What to cut marble with at home

Diamond cutting discs cut stone like a charm.

Continuing to deal with tools and equipment and today I will tell you what you need a diamond cutting disc, what kinds are available, run through the and manufacturers, so you know what discs to buy. I hope that each of you has an angle grinder is an indispensable tool for most works, where something needs to be cut or grind. In this article let’s analyze a disc for the angle grinder, because the stone at home can be cut only with an angle grinder.

Many people mistakenly believe that once diamond disk, they can cut everything they want and nothing will do it. This opinion is fundamentally wrong, first of all such a disk is designed for cutting stone brick (silicate and red), concrete, marble, granite, slate, paving stone, tile and porcelain tile. Of course, there are expensive professional discs for reinforced concrete, which cut concrete with rebar inside as if by oil, but they are very expensive, in my next articles I will tell you about them.

So, an ordinary diamond cutting disc for angle grinder for stone only. Size, I think you can not say, of course you know that cutting-off wheels are 115 mm, 125 mm, 150, 180, 200 and 230 mm. The average size is also rare, more often people have a small angle grinder at 115-125 mm and 230 mm large angle grinder. So what types of diamond cutting discs are there, let’s see, because many people, when they want to buy a diamond disc, do not even know what kind they need and what they can cut. We will hold an educational course )) For everyday use in the home a segmented diamond disk (for dry cutting) is perfect. You can see what it looks like in the photo below.

Diamond segment blade for dry cutting

marble, home

The disc is designed in segments, this is necessary for cooling the disc. Diamond discs must be cooled down once and for all; only then will they last for a long time. Many people buy a dry disc and use it to cut a continuous line in the concrete for 10 minutes without stopping. this is a major violation of the rules of diamond cutting disc use, if they cut continuously for at least 3 minutes the diamonds will immediately become worthless. So try not to cut more than 2 minutes continuously, and better yet not more than 1 minute. After you have been sawing for about 30 seconds, take the disk out of the kerf, wait until it stops and then saw again.

A disk for dry cutting can saw any brick (white, red, fireclay), slate, paving stone, asphalt, marble, granite (I immediately noticed that the natural stone needs to saw with special circles, but as an option you can cut with such, if not constantly). Also with a certain amount of skill segmented diamond disc can cut tiles, although for tiles there are special solid diamond discs for wet cutting. Segmental disk is not very suitable for cutting tiles, it jumps on it because of the segments. For tiles, you need a solid disc.

The second most popular disc is a combination, the Turbo as you see in the photo below, it is solid, but cooling is due to the wave-shaped design. You can cut any stone with it, it is more universal but costs more than a segmented one. This disc can cut tiles without any chips, even dry. It is also convenient for sawing bricks and any other stone.

Since we are considering diamond cutting discs for home use I will not tell you about the expensive, super high quality professional discs, we are going to discuss inexpensive home diamond cutting discs. After all, many people buy them just for once, and then they lie idle on a shelf in the garage. Why pay a lot of money if you only need to cut a couple of times? So we will save our money.

Of the best-selling and most popular home diamond wheels I would mention Zubr, we generally went for them because they are completely in the price-quality category, moderately expensive and very good quality. Also not bad circles company Sparta and Matrix known household brands, inexpensive, for the home is the best.

I often get asked if you can cut iron with a diamond wheel?

The answer is yes, I could do it myself, but only when the diamond disc was mine and not the employer’s.) If I bought the disk for myself I would not cut iron because diamond cutting disk gets clogged with iron dust much faster than stone dust. In fact, the instructions of some models say in black and white not to cut metal! Of course if the situation is that you need to cut fixtures and you do not have a cutting wheel for metal at hand then you can make a couple of cuts with a diamond wheel, but no more than that.

But is it worth buying a diamond cutting disc when you can buy an ordinary stone disc??

There are also some requests with this question. Reply. It all depends on what you plan to cut and in what volumes. Disks dry cutters for stone (Meadows green), are a penny 35, but they are just great cuts in calcium silicate brick (white) and marble. They cut like butter. So my opinion is that you should not buy a diamond disc to cut white bricks. On the other hand, if you plan to cut a lot, then it is definitely better to buy a diamond cutter, because it is simply unbreakable, and the simple dry cutter is worn out (if you do not know)). If you need to saw a red brick it is very strong, simple circles on the stone it burns instantly, as well as accurately and on concrete, so there is only one option to buy a diamond disc, preferably segmented.

Dry cut (segmental) firm Zubr 115 mm 130 125 mm 170 230 mm 550

115 mm 170 125 mm 200 230 mm 650

If you treat carefully the diamond cutting disc, it will last a very long time, especially when used at home.

How to cut stone with an angle grinder?

