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Has anyone tried routing marble?

Steve Maskery

Steve Maskery

Old Oak
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I want a round marble disk for a Lazy Susan. I did buy one from the Big River. It came from Ireland (that well known calcium carbonate source), but when it came it was damaged. It looked like it had a chunk taken out and had been repaired with paste filler. The filler had simply fallen out. It was made in China. Fortunately Irish customer service is better than Chinese marble processing.
In my workshop there is a marble-topped dresser, in pieces, and it occured to me that I might be able to rout a circle out of it. Has anyone tried? It's a very long time since I did any chemistry, let alone mineralogy, but IIRC, marble is not a very hard material. It's not granite, is it?
Any experince gratefully received.
S
 
Hmmm. I've cut marble. Both mosaic pieces and much larger pieces, both with diamond disc cutters running wet. I have a second hand tiler's table cutter which squirts water onto the blade at the cut point, and the blade runs quite slowly. Does a perfect job but only straight cuts.

You can dry cut it with an angle grinder with a diamond blade in it, but it chips and is nowhere near as good as wet cutting. I would say you could do lots of tangential cuts and get very close to a circle which could be edge polished with a grinding bit or a small angle grinder, but I personally would not risk using a router to do this, and especially not wet.

If you have a pace near you that makes graveyard headstones or kitchen worktops, they will have wet cutting capabilities and could probably do it for you for not much cash.
 
I've always assumed that kitchen worktop manufacturers would grind it?

I wonder if you could make a jig to rotate it in front of a bench grinder having used an angle grinder to get it close to shape first?

Disclaimer: I've no idea if this would work or if it's dangerous. I can imagine that it would make a real mess though!
 
Either a cut it yourself with lst of dust or water and powertools or get a stonemasion to do it for you.

3rd option corian.

Pete
 
If it arrived damaged, Steve, why don't you just get Amazon to replace it?
 
Mike G said:
If it arrived damaged, Steve, why don't you just get Amazon to replace it?
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I was offered a replacement, but the one I received had almost zero marbling, unlike the image in the listing. I desalt directly with the vendor and their customer service was exemlary.
This was a manufacturer's bodge, the damaged area had been filled with some kind of marble filler. It was not a good match and hadn't been smoothed off. As soon as I touched it it came away and I then found a a few more bits inside the package. I figured that if that was the quality, I didn't really want it. It wasn't as if it was cheap. So the hunt continues.
S
 
That is exactly what I want, but I've not found one here. France, or at least this part of it, is not well served with retail opprtunities.
The one I bought was considerably more expensive that that one, too.
S
 
Steve I'm sure that many members, myself included, would be very willing to post something like that to you if you wanted to purchase from a UK company.
 
That's good of you BM, it may come to that.
We have to go to Limoges in the next week or so, I'll have a look round there. If I don't get any joy, I'll take you up on your very kind offer.
S
 
The CNC guys use diamond-coated router cutters for stone (Google "brazed diamond router cutter" and you'll get loads of results). They can also get used on portable routers (providing your router is powerful enough). Your router will likely get very hot, like they do when routing hard composite materials (so you'll need a big router) and it'll also generate massive amounts of extremely fine dust, which is full of silicates. Those are very hazardous to health if breathed in.

The guys I've seen cutting marble professionally use water suppression (hydraulic motors, too) and wear air fed full face masks or helmets. I've occasionally trimmed both marble and granite work top in situ using dry diamond discs on angle grinders. It's very dusty work and you need at least a properly face-fitted P3 mask (so no beard for starters, and by P3 I mean a lot better than an off the shelf paper mask).

Probably a lot easier to find a stone mason and get one of them to do the job for you. I use a local firm who make kitchen worktops and marble fire places.
 
Ovaloe said:
The CNC guys use diamond-coated router cutters for stone (Google "brazed diamond router cutter" and you'll get loads of results). They can also get used on portable routers (providing your router is powerful enough). Your router will likely get very hot, like they do when routing hard composite materials (so you'll need a big router) and it'll also generate massive amounts of extremely fine dust, which is full of silicates. Those are very hazardous to health if breathed in.
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I'm not sure if they still do (as you say, they might use hydraulic-powered machines now) but monumental masons used to use air-powered routers for that kind of work as the cut could be flooded with water to keep the dust down without any risk of an electric shock. You see a lot of guys using grinders with bullnosing attachments and similar without wearing a mask, they'll pay for it down the line.

