Just been laying a sandstone patio, having finished laying the full flags I am now starting on all the cuts. I tried one today thinking the angle grin der would chew through it in no time. To my surprise the grinder with a sto ne cutting disk was struggling, in the end I used it to score the cut line and ended up splitting it with a chisel which was OK for the one done but s ome of the other cuts need to be neater. The hardness of the stone has surp rised me some of the shards chiseled off are so sharp you could perform sur gery with them. Would investing in a diamond saw prove any better? I see Al di has one on offer this week.
I am now starting on all the cuts. I tried one today thinking the angle gr inder would chew through it in no time. To my surprise the grinder with a s tone cutting disk was struggling, in the end I used it to score the cut lin e and ended up splitting it with a chisel which was OK for the one done but some of the other cuts need to be neater. The hardness of the stone has su rprised me some of the shards chiseled off are so sharp you could perform s urgery with them. Would investing in a diamond saw prove any better? I see Aldi has one on offer this week.
I only buy diamond disks anyway for the angle grinder. But there are disks and disks. The cheapies are not as good. Down to the amount of diamonds in the mix I think. But IME the cheapies are good enough for the Indian sandstone. Won't look at granite I laid quite a bit myself three years ago.
Hi John, looked at the SF site could not find any SF own make, are we talki ng about the Erbauer ones, one has a lot of good reviews from both trade an d DIYers for about £15?
"Stone cutting discs" fails the "fit for purpose" test of the SoGA IMHO.
A Diamond blade ought to cut better and last longer.
Neater? This is natural stone you don't see natural stone in the wild with polished faces and razor sharp corners.
I've found that one can "cut" the rather large through stones for drystone walling by treating it like glass or tiles: "score and snap". Scratch along the line where you want the cut, I use the corner of a 1" chisel in an SDS drill. Just run the chisel along at
45 degrees or so a few times so there is a definate cut maybe 1/8" deep and V shaped to the chisel. Turn stone over and support on 1" battens that run parallel to, equal distance and as far from the score as possible. Then give the stone a well spread reasonable thump above the score. I just drop the end of 5' length of 8x3 from about a foot, the 8" dimension aligned with the score. Stone just drops in half along the score.
These stones are local sandstone (which is quite a hard dense sandstone) about 2 to 4" thick and up to 3 x 2 feet so the battens can be a foot or more from the score. It might not be so easy/succesful if the battens have to be much closer to the score.
With say less than a foot from score to batted I'd try with the score upper most and a single batten underneath with the edge aligned to the score with the smaller bit of stone left completely unsupported, stand on the supported bit and drop the 8x3 onto the unsupported bit as far from the score as possible again with the 8" dimension aligned with the score.
What is happening is that the bottom of the starts a crack (or lots of micro cracks) in the stone which you make propergate through the stone by suddenly flexing it open. Given this making the score with a chisel may work better than the clean, ground, cut of an angle grinder, the whacks from the chisel will create micro cracks.
I find any diamond disc works well, but always try to use lots of water when cutting which seems to extend the blade life. Most tile saws IME don't have enough power for this application.
I've been using Aldilidl discs: Bought two packs a while ago, thinking I'd run out quickly and I'm still on the same disc after a couple of years of occasional cuts on stone (limestone, granite) and concrete.
If you want to keep the dust and noise down, use the disc to make a shallow score, then snap. I tend to just give a few passes to go all the way through. It's worth doing it somewhere where the fall-out won't be a problem, like the end of the garden.
Works on the lumps I have but then most are about > 2" thick.
Whats the problem on thiner stuff? No following the score line? A solution might is proabbly a better (deeper sharper) score and use the score up method. Waste end totally unsupported, the "good" end fully suported and stood on. The the 8x3 dropped onto the waste say
4" from the score.
You also need to apply the force over a long section of the score at the same time, hence the 5' length 8x3 which also has a fair bit of gentle umph when dropped a foot. A lump hammer is too concentrated.
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