black absolute marble... how to polish?

[Stef]

Paul, I bought a dry Makita polisher off Alan a few weeks ago, great piece of kit.
This was me having a 5 mins monkey about in my garage with a quarry tile to see if I could bullnose the edge.

It's hard to make out in the photos, I have polished the edge up too much but this is what's achievable with a polishing machine.
Hope this kind of gives you an idea.

 

[Ian]

Paul, I bought a dry Makita polisher off Alan a few weeks ago, great piece of kit.
This was me having a 5 mins monkey about in my garage with a quarry tile to see if I could bullnose the edge.

It's hard to make out in the photos, I have polished the edge up too much but this is what's achievable with a polishing machine.
Hope this kind of gives you an idea.

That's a fancy garage Stef, my kitchen isn't that nice 😉

 

[Concrete guy]

Absolute Black granite is about as hard as stone gets. It's so popular because you can get the mirror finish on the surface.

We have customers that polish exclusively wet, some that polish exclusively dry and others that do a bit of both.

With the right pads and machinery you could do either and produce a very nice finish, however at that volume you'll need a centre feed wet polisher to stop the pads overheating.

You can use a dry machine with a hose running across the work for a job like polishing a concrete worktop, or even surface polishing black granite. The problem with a 20mm thick edge is there's no where for water to pool or sit, so it will be constant battle stopping your wet pads burning out.

You need some high quality dry diamond pads,the extra you'll spend on the pads will be saved not having to buy a wet machine. That's probably even more relevant if you want to put a profile on the stone and not simply polish it square.

So your options are:-

1. Wet centre feed polisher - wet diamond pads

2. Dry polisher - dry diamond pads.

This is one of those situations where a compromise of dry machine with a spray of water is practical because it's all edge work and it's a reasonable volume of edge work.

 

[Paul Finn]

Paul, I bought a dry Makita polisher off Alan a few weeks ago, great piece of kit.
This was me having a 5 mins monkey about in my garage with a quarry tile to see if I could bullnose the edge.

It's hard to make out in the photos, I have polished the edge up too much but this is what's achievable with a polishing machine.
Hope this kind of gives you an idea.[/QUOTE

Thats a nice finish. Well done, Its just what I need, but for the sake of 50 linear mtr its a big outlay.... plus im in the middle east so not sure where my nearest speedy hire is lol.

 

[Stef]

Thats a nice finish. Well done, Its just what I need, but for the sake of 50 linear mtr its a big outlay.... plus im in the middle east so not sure where my nearest speedy hire is lol.[/QUOTE]

You might be surprised as the kits not overly expensive.

 

[Concrete guy]

Thats a nice finish. Well done, Its just what I need, but for the sake of 50 linear mtr its a big outlay.... plus im in the middle east so not sure where my nearest speedy hire is lol.

If you can beg, borrow or rent a machine, we can get consumables across relatively easily.

Getting a machine over would be the expensive bit.

In the middle east I have a feeling they may be using American Spec machinery, so it's worth asking what the thread on the machine spindle is. It will be one of two:

M14 = European
5/8-11" = American

 

[Concrete guy]

You might be surprised as the kits not overly expensive.

Getting it to Abu Dahbi would be though..:yikes:

Even then I'm not sure if there would be a voltage incompatibility.

So get the machinery locally and then the consumables are easy (and lightweight) to ship.

 

[Stef]

Trying for "Commission" here Alan..
I never even thought about voltage..
Electrics electric up here in sunny Ayrshire.

 

[Paul Finn]

110v on site via uk 3 pin 240v

 

[Concrete guy]

110v on site via uk 3 pin 240v

That's unexpected. You could just use a UK machine.