What material to make frag plugs

[duke62]

Im real bored and I want to design a frag plug that will be perfect for encrusting corals. I have been looking at google and there are so many opinions on what type of materials to use from portland to regular concrete,crushed coral, sand ETC ETC. Also what should I make the mold out of? I want to create my own design. I want my plugs to have the same texture like the commercial plugs we use. Anyone make them that can lead me in the right direction

 

[Rob&Gab]

ceramic bud. just got to find a local pottery place that will fire them up for ya.

 

[Rob&Gab]

if anything you can make the mold out of egg carton the styro one. thats if you do cement or crushed coral.

 

[duke62]

I saw that video on youtube also Rob and thats horrible frag plug. Im looking to make a a nice frag plug for encrusting corals

 

[BKLYN REEF]

portland cement and sand mixed together. i've seen people use wood 2x4's with circles cut out to the dimensions you want the plug. that way you can put like 5 molds in a row on a foot long piece of 2x4

 

[ravi197699]

You can buy acrylic discs on ebay they come in all different sizes and buy acrylic rods and glue them together. Best part about acrylic is that you won't see much of it in water since its clear and second rod being thin can be shoved in anywhere in rock easily and won't requires you to work with cement and drying process, You can be creative it as well by using heat gun and making different shapes.....JMO

 

[MikeC]

Ok just thinking out loud here.
What if you got a large metal cake pan from like Michaels or some place.
Then make indentations with ball peen hammer or what ever plug size you want.
Then lay a sheet of acrylic in the pan and bake it in the oven to melt the acrylic?
Cut them out after.

Google melting acrylic in oven to a mold?

 

[duke62]

Dont want to use acrylic. I want to use ceramic plugs. I have a great idea for a plug. Im going to make molds of the design I want just want to know what kind of cement

 

[ravi197699]

ok then you can use the Hydraulic cement that is used to seal water leaks and it cures in minutes, don't need to mix anything in the cement...

 

[edd]

boston aqua farms has plugs made out of aragocrete. don't know where to get it but has that cement look.

 

[Silkyslim]

I used Hydraulic cement and some crushed corals, to be safe I let them cure for a few weeks.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

Thread cleaned up please stick to topic. Thankyou

 

[reefcreators]

There is no cement in ceramics. And to make ceramic plugs is a pain and expensive to scale up. When we started you should have seen how many places we had to visit and ask to fire plugs til we found one that would. Then walking in the door with 1000's of plugs at a time they regretted the decision as there is no money in firing ceramics.

IMHO doing this for a living and starting out i would use white portland cement and arg. sand /w maybe crushed coral or oyster shell. This is how i started and got a feel if it was something i wanted to really pursue. If you can't find white portland cement pm me i have a 50lbs bag i can sell you some cheap to experiment.

I am always willing to help out just shoot me a PM.