amateur carver seeking advice!

[stonecarve]

Hi all... i have been doing stone carving and plenty of DIY - tiling etc as a hobby for a while now and hoping to be able to do part time work and pick things up a bit with the work I am doing with stone....

I am beginning to work with different tiles to see whether they can ultimately be encorporated into bathroom suites etc and am in the middle of experimenting and dreaming of how to get out of working in public services!

I have managed to get hold of some chunks of marble which I am wanting to cut up into smaller pieces - having struggled to cut marble and porcelain tiles for my own projects I am a bit worried about how I go about doing this.

The pieces of marble are about 15 x 15 x 40cm...

Two questions:

1. Does anyone have any bright ideas of how to cut such thick chunks of marble without giving myself a hernia or spending £50 on diamond wheels that take ages to cut - is there a machine I could use or a company who'd cut them for me?

2. Does anyone know any good tile manufacturers who might be getting rid of old single/ broken bits of stone (the thicker the better!) which I might be able to experiment with?

Thanks

 

[matb]

are the chunks defo marble? or granite? i work in a stoneyard so have access to millions of offcuts of stone from blocks to tiles. iv got some old bluntish 5" marble blades laying about im sure you could have one to get you on the way but no grantie blades as they get worn all the way t end. where abouts are you based? im in alton hants. iv also got access to some bigass bridge saws should i need them .
regards mat

 

[DHTiling]

Hello and welcome.....

 

[stonecarve]

Hi Mat - thanks, that sound very useful.

Chunks are defo marble - place was clearing stuff out and sold the lot to me cheap - but not very familiar in working with marble yet and dont' have tools to cut it properly - does your stone yard have any old chunks of limestone/ sandstones lying around that it wants clearing!!! :hurray:

Old cutters would be great if they are useful for me - what tools would i need to use them? what is the saw you were talking about? Rich

 

[matb]

hello
thats cool then as the old blades i have wont work or even last to well on granite. all youl need is a 5" grinder/polisher with a variable speed to put the blades on and away you go. we use sand and limestone regular so next time i cut some up il chuck the decent size bits to one side. the saws i use are called bridge saws, basically a giant circular saw which runs on a bridge, the one i use stands 3m high, 5m wide and about 7m long and will cut large slabs and blocks of stone, wood, humans, anthing i want to cut up really lol.
ps where you from?
regards mat

 

[bassman]

:welcome: to the forum. :guitarist:

 

[Uheat]

:welcome:Hi and welcome to the forums:welcome:

 

[Derry]

Hi, welcome to the forums

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

[stonecarve]

all sounds very exciting! I'm heading down to my parents place in gloucester over summer to start hacking at the stone to see if I can produce something vaugely marketable!

I live in london - near camberwell but parents live in gloucester and planning to do work down that way over summer. I can easily arrange a time to come by an pick any bits of stone up if you don't want them or can offload any cheaply. You'd be doing me a real favour. If that's ok let me know when would be best and I can try and arrange a time to come visit

Rich