Thread: I Found It Over There

If it's a commercial site forget it. They would never allow you in. if you were to get injured they would be responsible. Some sites will allow you to sign a release but you have to be careful because many sites consider "collectors" trespassers and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

In my younger days we made it a habit of going into mines and quarries and several times got out in the nick of time before the law arrived.

Just been and picked up a mid priced tile saw. It's got 180mm discs and will cut at 33mm.

I've got to have a good look round the machine but it looks very promising to be able to pick up a 300mm (12") disc for it. The standard flange is 22mm on the machine. If I take that and get it machined to 20mm, Then chop a few parts off I should be able to get the 300mm disc to sit pretty.



If I go the 300mm route I have to remove the steel support on the right hand side of the image. It's just thin sheet steel and should cut fast with a grinder. Then I will have to chop the table up a bit so the blade fits. I think it should be possible.

I ran a stone on it today to see how well it works. It's made a very tidy job. I'll put up some images of the rock later, It's a striped sparkling diorite, That seems to be in the 8K range.


Edit, Just found a 350mm (14") blade with a 22mm bore. The price is good as well and it's continuous rim.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JCB-MXCR-1...item3ce0ad05ef

With that blade All I need to do is cut up the frame and table and make a solid mounting for the unit to sit on. It should also give me a 4 1/2" cut depth.

Hadnt thought about modifying my current tile saw to use a bigger blade....genious....

As promised here are pictures of the Diorite I chopped up.

Note for the rockhounds, Diorite is identical to Granite in terms of composition. The difference been that Diorite is a lava flow, So it cools faster and produces smaller crystals. This one acts almost identically to my Trans black arkie. I've been avoiding the void at the end. But it just keeps polishing, It's finish on the razor is almost scratch-less. And it seems to be able to improve a 12K edge pretty well. I think my original 8K estimate was biased due to a 400 grit surface finish, Once I went to 600 then 1000 grit it lost almost all of it's scratch pattern.

HHT off the stone is a failure for me atm. It's very close, 5 laps on crox and 50 on leather and it's laser sharp. Might be that it's giving a small wire edge.

Looks fantastic iceni

Nice! It's good to see new hones. They have been just lying around for millions of years waiting to be repurposed.

Not to be snooty but diorite and granite are very different. Their formation is similar as far as where they come from and method but while granite is quartz, feldspar and mica diorite is mostly dark plagioclase feldspar with very little quartz or mica. Once the quartz and mica increases it's really a different rock.Also diorite can vary quite a bit. Diorite is a very hard rock and is difficult to work with.

I'll bet you didn't know the code of Hammurabi was carved on diorite.

Diorite is a very hard rock and is difficult to work with.

Your not joking there, It makes the arkie look soft! I have a plate of this stuff to work so when I get chance I'll chop it up and ship some out. I think I should be able to make at least another 2 from the same plate.

Are rocks that are mostly quartzs and a nice white or pink or red colors any good for sharpening if one was to cut them up.

Are rocks that are mostly quartzs and a nice white or pink or red colors any good for sharpening if one was to cut them up.

Quartz is generally regarded as been something to avoid from what I can gather. I'm not 100% on why it's bad, I'm sure the others will know the technicalities of it. Generally even a small amount of Quartz is regarded as been a bad thing from what I have read.