Hi Jonathan! It stays in place with it’s weight — but I like to run a bead of 100% silicon around the top of the wood base as well. This will prevent it from shifting.

Hey Brad, I’ve had great luck with Quikrete — and there are some additives that help increase the PSI and strength. You can certainly make your own mix, but I’d go ahead and use a bag mix if I were you. I’ve used the Buddy Rhodes mix which is expensive — I love it’s claylike consistency — but am not a huge fan of the price. I’ve built the majority of my table projects out of the $5.00 bags. If you are doing countertops — you might opt for the Quikrete countertop mix though which is around $23 / bag. Cheers!

Hey Eric! I love concrete, but would be worried about cracking due to a high heat by the fire. Cheers

Thanks!

The paste would fill things in but I’m not sure it would blend as well as you’d like. Sanding with 60 grit is sometimes a little more then you want to use — and it’s important to sometimes let it cure a couple days out of the mold to let it harden more. ( different types of concrete and conditions will differ etc) — however, If you really want to smooth things out — wet polishing with an electric polisher would do the trick. You’d expose some aggregate — but it will smooth things out. You could try wet sanding with with some 400 grit paper and water as well — it would take a lot of elbow grease — but it could help a bit. Might be worth trying at least.

Thanks Jeremy! I’m excited for you to get into some concrete projects. I attach the tops using 100% silicon. It holds them in place well. Plus the tops are heavy and so once the silicon is on it won’t budge. I prefer not to use construction adhesive or epoxy because if you ever want to remove it, you’ll have issues with it tearing up some of the wood from the base since it is so strong. So — recommendation is 100% silicon caulk, put on the top, and let it cure. Cheers!