The diameter of the wheel directly determines how thick the material can be cut, as well as how powerful the angle grinder will be.

For example, 76 mm diameter discs used in cordless angle grinders. The depth of cut when using them is about 20 mm, and if we take into account the grinding, then this option is not suitable even for cutting granite tiles (15-20 mm). Plus, do not forget about versatility.

115 mm diameter discs are the more common option. This is the minimum size for chain angle grinder (angle grinders, or, in common parlance. grinders). The cutting depth when using such a disk is 25-30 mm. They can easily cut tiles without any problems. It is also suitable for artistic cuts in marble and granite. However, it can hardly be called universal due to its relatively small cutting depth.

The most popular variant is a 125 mm diameter cut-off disc for angle grinders. This variant combines the best qualities: cutting depth is 35 mm, so you can work with facing tiles as well as with plates up to 30 mm thick; it is great for artistic cutting; weight and size allow you to work comfortably with this disc for a long time “by weight”.

In addition to the above mentioned there are less popular cutting discs 150 mm, 180 mm, 200 mm, etc.ะด. But I would like to highlight the cutting disc with 230 mm diameter. Such discs are used by professionals and are suitable for long-term work. They are indispensable in the manufacture of funerary products: the depth of cut. 70-80 mm allows using them to make unique shaped monuments.

How I polished marble with turtles Grinding marble angle grinder

Many builders and finishers are sometimes faced with the fact that you need to grind or polish marble. Of course, polishing and grinding on factory equipment will be no problem, but what to do when you need to handle marble manually? The problem for those who have never encountered with the processing of this beautiful natural stone. I worked as a graver-camenote as much as 5 years and knows firsthand how to grind and polish marble and granite.

When clients order a shaped monument for their relatives, they choose the figure they liked and we first saw out a polished marble slab figure, and then grind the cuts, giving the slab a beautiful appearance of the shaped monument and then polish the marble (cuts from the angle grinder) to a mirror shine. Of course, builders often need to treat marble tiles or decor elements, essentially the same thing. In this article I will tell about the whole technology of grinding and polishing marble. Let’s go

By sanding we mean removing some layer of marble from the entire surface of the workpiece, whether it’s a tile or something else. Let’s say you were laying a marble tile on the floor or wall and it turned out that one tile is a little bit higher than the other. What to do, the tiles should be flush to each other. And as an option is to remove 2-3 millimeters of marble, level the surface and polish to a mirror shine aligned tile, because after grinding it does not shine at all. Of course, the example given is as an option, the tiler is unlikely to make a mistake, but here we are considering how to grind marble. So, to remove a big layer of marble (2mm and more) we need a diamond cup for concrete. Of course, it can also grind marble and granite.

To remove the 2 mm layer of marble it is not necessary to have a powerful angle grinder, you can do with a standard small angle grinder with 700-800 Watt and a 125 mm disc diameter. We attach the diamond cup to the angle grinder and begin to grind carefully the protrusion that needs to be removed. To grind 2 mm of marble with an area of 3030 cm, we need a little time, about 10 minutes. Of course sometimes it is necessary to grind a large area, here the technology is the same, but it is better to take a larger angle grinder, and it is better to have a larger diamond cup diameter, for example 150, 180 or 230 mm.

So, the necessary area is grinded, the marble became white and does not shine at all. Now our task is to polish the ground marble surface to the factory polish. For this we need diamond flexible grinding discs.

If grinding the marble is fast enough, but giving the sanded surface a mirror-like shine is a very slow task. To polish marble we need a flexible diamond discs, popularly they are also called turtles, because the working side of these attachments to the angle grinder have a picture of the shell of a turtle. Have a Velcro fastener. Complete list of necessary tools for marble polishing:

Small angle grinder (angle grinder) with adjustable speed (necessarily with adjustment). 2. Disk with a sticky disc with diameter of 100 mm (you can take the standard 125 mm sticky disc and cut it with a knife to 100 mm in diameter). Because the diameter of the turtles is 100 mm. 3. Set of turtles, for marble polishing 6 types of grits are enough: 50, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 the whole set with the disk can be bought for 2200. This is what the set of turtles with disc looks like, the different colors are colored in order not to confuse the grits.

So, if everything is there, let’s proceed to polishing marble. Screw the disk with velcro on the angle grinder, set the first speed on the angle grinder, stick on the holder turtle and start polishing. Number 50 turtle is the largest, so we use it to remove the biggest scratches on marble left by the diamond cup. Slowly polishing, trying to remove the biggest scratches, not completely remove them, but make them less deep. Machining with 50 grit is superficial anyway. When the whole surface is passed, we remove 50 grains and glue a 100-grain turtle. We also pass all the surface, the most important thing here is not to hurry. You will see that the marble starts to darken, this is what we need, with each finer grain it will darken even more. We are trying to remove the white stripes on the marble that are vanishing scratches during polishing. The next one is 200 grit. After it the marble is already much darker, we are almost close to the finish. Then the 400 grit after it the marble is almost the same as the factory polish, but there is still a difference. And the final 800 grains, after polishing marble with this grain it starts to shine, it is dark and inexperienced look is difficult to distinguish manual polishing from the factory one.

