Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

Early morning, several Saturdays ago, I found myself on my knees in Provo suburbia, patching a sidewalk with my friend RM. RM is the president of his homeowner’s association and is responsible for managing the upkeep of the common areas. Being an enterprising individual, RM decided to fix the sidewalk problems himself rather than engaging a contractor. The sidewalk was in disrepair. Poor concrete pouring had led to uneven settling which resulting in a dozen fractures along its length. Several of these cracks were inches high and presented a tripping hazard. In fact, weeks before, a resident had stumbled over a sidewalk crack, fallen and been injured.

One can purchase concrete repair patch kits at Home Depot or Lowes, but RM recently discovered a new product called Grancrete, a super-quick drying, fantastically-strong concrete substance which seemed ideal for the project. Grancrete is significantly more expensive (~10x) than concrete, but the manufacturer’s website claims its properties include: “high compressive strength, high flexural strength, strong bonding strength, long durability, fire resistance, water/salt/acid resistance… fastest setting time.”

So we mixed up several batches of the gray goo and troweled it into the uneven parts of the sidewalk. (Actually, I got into a heated political argument (over school vouchers) with an opinionated neighbor of RM, so he finished the job alone.) Before I left, RM mentioned someone experimenting with fiberglass and Grancrete mixtures had produced bulletproof panels. That piqued my interest.

A quick trip to the hardware store and a few minutes later, I had whipped up two pans of Grancrete, a pan of cement and a pan of concrete (concrete is cement plus sand and rocks.) Each panel was about 2 inches thick and about 10 inches square. I also made a fiberglass sheet and epoxied it to one of the Grancrete panels. I let the panels cure for a couple of days. (Each panel weighed 7lbs +-1lb)

The day after Thanksgiving, we loaded up the SUV and drove out to an isolated spot in the Utah west desert. I set the panels on the ground, backed up 75 feet and prepared to take aim. I had brought along a high caliber pistol, a shotgun and an assault rifle. I was going to fire them in turn to see what sort of protection the panels might provide. I should add that the concrete panel was particularly brittle and during the curing it split into four pieces. Still, I reassembled the pieces into a panel and placed them alongside the others.

The following are two video clips, one explaining the setup and the second showing the results of the shooting. Below that is a photo gallery of the panel construction. Enjoy!

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