What to do with some salvaged 3/4" slate?

[Kevin S.]

Just helped some friends move today. In the new house is, was a slate pool table dominating a small rec room. So now I have three pieces of slate, ~2ft x 4ft x 3/4", although useable area is somewhat less due to screw holes and pocket notches.

Its too soft I would think for a lapping surface, but might make a nice tops for some small tables, or ???

Anyway, my questions are:

1) Under what temp/humidity conditions should I store it? Can it spend the winter in the garage in the upper Mid-west? Wrap it in plastic? Just keep it of the floor?

2) Any one have any experience working slate. Hand vs. power? Hi speed vs. low? Carbide? Scotch pads? Wet/dry paper/emery? Any sort of finish?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

[Ramsey]

Store it where ever you want. It has been used for shingles on roofs, floors in nicer motels, blackboards, etc.. It is VERY soft and even worse, delaminates. Have seen it used as a hearth on a fireplce and it looked very nice. It will work with anything you would use on marble. How you work it depends on the end use.

[Kevin S.]

Roofing. And I was worried about moisture. Silly me. So what causes it to delaminate? Just its sedimentary origins?

[Ramsey]

Yes, it is a natural property of the material.

[Ramsey]

Kevin , that was NOT a stupid question. Most people never run into any or have enough to do anything with so they don't know much about it. First time I ran into some I asked the identical questions and felt foolish also. But I learned.

[rew]

A pool table would be nice . . .

[Andy Dingley]

Depends on your slate. There's a lot of variation in it. Sawn or cleaved ? (probably sawn, if it was a table). Cleaved slate especially, it doesn't like getting damp and then cold, as it will start to delaminate on the surface.

Slate works quite easily, but can split if you force it. Be carful when drilling and always use a backing board. A "tile file", carbide abrasive on either a steel file or a piece of gridwork, is useful. Dust is a moderate hazard.

[Kevin]

Build an aquarium. About 20+ years ago, most aquariums had slate bottoms. This added considerably to their weight. Nowadays they have glass bottoms.

[Roy Smith]

Speaking of slate....

I've got what I estimate must be several tons of the stuff in my garage. This is not nice finished 3/4" stuff like you might buy for making a patio, but huge thick hunks. Most of the pieces are 3-4 inches thick! Most have one good (i.e. flat) side. Most are irregular shapes, ranging up to about 4 square feet.

All of this is located in my garage in the City Island section of The Bronx, New York City. It's free for the taking. I want to keep a few pieces for some random projects I need to finish, but if you come with a truck and do the labor of carrying it out of my garage, you can have all the rest for free.

I honestly have no idea what (if anything) it's worth on the open market, but right now it's just taking up space I could put to better use.

[RKP51X]

I have worked with slate shingles for small table tops. It can be cut with a ceramic tile saw. The hardness of slate varies. Some pieces are solid and others flake away when you work them. The edge needs to be protected on the finished piece to prevent chipping. Roger Poplin dba [e-mail]

[Robert Bonomi]

No concerns there. I would *not* wrap. Truthfully, I'm not sure _how_ one would 'hurt' it. Some kinds of liquids might cause staining, i guess..

real slate is somewhat brittle, doesn't take large impacts well. *very* durable. A common use is church roofs.

Not a clue on 'working' it.

[J.B. Bobbitt]

Slate is a rock.

It was around for hundreds of millions of years at great temperatures and pressures before it was brought to the surface, and then sat around for millions of years near the earth's surface before it quarried. Storing it at "surface temperture and pressure" shouldn't be a problem (as long as it isn't saturated w/ water, which should be hard to do). The reason it was used for a pool table bed is its dimensional stability and relative hardness (compared ot wood, anyway), and its fissility.

It is too soft to be used as a lapping surface. The most abundant minerals in slate are micas (Mohs hardness ~ 2-1/2 to 4), but with some minor quartz, feldspar etc., which are quite a bit harder harder (Mohs hardness ~7). It'll cut easily w/ a diamond blade, but I'd be leary of using a carbide blade on it. I'd think it produce ragged edges due to the fissility.

Just my $0.02 worth.

-JBB

[Lew Hodgett]

Another pool table shot to hell.

What a waste.

[Kevin S.]

It was a rather small table, scarcely bigger than a bumper table. Even still, I personally would have left it, but my friends apparently have other plans, dictated by the confines of the room.

Several responses have suggested building a new table but I don't see a big demand for a playing surface less than 40" x 60". Given the diminutive surface, the slate might be better served as several future projects.

[Lew Hodgett]

Standard pool table is 4-1/2'x9' and a snooker table is 5'x10', so can understand your comment.

Having far too many hours of my youth bent over real slate tables with live cushions and high quality felt on top of that slate, guess I'm a little sensitive.

It is a part of my past.

[Cult of Nurse's]

We had a slate coffee table once. It was quite nice for a living room with a 'jungle' motif.

['nuther Bob]

Oh, that's different, never mind :-)

That might work. It's fine for a table top as long as you don't expect it to resist all markings. You might be able to find a local stone yard that would make any cuts you need with a jumbo water saw for less money than you'd pay for a blade.

Bob

[Andy Dingley]

What colour is this slate ?

And does it matter ?

Here in the UK, we have two sorts of slate. Green slate comes from the lake district. It's hard, doesn't split, and is sawn to shape. Lousy for roofing, makes good billiard tables.

Grey slate (which is sometimes purplish) comes from North Wales. It splits easily, so is used for roofing. I've also seen it used for water tanks (all houses used to have one in the roofspace), formed from slabs glued together with molten lead. Surface tends to fail (slowly) if you leave it outdoors, especially with moss on it.

What's US slate like ? Where does it come from ?

[raven]

Hostoricly, US slate is from the exact same deposits as UK slate, only they're in the North East (these slate deposits formed when Europe and North America were together) the properties are similar.

Now adays, slate in the US comes from India :(

John

[Kevin P. Fleming]

Not pool table slate, though. Most of it comes from Brazil, or Italy if you buy a high-end table.