Brad, If I were doing it over again, I'd use 1/2" hardware cloth, instead of the 1/4", but other than that, it's right useful as it is. Have you tried flushing the particulate out by putting the rock into a 5-10 gallon plastic pot? I think you're right about the ideal size, though - 2'x2' will work nicely. Josh, I tell you, once you have one of these, top dressing will never be the same. I do have a question for both of you, though. In this and other posts, I'm inferring that you use scoria and pumice interchangeably. IME, they're two different materials (scoria has crevices and pumice doesn't, pumice is off-white in colour and scoria is either a washed-out red or black). Is this correct? I always found scoria to be good only for top dressing (it made my soil too heavy) but it seems you two are using it with great results in your soil. Do I have that right?

One thing to keep in mind for anyone considering this machine: it is very powerful. If fingers got in to the roller area it would really, really bad. The machine comes with a protective wooden riser and tray that has to be in place before the machine turns on: This does make it harder to get dough in that is slightly too thick -- with the hand crank you just push the dough against the rollers -- no way to do that with this model. Some people (especially in commercial settings) disable the safety to make things go faster and be less fiddly. But those rollers go and would be unforgiving to anything caught in them. As for power comparisons: the motors they sell for the handcrank model run around 100W. The stand-alone Pasta Presto electric model with non-interchangeable cutters is around 85W (after seeing it, I would not recommend it, it's underpowered, glacially slow, and limited in cutting options -- go for the add-on motor). The Imperia 220 Restaurant is 190W. You may have noticed that we leave the cutters on even when doing just dough. That's because the motor connector you attach to power the cutter is a pain to attach -- you have to get the spindles of the roller and cutter aligned just so or it won't go on.

well, I am getting somewhere. I drew little shapes, LOL, complete w/ solid dots where I needed the tool itself to go, and a "halo" around it to show where the clearance issues would be. It'll all fit in one square, if we eliminate one baseball bat. (believe me, there's one that can go! DS isn't willing, but I'll just bury it deep in that closet if I have to) And I cut away the wires. Now I just have to try out the objects themselves to see if it'll work. (I cldn't last night bcs I finished cutting after bedtime, and I try not to disturb the kids if they're sleeping (or esp if they're just falling asleep). And I'm contemplating labeling, or something, so DS knows what fits best where. Those wire grid things are sort of a useful thing--I got the idea for this from our Guinea Pig Cage It's made of the same grids; they overlap in one spot, bcs the full size was too big, and we used cable ties there. The lid is that ClosetMaid shelving, cut to size at HD, and held in place with, well, more cable ties. hinged lid That's how I knew I could cut the shelving to size, when I wanted to add shelves in the closet (another post still tocome) We hav a cat, so we have to have the lid. People w/o cats don't bother. The floor is Coroplast (corrugated plastic normally used to make signs) Oh, and here's the current resident: Chocolate the guinea pig (His cagemate, Caramel, died last year of a tumor) Here is a link that might be useful: Guinea Pig Cages

I think it's fine. what I would advise you to spend your money on is professional lighting. canned lights. that will make all the difference in there. you busy flooring, the other stone, the tile, the cabinets, now you want to add another color to the mix? I think it would be too much. the butcher block is fine for now. (or, see if you can pick up another piece of Alaska White to match your other) save up the money (except do the lighting) until the boys get a little older, (although to be clear, mine is 25 and is still a mess around my cabinets. he doesn't bang toys on them, but he's a tornado when he's cooking) and maybe you can reface them or get new ones.