Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low garden
retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve.

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 09:20:42 +0100, Steve Jones
wrote:

Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low garden
retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve.


I suggest you sell the large blocks on ebay, and use the money to buy
much cheeper smaller blocks .......

Rick

Steve Jones wrote:
Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low garden
retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve

For such a lot of blocks, personally, I would use a stone cutter from a
hire shop with a diamond blade. I expect you will get through a lot of
abrasive disks and as thicker these will generally generate more dust.
Larger grinders are unwieldy IMO.

I used a 4" grinder to chase out (fairly soft) mortar to repoint a
sandstone wall to a depth of about 10mm over an area of 15m2 this took
about 15 4" abrasive discs (deliberately used as for their thickness
here), I was a little surprised that I needed that many (but not much).

The advantages of stone cutters over grinders were mentioned here
http://tinyurl.com/48l3b

HTH

Alex

Rick wrote:
On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 09:20:42 +0100, Steve Jones
wrote:


Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low garden
retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve.



I suggest you sell the large blocks on ebay, and use the money to buy
much cheeper smaller blocks .......

Rick

Novel ;-)

"Steve Jones" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low
garden
retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve.

Hi Steve.
Many years ago(1967?), I had a load of stone from an old demolished church
delivered, approx 30tons if I remember rightly. they came from the inner
lining of the church and were in slabs approx 15ins x 18-24ins x 4-6ins and
were cream in colour. I found out from my local university that they were
oolitic limestone . I spent many happy hours cutting them into bricks using
a bolster and club hammer and built walls, gate pillars etc. The stone was
quite soft and was relatively easy to cut but seemed to harden on exposure
to weather over a period of years.
It may be that you will also find that if your stone slabs are relatively
thin and have a homogeneous structure they might break evenly after scoring
with a bolster, just a suggestion.
Good luck
Tom

Tom wrote:
"Steve Jones" wrote in message
...

Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low

garden

retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve.


Hi Steve.
Many years ago(1967?), I had a load of stone from an old demolished church
delivered, approx 30tons if I remember rightly. they came from the inner
lining of the church and were in slabs approx 15ins x 18-24ins x 4-6ins and
were cream in colour. I found out from my local university that they were
oolitic limestone . I spent many happy hours cutting them into bricks using
a bolster and club hammer and built walls, gate pillars etc. The stone was
quite soft and was relatively easy to cut but seemed to harden on exposure
to weather over a period of years.
It may be that you will also find that if your stone slabs are relatively
thin and have a homogeneous structure they might break evenly after scoring
with a bolster, just a suggestion.
Good luck
Tom



You could try scoring around the blocks with the grinder too and then
use Tom's approach, which if works will be a lot less messy and cheaper!

Steve Jones wrote:
Hi,

I have about 60 sandstone blocks from and old church wall.

I'd like to cut the blocks in two. I intend to use them to face a low garden
retaining wall, using concrete infill behind.

I'm looking at using an angle grinder and a 230mm diamond abrasive disk to
cut them, but I'm not sure it would be up to the job. Also the disks seem
to vary in price from ten quid to hundreds.

Can anyone suggest a disk type/brand/supplier that would do this job.

Thanks, Steve.

something like this ? http://www.ceejaytool.com/stonemason_m50%20.html
should make short work of most blocks without the attendant dust or danger.

that's in the US but there will be an equivalent in the UK


RT