John Carmichael wrote > >Cutting with diamond burrs works very well on marble, limestone, sandstone, >and flagstone. It works on granite, but is more difficult to cut. I haven't >tried it on slate because there is none available here.
I have no experience whatever of working stone or slate but there is/was a device marketed by Hegner (UK) which I think may have some potential for those seeking alternatives to traditional methods. Basically it is just a square sliding arm, running on ballraces and centred on a large protractor with a mount for a wood router on the end. Replace the router with a vertically adjustable clamp to hold rotary diamond discs perhaps and you have a device which will probably cut any of the straight lines in dials with roman numerals. Adjustable 'stops' on the arm would limit lengths as required. Swinging the disc axle through an appropriate angle might even simulate the 'vee' grooves of carved work. This is all just 'pipe-dreamery' of course as I'd need another lifetime to get involved with the realities but if anyone has any success with this I'd love to hear of it. Tony Moss P.S. The sliding arm device should be easily makeable by anyone with basic workshop facilities but the commercial item was relatively inexpensive as i recall. -
