Try oiling the soap stone

On Nov 5, 8:24*pm, basilisk wrote:
Robatoy wrote:
On Nov 5, 7:45*pm, "Nonny" wrote:
This involves a wood holder, so relax. grin

On a number of occasions, I made coasters of either slate or
marble, complete with a ground in recess for the drink and a cork
backing. *Over the years, I'd guess I made around 500-600 of them
in batches of different sizes, mostly to give away in sets. *The
majority of the sets were 8 coasters, wrapped with a tape, and
handed out to house guests, at Christmas, to friends of the kids
or relatives.

They always began as slate or marble 12" tiles, which I cut on my
diamond wet saw to 3-7/8" squares. *Cut, rinsed and left to dry, I
could proceed at my leisure, using jigs I'd built and improved
upon over the years.

The first step was to grind in the recess. *Since the tiles were
about 1/4" thick- regardless of material- I kept the recess to
around 1/16". *It was mostly for looks. *The grinder was fashioned
from a 2" thick block of cherry, which I drilled and fitted with a
3/8" carriage bolt, recessed, that permitted me to chuck it in the
drill press. *Since the head was recessed, the hole was filled in
with Bondo filler and the face sanded smooth. *The abrasive was 40
grit floor sanding paper, which was epoxied on using 10 minute
epoxy. *Since the epoxy softens with heat, it was necessary
(thanks to a fellow here in rww long ago) to temper it through use
and letting it cool. *The first time it was used, it'd begin to
soften after the second coaster. *I'd then let it air cool and go
at it again. *The second time might take 2-3 coasters before it'd
again soften. *This was repeated until the stuff never softened-
about 5-8 go-rounds.

A jig held the coasters square and aligned under the drill press.
In addition, there were holes and a "wall" all around the coaster
so that my shop vac could collect the dust. *It worked swell. *I'd
press the turning disk and abrasive against the coaster, let it
grind for about 20 seconds, then back off to clear any trapped
dust. *Each coaster took about 3 of these cycles to develop the
circular, ground-in, depression from the grinder.

Using a sheet of 1/8" automotive cork, I laid it out on my
workbench and applied contact cement. *Each coaster also got a
coat of contact cement on its back, and was then applied to the
cork sheet and weighed down. *When dry, I cut each coaster free
from the sheet.

The final step was trimming the cork and beveling the edges of the
coasters- top and bottom. *This was done with a jig on my table
sander. *The jig had a Formica base and was just as wide as a
coaster. *The base was at a 45 degree angle to the belt, and there
was a stop that could be adjusted to limit the "forward" motion of
the coaster, giving a uniform depth of the bevel. *The belt was
just a 120grit that had gotten a bit old. *Surprisingly, a belt
would do 100-150 coasters at a time. *The beveled bottoms,
including the cork really looked professional and the overall look
and feel of the slate or marble coasters was terrific.

Next: *making the holder for the coasters.

Slate is a wonderful natural material. I bought an old-style slate
black-board from a recycler and had it cut to size for a client of
mine who wanted a place to roll out her pie dough. Flat, cool and a
nice grey color. That section of her island was dropped to 28"
height to make rolling dough a bit more ergonomic.
The rest of the slab, I framed and hung on her wall for use as a
message board. I love stone. Tomorrow I am going to meet The
Stoneman.
(www.stoneman.ca)
He has a huge selection of soap stone...and that stuff machines
beautifully on a CNC.

Automotive cork, eh? Nice tip. Thank you for that.

r

That is beautiful stuff, I have some New England soapstone,
it is plain, gray, and doesn't have any depth to it.

basilisk
--http://www.welshpembrokecorgis.comhttp://www.stonebasilisk.com- Hide quoted text -

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