[Squizzy Taylor]

I have to ask: I have watched the factory cut beautiful bullnosing etc , coved table tops etc out of natural stone and always wanted to be able to rout a noce smooth edge on some stone that we work with. The factory uses slow speed water-cooled machines that cost zillions of $$$$.

I was wondering if anybody new of something that stoney's can use in the field...that is portable. An electric router would be suicide mission because they do about 10,000 rpm. I think the big machines run at about 1,800 rpm and use special Italian carbide bits. Is there anything for small guy?.

[Stonehenge]

I'm not aware of anything like that, but I also haven't been looking. I was half hoping you already knew of such a tool when you wrote about "pillowing" the stones in that recent project you posted.

Interesting though, however - Partner has come out with a new saw designed specifically to pipe cutting - a normal blade to cut the pipe, but a second blade, attached to the same arbor, that's in the shape of a cup, to round off the edges of the cut pipe.

It wouldn't take a whole lot of imagination on Partner's part to modify that saw for this purpose.

But that's just me daydreaming about saws...

[Squizzy Taylor]

Jeff, I don't think we are going to find something off the shelf. In the pics below you will see a automotive sander/polisher. We use them because they are variable speed and can be slowed down. Pics are of quarry cut stone as it comes. Unless you pay for Factory diamond cut thats the way it arrives and this is the "good" stuff.

I'll post a few more pics to ahow the effect we are trying to acheive over those posted here:

A few piers

These stones are not fully "pillowed".. in fact not even 1/2 pillowed. We just went for about a 1/2" radius on the edges to clean the wall up a bit.

[Squizzy Taylor]

More "pillowing". The polisher is used to knock the rough edges off...sometimes we use a 5" grinder. The edges are then smoothed with the hand stone you can just see sitting on the blocks.

[Squizzy Taylor]

This is, in this case, the finished blocks ready for laying. After mortar has cured they have to be pressure cleaned. The post installation work is back sealing (Waterproofing with BlackJack) and face sealing with clear Acrylic sealer...then sometimes Anti-Graffiti treatment.

[Squizzy Taylor]

I'm not done yet:

[Squizzy Taylor]

Just in case anybody wonders the dimensional tolerances from the quarry are pretty ...."Relaxed"!!!

[Stonehenge]

Wow, that makes the straightness of the wall in the other thread even more impressive.

It looks like the pillowing process is labor intensive - is the pressure washing to clean the dust from the pores of the stone?

I'm curious to know what the "anti graffiti" treatment is.

How quickly can you saw through a stone like that with a gas-powered masonry saw (like a Partner, Stihl, Husqvarna, etc)?

[Squizzy Taylor]

Jeff, it certainly is time consuming. The pressure cleaning is two fold. It removes the dust and slurry from the saw but it will also remove any excess mortar on the face of the stone. If the mortar is a bit wet it will stain the face of the stone and this spoils the look of the wall. Thats why its better to lay the stone before it is pressure cleaned....the dust actually makes it easier to clean off.

We prefer sacraficial sealing and anti-graffiti systems. With natural limestone (and always holding some moisture) a breathable sealer is important, hence the acylic coating which really just hardens the surface of the stone. The Anti-Graffiti system is basically Acrylic with Wax. If the wall is Tagged you wash it off with a Hot water pressure cleaner.....the Tag and the wax coating disappear. Then you just allow it to dry and apply another wax coating. The coating is totally transparent and doesn't change the colour of the wall or make it look shiny like some systems do.

Our 16" Husky cuts that stone in a flash. Its generally very good to work but it frequently has "Capstone" which is essentially a section of fossil in the stone. This is well harder than granite and will bring sparks from the blade...or chip your cheap adze.

[Squizzy Taylor]

There is some of our more pillowed stone in about the 7th post in this thread:

A few Limestone walls

[Stonehenge]

Cool stuff, Squizzy. When the stone is used as a retaining wall, do you do anything in the way of water collection/redirection? Just to keep hydrostatic forces off the back of the wall?

I've never heard of the anti-graffiti systems - excellent idea, but it's a shame they're needed. I guess, it's one more add-on service to bring in revenue.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Originally posted by Stonehenge
Cool stuff, Squizzy. When the stone is used as a retaining wall, do you do anything in the way of water collection/redirection? Just to keep hydrostatic forces off the back of the wall?

In our free draining sandy soils near the coast it is very rare for water to be a problem. As we get into clay soils amongst the hills then its time for drain pipe and aggregate. The shear mass of the bigger blocks (550lb) we lay (it is after all a mass retaining wall) resists localised hydrostatics much better than segmental walls.

[greg9504]

Go to a store that supplies the counter top industry and ask for a profiling bit for hand grinders. An example is the Alpha Profile wheel. Here's some links to state side suppliers.


http://www.granitecitytool.com/showitem.cfm?itemnum=585
http://www.concretecountertopspecial...m=585&catnum=0

It may not be that economical for doing 100's of linear feet of stone, but they are designed for granite so should go a long way in limestone.

[Squizzy Taylor]

Originally posted by greg9504
Go to a store that supplies the counter top industry and ask for a profiling bit for hand grinders.

Thanks Greg, I'm going to look into it before I land the next job which requires this look. I have a 6" Hitachi sander with variable speed so I'm hoping one of those bits will work at slower speeds.

[joshua1]

Hi Guys, newbie poster, but a long time looking on from the edges! We use a 7" diamond cup grinder fitted to the arbour of our 9" Hitachi angle grinder- it does the same thing as the auto-polisher but at about four times the work output. I recently bought a Hilti DG150, which does the same thing but even faster. It will even grind down the stones skewed facets to leave it flatter for laying. Maybe that is of some use to you. Routing the stones requires a massive clamping force and feed pressures and would be impractical in the field.