit up.  Rubber boots, a plastic apron, (mine is a large trash bag with arm and head hole), and rubber gloves.  I am not sharing how many times I had to come in and change clothes because I ended up soaked or covered in grinding slag.  My shoes suffered because of the water /mud you are working in.  I am doing it under the carport, calchie floor.  

There is a second reason to rubber up.   First day I was playing with my wet grinder I didn't at all and got shocked.  I do NOT do electricity!!!  I had to do some serious self talk and reading to get me to pick it up again.  In reading I found even though there is a breaker to keep you from really frying enough static electricity is generated to get a tingle.  Since I am super sensitive to it, just ask my dh the tingle was more than I wanted.  I have not experienced any since. I always wear rubber gloves and if I plan on really working mud boots. 

I started out taking LOTs of pictures. Filling pin holes took more grinding and doing that I'm not posting near all of them.  First I ground it down using the 50 and 100 disc. Next was a cement slurry to fill the pea gravel oopses and some pin holes.  

This is where the big oops in the center was

Slurry drying   

Sand it down, 

Still had pin holes.  Go read some more.....

Instead of a cement slurry it was suggested to use  grout.  I decided on white, to lighten the peice.  

Still had pin holes, but fewer.   I still feel the cement was to dry. Learning curve!

I then decided that the white wasn't what I wanted.  I had read where people layer colors to get more depth.  Since I still had pin holes next trip to town I got black grout.  I mixed and worked it into holes and such. I am thinking if you had someone to vibrate as you did it the air trapped under the grout would vibrate out.  I decided that after I did it though.  I let it dry overnight.  Because the grout sands easy smooth wasn't that big a deal. 

The black grout covered the white in the pin holes sanding into both black, and white and mixed fills.  I liked the look a lot.  Still had pin holes so redid the black grout after sanding using the 50 disc. Each time I had less holes.  

Today I decided to sand it out meaning I went from a 50-3000 disc.  I think there are 6 or 8 disc. 

Love this picture!  Yes it is still wet, but it is smooth to the point of being slick.  

Remember that big oops in the center?  This is how it looks today.  You can also see the layers of cement, white and black grout I used to patch.  What you can't see is how smooth it feels. 

Here is a closeup of it where you can see the white and black grit pin hole filler. 

In doing the black I discovered I liked the edge black so I worked to leave it.  

The top is still wet, the side is dry. The side is also not polished beyond a 50.  I hate doing the edge. The grinder isn't really made for small hands.  Using it flat isn't hard but holding it sideways with water flying and having to decided how much pressure to apply is hard with small hands.  I hope to talk my dh into helping with that part. 

Pin holes???? Yes I still have some.  I am going to seal and wax it with Cheng's sealer and wax and go with it.  We will see how it is then.  Since this is a coffee bar, not really food the pin holes aren't as big a deal.  I will share the sealing and waxing when I do it.