cutting slate

[falkirktiler]

Hi all, got a bit of a problem I hope you can help me with, customer has a bathroom with an arched window, but it is hand made , eg it's an irregular curve and he wants the slate tiles to follow the curve, but he wants a polished edge on the cut edge so it looks great when you look at it from below. I made templates of the various cuts and tried to have a company in Glasgow cut them for me but they couldn't do it because of the shape. The problem is not cutting the slate , it's getting the nice smooth edge and then polishing the edge?

How would you do it ?
and
How would you polish it ?

Cheers guys and gals

 

[grumpygrouter]

Good question!

 

[TilingLogistics]

Without wishing to state the obvious!!! Slate is a natural product. Furthermore, I don't think you could have presented a more difficult problem if you tried.

The cutting of the slate in an arch is difficult enough to begin with but then to polish an unpredictable layered edge!!!!

My advice would be one of two routes. The first hurdle in both scenarios is to cut the slate in an arch as neatly as possible. Then I would either colour match a filler around the edges and smooth and polish that or I would order a special bendable edging strip in the colour of the slate.

Kev

 

[sWe]

Hi all, got a bit of a problem I hope you can help me with, customer has a bathroom with an arched window, but it is hand made , eg it's an irregular curve and he wants the slate tiles to follow the curve, but he wants a polished edge on the cut edge so it looks great when you look at it from below. I made templates of the various cuts and tried to have a company in Glasgow cut them for me but they couldn't do it because of the shape. The problem is not cutting the slate , it's getting the nice smooth edge and then polishing the edge?

How would you do it ?
and
How would you polish it ?

Cheers guys and gals

Would've been easier had it been marble or something similar. The layered edge might make it difficult to get a nice finish.

To follow the curve, I would use a pattern cutting saw, like a ring saw, or a band saw meant for ceramics and stone. Those really aren't cheap though, so renting is probably a good idea if this is an odd job, as opposed to something you could encounter more regularly.
Another option is to find a company which has a water jet cutter. Those easily cut complicated patterns in really hard materials.
Yet another option is to find a company which specializes in cutting stone table tops. Many of those have CNC machines for cutting the stone, and I'm pretty sure they can handle this pretty easily.

As for the polishing... You really need a dedicated polishing tool, such as this one.

You can use profile wheels with those as well, in case you encounter stone jobs where the customers want beveled edges or something.


Hope I've helped.

 

[TilingLogistics]

Would've been easier had it been marble or something similar. The layered edge might make it difficult to get a nice finish.

To follow the curve, I would use a pattern cutting saw, like a ring saw, or a band saw meant for ceramics and stone. Those really aren't cheap though, so renting is probably a good idea if this is an odd job, as opposed to something you could encounter more regularly.
Another option is to find a company which has a water jet cutter. Those easily cut complicated patterns in really hard materials.
Yet another option is to find a company which specializes in cutting stone table tops. Many of those have CNC machines for cutting the stone, and I'm pretty sure they can handle this pretty easily.

As for the polishing... You really need a dedicated polishing tool, such as this one.

You can use profile wheels with those as well, in case you encounter stone jobs where the customers want beveled edges or something.


Hope I've helped.

I tried to profile some slate window cills for one of my clients using one of those wheels and I have that Makita machine. All I got was the layering breaking off at different points and making it worse. In the end I made some resin up and stuck it on with some hose cut in half as a mould then polished the edge with a hand pad.

Is there something I did wrong with the profile wheel?

Kev

 

[sWe]

I haven't tried beveling slate. I don't think I would want to try either, given the layered nature of the material. I'd rater just make a clean 90 degree cut and polish it. If I tried beveling slate, I'd probably work many increments of profile wheels.

That resin stunt you pulled is pretty clever by the way.

 

[falkirktiler]

Yeah liked the sound of the resin thing too , is it widely available or specialist suppliers only, and if so who are they ?, bearing in mind we're in BONNY SCOTLAND!!!