To make the marble shine even stronger, apply a little silicone and polish the surface with a felt wheel (felt wheels are sold with velcro, fastening is the same as that of the turtle). Of course, later this shine will disappear, the silicone will evaporate, but at first it lasts a long time. Useful for builders who rent out an object and do not do it for themselves. As an option, if you do not have time last turtle 400, after that a quick polishing with felt wheel with silicone. And you do not have to go through 800, saving time.

In addition to silicone, you can use ordinary oil, but here you need to proceed with caution, because the oil is very noticeable on the soft marble. Use it on hard rocks, on fine marble. Although this is as an option, I would never do a weasel, I always go over with all nozzles without missing a single grain. But the especially impatient ones go through 50, then 200 and then 800 at once. Needless to say, that from such work, the diamond flexible discs-turtles quickly fall into disrepair. So, if you have your turtles and you are sorry to spoil an inexpensive tool, then when polishing marble go through all the grit in order.

Master class on splitting stones

Greetings on the project Blog about a stone.

marble, home

Today I’ll tell you about the workshop on splitting rocks which we hold for the second time within the framework of annual summer eco-camp on lake Chudskoe.

Last year we fully mastered the technology of cleaving large rocks with wedges and demonstrated it to the audience. I must say that it turned out very spectacular, interesting and each participant wanted to try to do it themselves.

This year we expanded the program and tested a new tool for splitting rocks

Eco Camp is an event organized by the Ecocenter “Natural House” and Sergey Yerofeev on the Lake Chudskoe for those who want to learn the basics of building with natural materials, master classes and seminars by specialists in construction, landscape and agriculture.

In the vicinity of Lake Chudskoe there are a lot of large boulders, cobblestones and rocks, which in their natural state are not very suitable for construction. So when they are removed from the fields, they are stockpiled somewhere nearby so they don’t get in the way.

marble, home

Within this camp it was necessary to find a simple solution for the application of this natural material. This is what our master class on splitting rocks was all about.

The idea is very simple. If we could learn to split the stone so that it would split not chaotically, but into planned pieces, then this material could be used for the local construction and development of the eco-center. post:

The published article became very popular on the Internet; people began referring to it and posting this information on various forums.

People started writing to me, consulting me on the technology and asking where to buy these very wedges for the stone?

I should say at once that wedges for splitting stone, as it turned out, is a scarce commodity. So there were a lot of different attempts to replace them.

The most common is a sawed along metal tube, which is inserted into a drilled hole and a chisel is hammered into it.

But I wanted to find a more beautiful solution. This is what we did at the eco-camp, as well as giving a master class for those who wished to do it.

How to process granite at home?

Before you cut and grind the stone you must make a precise marking, taking into account all the necessary clearances. Remember that when you cut the stone on the scythe line, you will remove 2-3 millimeters in the place of the cut and get a smaller width. To apply the markings use diamond scribes (resembling a pen with a diamond tip), the cost of which starts at 300

Rough cutting granite and marble may well be done angle grinder (familiar to all angle grinder), it is better to choose a reliable brand Makita with a disc size of 230 mm, which will cost us from 7 thousand. To avoid accidents and damage to the material, fix the tile securely (you can press it firmly with your foot to the floor). When working, do not remove the factory protection, there is always a risk to buy a low-quality diamond disc, which can break and fly away. Also wear safety glasses, and make sure the edges of your clothing and sleeves are not hanging down.

Cuts of complex configuration is performed in steps, carefully break up the hands in places where the circle could not reach and grind the remaining jagged edges.

Rough cuts can be ground using a special grinding disk for angle grinders. Processing of granite of this quality is enough if you hide the seam when laying tiles, for example, in the corner of the wall. If the cut will be located under the baseboard, there is no need for grinding.

For finish polishing of open ends (for example, on steps) it is required careful processing of granite with flexible diamond grinding wheels (the price from 240), these disks are popularly called “turtles” because of the small resemblance to the shell of a turtle. You will need a “caliper” to hold the “turtles”, or a professional tile holder. Soft convex holders are used for polishing curved surfaces, rigid holders are used for smooth surfaces (cost from 600 ).

exact processing of granite at cutting is carried out by a diamond hand saw with water supply, but also cost of such “pleasure”. from 30 thousand.

