SKY:
RE: "a) I would like to know how other people go about lifting
and maneuvering stone in the workshop. "
There are several solutions depending on how much space and
money you have. I have a very small studio -- a converted
freestanding one-car garage adjacent to my house in a
residential neighborhood. I don't have very much room inside,
but I do have a driveway. Years ago I began with a knock-down
A-frame that I welded-up out of steel I-beam and 3" & 4" pipe.
It is wide enough I can back my pick-up truck under it.
I use a 2-ton chain hoist with 3/8" or 5/16" proof-coil chain or
2" wide nylon slings to lift the stone. I also have an old
platform truck with 8" and 10" caster wheels so I can roll large
blocks around after unloading. (see the artist photo page at my
website for a picture of this set-up: www.dondougan.com ) This
A-frame is an eyesore to the neighborhood, so I need to knock it
down and store it when I am not using it. Though I have gotten
it set-up or knocked-down by myself, it is a lot easier (and
much safer) to have one or two other folks to help. That is a
royal pain in the . . . well, you get the picture.
Later I found an automotive knock-down engine hoist for about
$200. It will not lift as much weight as the chain hoist, but it
will take up to a ton. The main advantages are: it rolls easily
on flat concrete (like my studio floor), it can be set-up inside
the studio (unlike the big A-frame), it can be easily loaded
into the pick-up truck and taken to an installation site, and it
knocks down easily and stores in a 2" x 3" area of floor space.
The main disadvantages are: it needs to be set up on a level
surface for stability and safe operation, and that it rolls
awkwardly on blacktop (like my driveway), or does not roll at
all on grass/dirt/gravel. Similar engine hoists are commonly
available for rent at your local tool rental businesses. The
rental versions are fitted with a tow-bar tongue so they can be
hitched behind your vehicle, and easily moved to your site. They
do not knock-down.
One point to remember: The off-the-shelf knock-down legs of the
platform are not very far apart (after all, it is an engine
hoist designed to fit between the wheels of small automobiles).
Not long ago I needed to install a 1/2 ton sculpture in an
office building lobby on an existing 32" plinth (about 8" too
wide to fit between the legs). In order to do this I had to
fabricate a second larger platform on which to bolt the hoist
frame instead of the knock-down leg platform.
I did all the welding, but the pre-cut pieces of steel I
purchased from the steel supply house cost me about $100, plus
another $20 for steel casters to weld on the bottom so it would
roll. A plus is that it is much more stable than the narrow
version, but I cannot use it to roll and load into the middle of
the bed of small pick-up because the legs are the same width as
the wheels of my truck. Now I gotta have room to store whichever
one I am currently not using with the hoist!
For a simpler hoist frame in the field, I use a hoist frame made
out of three 14 foot long pieces of 4x4 lumber arranged into a
tall tripod, and fastened together with three 1/2" bolts. With a
looped piece of chain I drop a wire cable "Come-Along" (a small
chain hoist would also work) so I can lift the piece high enough
to load it into the back of the truck. A stone sculptor friend
of mine made a similar (but less crude than my tripod) A-frame
out of 4x4's and with it uses a small 1/2-ton chain hoist. He
made it with hinges and a drop-in crosspiece with braces so it
knocks-down quickly and fits in the back of his pick-up.
There is also available from industrial/commercial equipment
suppliers (like C&H - see below), and monument industry
suppliers (like BICKNELL - see below) a 'hand-truck' with a
geared lifting table that sets you back about $1,000 or so.
Another option I have used is to fit a hand-cranked boat winch
to the end of a long ramp. Using pieces of dowel or broom
handles as replaceable rollers under the block I have moved
1/2-ton pieces into my truck by myself. For getting it out I
could have used the winch and ramp fastened my work table, but
that would have been a lot of trouble compared to the A-frame I
already had set up to unload.
When no other option is available, the use of a lever and
various sizes of other blocks of stone or pieces of lumber
stacked to height gets the stone up to the level for working on
it comfortably. Not easily portable, but a workable and cheap
low-tech solution.
C & H DISTRIBUTORS, INC.
400 South 5th Street
P.O.Box 04499
Milwaukee, WI 53204
414 271-2250
800 558-9966
Shop/warehouse/office equipment. Shelves to air compressors, emergency
lights to dollies, furniture, signs, safety eqip. Catalog.
BICKNELL MANUFACTURING
360 COLLEGE AVENUE
ELBERTON GA 30635
706 283-1901
800 241-7105
Tools/supplies for the monument/granite industry: pneumatic hammers,
chisels, hand tools, abrasives, sandblasting, moving & handling
equipment, polishing supplies. Also in Rockland, Maine.
RE: " b) I have been told that I shouldn't sharpen my chisels using an
electric sharpening wheel. Is this correct?"
Depends on how careful you are. If you hold the (high-carbon
tool steel) tool on the standard aluminum oxide grinding wheel
too long the friction will cause the metal to heat up. If the
metal starts changing color you are ruining the temper, which is
the correct hardness/toughness for the tool. When you burn the
temper out, the chisel loses the hardness and will dull rapidly
as you try to carve.
If you are careful to hold the chisel lightly against the
grinding wheel for brief intervals and allow it to cool (or
quench in lukewarm water) between each grind the chisel can be
sharpened on an electric grinder/sander fairly quickly. If the
surface color changes on the tip of the cutting edge you will
need to re-temper the tool ( see Billy's message of October 2nd,
2000 RE: [stone] marble carving tools ) for info on basic
tempering.
When I am sharpening my tools I hold the tool in my bare hands
so I can feel how hot it is getting with the friction-generated
heat. If the tool becomes uncomfortably hot to hold, then I know
the temper color change is not too far behind (so quench!).
Finer tooth or smaller tools burn easier than more massive
tools, so they need to be quenched even before the tool feels
too hot to hold.
Usually one light pass over the grindstone and I quench, then
another pass (on the other side of the cutting edge) and another
quench, flipping back-and-forth until the tool is sharp. For
point work and refining of the form with the tooth chisel /claw
this degree of sharpness is adequate. For carving detail
finishing work where control is very important, I will use finer
abrasives to further hone the edge to wood-carving tool keeness.
Note: If you are using carbide-tipped tools you DO NOT QUENCH
THE TOOL IN WATER during sharpening. The carbide tip can develop
hairline fractures from thermal shock and become next to
worthless instantly. Also do not attempt to sharpen
carbide-tipped tools on the common aluminum oxide grinding
wheels -- the abrasive is not hard enough to sharpen the
tungsten-carbide. Silicon carbide wheels are usually a bit more
expensive, and they tend to wear out more quickly, but they will
sharpen the carbide-tip tools quickly without creating too much
friction-generated heat.
Blue Skies to you -- Don
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