Not heard of old black but it sounds a bit like indian paving ... used my 4" grinder with diamond blade on mine to score about 1/2 way or so and then split with a bolster. Went all the way through for internal corners etc. IIRC grinder got to hot to hold at one point.
Dampening the stone slightly helped ...
HTH,
Alex.
A bench wood saw can grab the timber and send it into orbit if things are wrong, but I've never felt worried with a tile cutter. Although I do tend to use mine outside clamped to a workmate.
How did you get the slabs onto is an manoeuvre? The mental picture I have is a little confusing. The real yorkstone flagging I have been involved with usually is a bit on the heavy side (and often 2+ inches thick).
Curiously,
Alex.
I think 4" are great little tools, used with care ... 9" and your into gyroscopic devices which are difficult handle and a load of dust which needs to be wet down seriously (electrical hazard) or extracted (which can be awkward). If you catch a 9" while cutting something, just hope you legs or face are not in the way as it can be quite difficult to control.
Why? They don't do anything unpredictable (on the whole).
Surely that's a clue...
Alex
If you aren't going to use the grinder again in the very near future, then why not hire one for a weekend. Much cheaper, and all you really buy are the stone cutting wheels, for which most hire shops will take back the ones you didn't use. Always take two more than you think you'll need, but with only half a dozen slabs to cut, you'll probably only need three at most.
Hire the big 9 inch grinder, or the actual slab cutter thingy, to be sure you'll get the nice clean finish you need.
They were fairly small compared to some - I wanted a sort of rural look. So rectangular but irregular sized slabs - the biggest perhaps 2 x 1.5 ft, but many smaller. And up to about 2" thick.
I've got the larger Plasplugs cutter - Tradesman? - and had it solidly mounted. Removed the guard, and simply gently cut to the depth of the blade. Then a tap with a bolster broke them pretty neatly down the cut.
What is this "A3" stuff? Does it mean "£"?
Yep it's a pound sign - Your newreader (MicroPlanet Gravity) is not correctly displaying characters from charset="iso-8859-1".
-- Adrian
I got a day of coughing after carving through some sandstone, but then I smoke so its not unusual.
Metal though produces molten blobs that fly. galles is good, goggles may be better.
However an attitude of respect is far more use than a false sense of security caused by wearing all teh gear. Angle grindres can still cut through steel toecaps and the toes inside.
I remember a very vety old 'scouting for boys' book I skimmed once.
The advice that stuck with me was on chopping wood, with an axe
'don't use a blunt tool and don't slog at it when you are tired. Slogging causes accidents, as does a blunt tool. A good scout knoww when he is tired, and refreshes himself, and sharpens his tool...' :-)
I hired an angle grinder and diamond disc for 17 quid, and cut through about 15 sandstone slabs in under half an hour.
Essy peasy.
OK. Thanks for the info.
Whatever you decide to do get a diamond disk, much easier and better cut than a 'stone cutting' disk.
Regards Jeff
Spot on Adrian. Gravity 2.5 could not display ISO-8859-1. Now using 2.6 (unofficial SuperGravity) which has enhancements. Thanks again for the advice.
That's three per slab ;-)
(concrete 600x600mm slabs will eat abrasive discs at that sort of rate. No point in using anything other than a diamond disc IMHO - they cut faster, cleaner and safer and last for ages)
Yup, a stone cutter with a water feed can be good - better ballance for cutting large slabs.
Also buy the diamond disc. It usually works out cheaper then renting it and paying for mm of use and you'll have it for future use.
I'll second that.
Tried with Indian Sandstone, normal stone cutting disks were impressive
- gave the impression that they were eating into the stone, only for me to realise (once the dust settled) that they were, in fact, just eating themselves away at a good rate of knots. Maybe I chose a cheap variety?, they were a standard range from Screwfix?, but I bought a couple of cheap-ish diamond blades at the same time. The diamond blades cut through the stone like butter (well, maybe not quite, but compared to the normal disks... you get the picture).
Ahh ... I get it now. Solves the lube/dust problem with a device desinged to be used wet.
Cheers,
Alex.
Thirded!
Don't forget, the wider the blade (abrasives are usually wider than diamond) the better a "stone to dust convertor" the grinder will become. This means more work for the grinder, more heat, as well as more dust.
I doubt it actually, angle grinder discs are not particularly good at cutting into soft things like flesh. If you've ever touched a sanding disk by mistake it rarely does any serious damage and I suspect a cutting disc will be similar.
The only reason that the angle grinder did my thumb any serious damage was because (stop reading at this point if you're squeamish) it caught my thumb between the guard and the disc. If the guard hadn't been there I'd have got away with just a scratch.
Because there is a blade whizzing around not *very* obviously and I have both hands free to stick on it by mistake if I'm not careful.
On the other hand with an angle grinder, chainsaw, hedge trimmer, etc. both hands are always firmly clamped onto the handles of the tool well away from danger.
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