Processing of granite and marble in places of a conclusion of pipes will demand use of diamond crowns and drills (cost from about 2000). It is better to buy a drill or grinder with adjustable number of rpm, as for each attachment has its own recommended speed when drilling holes.

To get the effect of antique use diamond brushes to age the surface of the stone, which are also mounted on the angle grinder (cost from 850). Such processing of granite and marble got the name of brushing. It is enough to pass 1-2 times on all surface to receive a characteristic drawing.

Scraping of natural stone is performed with the use of coarse-abrasive grinding wheels followed by treatment with rubber discs, which allows you to get an even, smooth, matte surface without a mirror-like shine. This way the texture of the material and its pattern is revealed more deeply, and there is no sliding on the surface.

As you have seen, the processing of granite in the home is quite possible to do with their own hands, but it will require a set of power tools, disks and attachments to them. For a significant amount of work it will be profitable to buy an angle grinder, drill, discs, drills and brushes, and if you need two or three cuts it is better to turn to professional construction teams, which will come out much cheaper and you do not have to take risks, not having experience.

At the present time, modern stone-cutting production gives the opportunity to treat almost any rock. The technology of marble processing, as well as other natural material, is divided into several important stages:

How to grind marble at home. told earlier in https://samastroyka.The tools are specially made for this purpose and use special technology.

Marble processing as it was mentioned above is divided into stages, the first of which is sawing the natural material. Only specialized machines are used for sawing. They can be band, disk and wire.

After the marble is sawn, its surface is not very smooth and flat, so the next step is grinding. Grinding of marble is achieved by using electric tools with special grinding attachments.

Grinding and polishing machines are used for this purpose at the factory. At home, for marble processing the angle grinder and polishing disks to it with different abrasivity level acts as a basic tool.

The final step is to polish the marble and protect its surface for further use. Polishing natural stone is a very important technological process that helps to reveal not only the beautiful pattern of the stone surface, but also its natural color.

Marble processing at home

The most labor-intensive part of the work connected with the processing of marble at home is, of course, the cutting of the material. It should be done with water and in a room with good ventilation. It helps not only to cool the tool, but also to reduce the amount of stone dust emitted.

The stone dust, allocated as at cutting, so and at grinding a natural stone is very harmful, therefore presence of the qualitative extractor is simply necessary.

How to Cut a Marble Countertop

Most often, for cutting marble at home is used an ordinary angle grinder with a disk set on a stone. For more precise cutting, metal saws with moving platforms are used.

Grinding and polishing marble, in many ways similar technology to give the material a finished look with a smooth surface. The tools most often used for such work are polishing machines and angle grinder with grinding disks.

Well, for engraving natural stone, including marble, special appliances are used with cutters on the stone. For further processing of marble after engraving at home, most often use an electric drill with polishing nozzles.

Marble tile cutting

Marble is a great choice for a countertop or flooring. The disadvantage is that the material is expensive and requires specialist assistance during installation.

Simplify and reduce the project cost, using a large marble or ceramic tile (side dimension. 610 mm) instead of an array.

Such products have machined edges. The thickness of the seam between the tiles. 1 mm, so they can simulate a solid marble surface, which is easy to care for (especially when using epoxy grout).

Such large products will have to undercut, which is difficult to do without professional, large and expensive tile cutters. However, you can also use an ordinary circular saw with a diamond cutting edge for work.

Marble cutting tool selection criteria

To saw the stone at home you need modern devices, which are necessary for construction works. They are divided into: electric tools; manual; diesel. According to the specificity of the tool there are: jewelry; industrial; machines for construction.

Hand saws are suitable for home use in terms of cost and load.

Electric tools show good performance, but in terms of power are superior to gasoline-powered saws.

There are also stationary and manual machines for processing marble.

The first ones are used by professionals, and the second ones are convenient for home use. Any model of tool is equipped with a blade that consists of an iron body and a lip. The segmented edge is sprayed with diamond, which is responsible for a quality cut. Depending on the power of the machine, you can determine the speed of the blade. The more rotations on a tool, the faster material is processed.

Attention! The fast speed of processing may cause chipping on the edge that must be grinded additionally. One of the methods, to avoid the chipping is the double pass of the cut, when the upper cut is made with the disc not slow, and then for the whole thickness with the fast one.

Thermal

The marble cannot be thermally treated with your own hands, it can only be done in a workshop equipped with special machines. The point of the process is to heat the surface of the stone to its melting point for a short period of time. When it hardens, it becomes rough, with visible traces of peeling. It is possible to make the surface more durable and non-slippery (which is important if the marble is used to create steps).

Crystallization

It is considered a separate method of thermal processing, because it also strengthens the surface. It is carried out by means of surface-active substances or acids. Unlike heat treatment, it gives the material a mirror-like shine, accentuates color and pattern. Available for home use.