Hello Dialists:
This message is for those of you who are interested in making stone sundials
and suppliments my stoneworking Conference article.
Good questions on stoneworking are starting to come in; so everyone can
benefit, I will try to answer some of them here instead of answering your
e-mails individually. Sorry I was not able to go into as much detail as I
wanted in my article because of necessary length limitations for articles in
the Compendium. At the end of this e-mail is a list of the materials you
will need with approximate prices and some suggested suppliers.
1. Q. How do I engrave arcs and circles?
A. Using the all-important 20mm diameter diamond cut-off wheel (disk),
you can cut perfectly straight lines and even arcs with radii as
small as 3". When making these cuts, always pull the tool
towards you. For ease of cutting arcs, I put my stone blank on
a "Lazy Susan" (Like a potter's wheel) and slowly spin the stone
with my left hand while cutting with the other hand. The lazy Susan is not
absolutely necessary, but it allows me to stay seated while carving, moving
the portion of the stone that I want to cut to me rather than
standing up and walking around the stone to cut different
areas. I made the lazy Susan with two round pieces of wood
and the largest Lazy Susan ball bearing "sandwich", available at
hardware stores (10" dia.). With this setup, I can move a 300 lb. stone with
my little finger!
2. Q. What do you use to water seal the paper sundial face drawing before
carving?
A. Since the paper drawing is only glued to the stone temporarily to use
as a cutting guide and is later removed, it is not important what
sealer you use. Varnish, polyurethane or Thompsons will all
work. The paper must be water sealed before carving with water or
else it will disintigrate prematurely.
3. Q. How do you cut the raw stone into a round or irregular shape using a
tile cutter with 4" diamond disc?
A. A tile cutter looks like a miniture hand-held circular saw. This tool
is designed to cut straight lines 1" deep max. But they can cut
circles and curves if you make your first cut only 1/4" deep,
and keep lowering the disk in small 1/4" increments, making your
cut gradually deeper and deeper. Since I use stone up to 2" thick, I
first cut one side to a depth of 1", then I flip the stone over, mark the
other side, and cut like above. Never partially cut your stone
and then try to remove excess with a hammer! This could cause
unwanted fractures into the good stone. Your stone supplier
might cut your stone blank for you for a small fee if you don't have
a tile cutter.
4. Q. How do you color your stone?
A. The natural color of the stone really comes out when the stone is
sealed. After the stone is sealed I sometimes apply other colors
into the engraved areas to highlight the hour lines,
numerals and artwork. Do not apply paint before sealing, as the
unsealed porous stone will absorb the paint into uncut areas (bleeding).
Using small paint brushes and oil base hobby paints (earth tones and/or
metallic colors) I let the paint flow into the cut area. You can
be somewhat sloppy because if you have unwanted overflow up onto the
flat surface of the stone, you can easily wipe off if wet or sand
off if dry, leaving the rest of the paint down in the recessed
engraved areas.
I will answer additional stoneworking questions on the list as they come in.
But this is all for now. Here is the list of necessary stoneworking tools,
prices and suppliers. Like Tony Moss, I often get my supplies from local
suppliers, but I do know of some other sources. Ask suppliers for catalogs!
Some have websites. You might want to do some investigations on your own to
find other suppliers and better prices.
STONEWORKING TOOLS AND SUPPLIES:
Dremel moto-tool : variable or fixed speed, doesn't matter. About 50. $
Any hardware store.
Flexible 3' drive shaft: Dremel accessory. To avoid electrocution when
cutting with water, hang motor and electric cords from ceiling
and use drive shaft. Also is nice because it is smaller,
lighter and cooler than holding the Dremel motor itself. About 10. $
at most hardware stores or by special order to Dremel.
Diamond Points, burrs, and cutoff wheels (disks): The 20 mm diamond plated
cutoff wheel is indispensible. Usually sold in packs of six.
Price is extremely variable depending on supplier. I have seen
identical points from 50 cents to 3. $ ! Burrs can be described by
their shapes: spheres, cylinders, cones, points and disks. And
they come in different sizes. You can usually get a better price if you buy
a mixed kit of points of different sizes and shapes.. Available at:
1) Utopia Tools, PO Box 4508, Oceanside, Ca 92052-4508;
Tel:1-888-Utopia-2 Website: WWW.UTOPIATOOLS.COM
2) The Foredom Electric Company, 16 Stony Hill Road, Bethel, Ct
06801; Tel: 203-792-8622; Fax: 203-790-9832
3) MSC Industrial Supply, Tel: 1-800-645-7270, Fax: 1-800-255-5067,
Internet: www.mscdirect.com (these people have the most
unbelieveable FREE catalogue I've ever seen. bigger
than NY city phone directory!)
Palm sander: about 30. $ at any hardware store.
Sandpaper for dry sanding: grits 36 and 80 at hardware store
Sandpaper for wet sanding: grits 200, 400
Polyurethene: oil base gloss. Thin with paint thinner for sealing the
stone. About 9.$/qt. any hardware store.
Elmer's Glue (white, water soluable): a couple of bucks, available anywhere.
Use to glue paper sundial face drawing to stone.
2" or 3" paintbrush to spread glue.
Roller to press paper to stone: any crafts shop, about 3. $
Paint thinner
Rags
OPTIONAL TOOLS AND SUPPLIES:
Foredom Power Tool with 3" flexible drive shaft and chuck style handpiece.
This more powerful than a Dremel, and the chuck style
handpiece is easier to use than Dremel's collette handpieces. Get
the model that hangs from the ceiling, not the desktop model.
About 200. $ Look at catalogue before you buy. Foredom's address and
tel. #s listed above.
A sturdy workbench! The workmate table is at any hardware store at about 100.$
A Lazy Susan: described above
Silicon Carbide abrasive powder: When first starting to sand your stone
blank with course 36 grit sandpaper, if you add a little of this
powder, your sanding will be easier.
Artist paint brushes
model and hobby oil base paint
Well, that's about all I can think of that's necessary to get started.
Again I wish you all good luck. Let me know how your experiments in stone
turn out and let me know your questions. If you find any inexpensive
suppliers, you might let the rest of us know.
John Carmichael
32.3N 111W
Tucson Arizona
http://www.azstarnet.com/~pappas