I think they're considering banning artificial stone worktops like Corian and Quartz in the UK, Australia already has due to the sheer amount of silicosis cases from people working with it without proper PPE and dust suppression, and it's people in their 20s and 30s who are getting it severely, not like the previous generation who were exposed to asbestos which often didn't manifest as a health issue until decades after exposure.
 
Trevanion said:
I'm not sure if they still do (as you say, they might use hydraulic-powered machines now) but monumental masons used to use air-powered routers for that kind of work as the cut could be flooded with water to keep the dust down without any risk of an electric shock. You see a lot of guys using grinders with bullnosing attachments and similar without wearing a mask, they'll pay for it down the line.

I think they're considering banning artificial stone worktops like Corian and Quartz in the UK, Australia already has due to the sheer amount of silicosis cases from people working with it without proper PPE and dust suppression, and it's people in their 20s and 30s who are getting it severely, not like the previous generation who were exposed to asbestos which often didn't manifest as a health issue until decades after exposure.
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Yes I’ve read the same thing. I young guy was suing his employer after having his life ruined. He just didn’t know any better but his employer certainly should have.
 
Trevanion said:
You see a lot of guys using grinders with bullnosing attachments and similar without wearing a mask, they'll pay for it down the line.
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Yes indeed. Hence my comments to Steve about masks, etc
Trevanion said:
I think they're considering banning artificial stone worktops like Corian and Quartz in the UK,
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AFAIK not Corian or other solid surfaces. Those are basically either just acrylic or acrylic/polyurethane co-polymers but otherwise generally contain no silicates. It's quartz worktops, mainly artificial, which are the big concern, because of the potential to release silicates when cut. We already have laws covering dust on the workplace. The issue is really a lot of cowboy kitchen worktop firms who are ignoring the law and cutting without adequate PPE or extraction in place and a lack of HSE enforcement

BTW asbestos was often cut with hand saws which releases a lot fewer hazardous fibres into the atmosphere. You still went home covered in white dust at the end of a day's fire lining, even if you'd damped the sheets down with water to reduce the dust. Amazing that it killed as few as it did, really
 
Ovaloe said:
BTW asbestos was often cut with hand saws which releases a lot fewer hazardous fibres into the atmosphere. You still went home covered in white dust at the end of a day's fire lining, even if you'd damped the sheets down with water to reduce the dust. Amazing that it killed as few as it did, really
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Funnily enough I was looking through an old catalogue the other day and you could buy mortice chains for morticing asbestos (and also lead), though I'm not sure when that would be useful.
 
Trevanion said:
...... you could buy mortice chains for morticing......lead), though I'm not sure when that would be useful.
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Loose ballast frequently needs to be shaped around pipes, wires, bolts, fixings etc in the bilges of yachts. The lead is cast in standard sizes and shapes, ingots essentially, and then cut and shaped to fit the space.
 
Ballast has become a black art in boats. Many smaller yachts use water ballast these days and can sometimes pump it around. Superyac hts have to, due to fuel load. Canting keels are used quite a lot on racing yachts nowadays, and pop weight (or whatever they are called) keels are seen too. Foilers use complex systems based largely on rig. In some classes (not UK) lead is outlawed though I'm not sure why.
 
Trevanion said:
Funnily enough I was looking through an old catalogue the other day and you could buy mortice chains for morticing asbestos (and also lead), though I'm not sure when that would be useful.
Click to expand...
When given repaired leaded glass to reinstall in historic doors I always take along a low angle block plane. Mine trims lead a treat (sometimes the new leading can be a tad oversize). Much easier and safer for a wood butcher like me to use a plane than one of those finger removers (lead knives) that the lead men used to have. Not sure I'd want to mortise lead OR asbestos, however I do know that lead drills cleanly if you get the right feed and speed
 
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