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Tiki Fireplace (not monster house's) |
biffachu
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Sep 20, 2004
Posts: 53 |  Posted: 2005-10-26 12:51 pm Permalink
Here's a labor of love that we've been doing the last few months that i wanted to share:
http://www.biffinc.com/tikifireplace/tikifireplace.html
I ran into an old friend named Stafford and found out he worked at a chimney / fireplace company. With his fire safe knowledge and my friend Marcus's talent, we were able to pull this off. This post shows all the steps we went thru from concept to final.
The entire shape was formed with pink insulation slabs glued together with foam in a can. We then carved the basic shape. We then put chicken wire over that and put cement over the entire form. The next step we brought the almost face-less mask ( about 150 lbs ) to the fireplace and mounted it to the wall with metal brackets. We then took a product called fireplace cement to slowly build up our tiki face detail. This product is usually used just to seal cracks in your fireplace, but it works like molding clay and cures with heat. The final weight is approx. 450+ lbs.
To contain the heat we created a pizza oven-like firebrick box out to the mouth opening. This also created a shelf to rest the smoke machine on and space for the low voltage lights that lit the eyes. The eyes are made from surfboard resin my friend custom molded into the eye openings.
The fire ring gas actually comes thru lava rock that is hidden with 1" of black and red broken safety glass on the very top. When lit it creates a huge blue ring of fire that rises and forms a bright white flame pattern on the top . It almost looks like a giant flaming volcano cocktail, and the glass sparkles like a broken mirror ball. We wired the controls over behind my bar to adjust the eyes brightness, control the smoke machine and set its timer, and turn the fire off/on and adjust the height of the flame. When the fireplace is on its lowest, the blue flame looks like a space-view of a volcanic planet with a chaotic lightening like effect on the surface.
In my opinion we made a fireplace that was a lil more traditional tiki than monster house's attempt, and it's totally fire-safe.
I hope you enjoy the pix as much as we enjoyed making and staring at now.
Let me know what you guys think!
Biff
[ This Message was edited by: biffachu 2005-10-26 15:13 ]
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PalmCityTiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 15, 2005
Posts: 229
From: Palm City, Florida ( no really)
| Posted: 2005-10-26 1:32 pm Permalink
Feel like i am inside the lost temple... Indiana jones r u there.
Sweet work and great idea.
Really looking at the progress pics too.
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www.PalmCityTiki.com
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Raffertiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 31, 2003
Posts: 1527
From: L.I.
| Posted: 2005-10-26 2:38 pm Permalink
That is pretty freaking cool. What's next for the room? When's the party?
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turbosickboy
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 05, 2005
Posts: 136
From: Malmoe/Sweden
| Posted: 2005-10-26 2:41 pm Permalink
wow... beautiful Biff!
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Tipsy McStagger
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 21, 2004
Posts: 3388
From: HELL
| Posted: 2005-10-26 3:07 pm Permalink
absolutely outstanding.....nice touch with the red glass lava effect.
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GMAN
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 14, 2005
Posts: 2994
From: My Island
| Posted: 2005-10-26 3:10 pm Permalink
Man, that's hot! Great concept. I doubt I could get that one by my wife......
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rodeotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 21, 2004
Posts: 1513
From: calgary
| Posted: 2005-10-26 4:12 pm Permalink
That is very cool . Could the same idea and process be applied to something that would be outdoors?
Thanks for sharing.
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biffachu
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Sep 20, 2004
Posts: 53 | Posted: 2005-10-26 5:44 pm Permalink
Yes I think it could be made for an outside one also. This one would be waterproof if it was outside since it is solid cement. It might have to be propane for that purpose though.
We actually took the foam we used for the form and had cement put on it to protect it from deteriorating. It served as a backyard fountain pouring in between 2 tiki torches at my Mahalloween party.
_________________
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hewey
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 4270
From: Sydney, Australia
| Posted: 2005-10-26 5:48 pm Permalink
Awesome fireplace. Very cool
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surfintiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 30, 2004
Posts: 1561
From: S. Chatham, MA
| Posted: 2005-10-26 6:10 pm Permalink
That's insane! I need to party THERE!
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johnman
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 18, 2005
Posts: 452
From: RI
| Posted: 2005-10-26 6:20 pm Permalink
Sweet fireplace man.
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Swamp Fire
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 31, 2003
Posts: 1020
From: Long Beach, CA
| Posted: 2005-10-26 7:08 pm Permalink
Awsome Biff, how was the party sorry we missed it.
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Matt Reese
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 09, 2005
Posts: 1114
From: San Diego
| Posted: 2005-10-26 8:28 pm Permalink
That is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Inspirational!
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Aaron's Akua
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Jul 09, 2004
Posts: 1594
From: Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
| Posted: 2005-10-26 9:21 pm Permalink
I saw the monster house episode and actually got to meet the host at a home show in Long Beach, CA a while back. They made a great effort, but the homeowner didn't really seem all that excited about the tiki makeover. Your tiki fireplace looks way more traditional and we can tell it was made by a true tiki afficiando. That is really unbelievable - your friends must be blown away when you give them the "demo", smoke fuming nostrils and all!
A-A
_________________
"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso
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Hakalugi
Site Administrator
Joined: Aug 10, 2004
Posts: 2802
From: Redondo Beach, CA
| Posted: 2005-10-26 9:33 pm Permalink
Biff, you are a nut! And that's a good thing.
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