Greetings! I've been browsing the net for tips on just this subject and your thread has answered a lot of questions - thank you! I just have one more inquiry - do you know of a way to make the end product of one-part self curing silicones (after curing) softer and stretchier (lets say more like human skin, goal hardness is 10-30 shore A)? The reason I'm asking: I am a resident in heart surgery and I'm trying to make practice models of parts of the human heart and tissue to use for training outside the operating room. As you said the platinum cure silicones are used for this purpose but the price difference is tenfold and they're a bit too expensive for us.

gardencraze, I use a drill press which makes it very easy. You have to keep water in the area you are drilling or you will burn your bit out REAL fast. Let the bit do the work, if you press too hard the plate or cup will break. Even being careful I still break some...also when the bit gets dull the breakage goes up. If you don't have a drill press you will have to be extra careful and it will definately take more time....Oh yea, good idea to wear a mask to avoid the dust.

I'm going to see if I can manage to clip back some of the polyantha to free up the little (well, not so little) wildflower without stressing it, and maybe get some more photos of both the bloom and the leaf. It does seem to grow in upright single stalks like the wooly ironweed, and the blossom is showy enough to be seen from quite a distance. The suggestions for the grasses are terrific. I keep running into the quandary of what can take all the conditions in my trouble spot. Heavy clay, really hot in the summer and soggy in the winter, and then there's the wind. Sigh. I think the grasses might be the perfect choice. I had originally wanted to put in a nice clump of gaillardia, but I'm sure not having any success with it. I had sort of had a color theme in mind, with the gaillardia paired with the orange Mexican honeysuckle (Montezuma) that is clinging to life on the fence behind it. The red-orange-gold Pinata rose is sited not too far away and I thought it might be an interesting combination if I could put some other things in there to soften it a little. Sounds like the grasses might be the perfect thing I don't know why I've had such poor luck in growing echinacea in the past. I've never been able to get it to do much of anything. It wants to stay small and sparse and not at all like the lovely photos I've seen of it in big clumps. I'm sure it was a matter of where I planted it, and the fact that it often got left out when I was busy caring for a really big garden. I might try again. I might also have my mother see if she can find starts or seeds of her big Gloriosa daisies. They seem to tolerate just about anything, and they're big and showy, if I can just keep them from seeding and taking over the place as they are wont to do. At one time I was fiddling with improving or reproducing some of the particular ones that grew wild on her property, and it would be fun to do that again. Do you have any idea of whether they might grow here? Pat

babyboomer1001: 100% silicone is perfect caulk between a sink flange and the bottom of stone. Polyseamseal and other Latex caulks are not; they do not have the adhesive stickiness or flexibility of silicone. It's best if you can pull your sink, clean the sink flange and stone bottom, recaulk with silicone and reinstall the sink. If this isn't reasonably possible, use a stiff plastic shim or plastic laminate to gouge the caulk out, clean the gap with acetone, and recaulk with silicone. Ignoring a leaking sink flange can have catastrophic consequences if your top has been "rodded" or reinforced with steel. If the fabricator used the wrong rod and/or the wrong bedding the rod can rust and blow up your top. I've fixed about 8 of these so far and it runs around $1,000.00-$1,600.00.