Turtle Shape Stepping Stone Mold, Tortoise Concrete Cement Mould Walk Maker, DIY Personalized Manual Garden Lawn Pathmate Paving Pavement Paver

This mold is not a hard plastic. It has more of a rubbery texture and works very well. It can be reused many many times.

Item is greet. Heavy duty plastic and easy to use. Just remember to spray it with food spray first before pouring in the cement. This makes it come right out when it turns hard.

I got this mold some time ago because my Wife loves turtles. I finally got around to making her stepping stones and they turned out perfect. I used quikret 5000 because of it’s durability. As you can see from the pic, the fact that it has stones in it does not effect the mold. To add strength, I cut chicken wire to fill the mold, especially the legs and head. Also, I made my mix somewhat watery to make sure all the details showed up. I used small batches of concrete. First to cover the bottom, then added the chicken wire, then covered the rest. This is one solid stepping stone that I have no fear of it crumbling. Don’t buy cheap concrete. It’s worth a few bucks more to get better concrete. I did not lubricate the mold at all, and while I had to work it a bit and bang my hand on the back, eventually the concrete slipped out of the mold.7/28/22 update: So I tried making a second mold with quikcret without gravel (it’s all I had left and I didn’t want to run to the store) and it didn’t turn out well. One leg and the tail crumbled when removing. You can tell the concrete is not nearly as durable. Don’t worry that the gravel will effect the definition of the mold—it doesn’t. When choosing concrete, think “driveway” concrete. Don’t waste time and effort with concrete that will just disappoint. As I’ve said, the best concrete to use is the quikcret 5000.

Love this turtle mold. My husband built a frame to put it in to make it a little thicker, which supports the legs. Listened to other reviews on how to make them, came out perfect!

First, it’s just a mold, so there’s not a lot that should be wrong with it. The plastic is thicker than I thought it would be and lends itself to reuse. After that, it’s all about the concrete you use and your method.As others have said, use Quickcrete 5000. For my first attempt I used some 4000 lb Quickcrete I had remaining from setting a post. I’m sure some of it had to do with only letting it set for 12 hours verses 24, but it crumbled coming out of the mold. I used the Quickcrete 5000 on the next, waited 24 hours and had much better results.I went ahead and invested in a concrete mixer to use in my drill and I’m able to mix the concrete in my bucket much more thoroughly. You need to pay attention to what you’re doing when using this mixer as it’s easy to sling concrete all over the place. I also purchased a 12 quart bucket with a pour spout on it, makes pouring into the mold easier. There are quart marks in the bucket and I’ve learned adding concrete just below the 4 quart mark gives me enough for the mold with little leftover waste. The only thing I’m not crazy about with this bucket, it’s not all flat on the bottom and I still need to use a painter’s stick to get the dry concrete in the groove around the bottom mixed in with the rest. Covering just the bottom with a little water before pouring the concrete in helps.Don’t ask me why I thought of this, it works well for us so far. There are numerous ways to add support in the mold for the turtle. I purchased some fiberglass mat and we cut it out in the shape of the turtle, slightly smaller than the turtle will be so it fits in the mold easily. After filing the mold half full and making sure the head, legs, and tail have concrete in them, we tap the mold to get as many bubbles to come to the surface as we can, now we lay the cutout fiberglass mat into the mold and gently tap it into place until it’s all wet. Then we add the remaining mixed concrete, taping the mold to get as many bubbles to come to the surface.It’s important to wait 24 hours before removing the turtle from the mold. I’ve been gently laying it over on the grass, working the back legs free from the mold first then the front legs and head, then rest just follows. This is were the thickness of the plastic can work against you a little, but I understand why it has to be this thick to support the finished turtle and not be all deformed when it comes out.I believe it says on the bag of Quickcrete 5000 it takes 28 days to cure to 5000 pounds. I’ve been wetting the finished turtles everyday when I water plants around the house. Hopefully this will help in the curing process and they will remain strong.We have our process down and this is what has worked for us on four turtles so far, two more to finish our path.

Wonderful worked great. I’m going to make more with it. Nice and smooth.Just follow the directions.

Once I got the hang of it this made some really cool looking stepping stones. It is heavy duty. The plastic was plenty thick to hold up to the concrete.

Love these stepping stonesMold is good quality