In the arrangement of apartments and houses, the use of stone has long become a classic of the genre. However, the processing of this material, unlike wood, is impossible without the use of special tools and equipment.
Manipulation requires patience, physical effort and knowledge of the basics of processing technology. The surface of the natural variety of stone is quite hard. If you use modern equipment for processing and know the technological secrets, then you can cope with the task quite simply.
Processing depth
When processing stone, you can give the surface a certain texture, which can be achieved by grinding and multi-transition processing. To date, there are four options for the design of the treated surface, among them it should be highlighted:
- chopped;
- impaled;
- coarse grinding;
- polished or matte;
- polished.
The first looks like a natural chip, which is formed when the massif splits. Stone slabs with such a plane are more often used for finishing basement parts and creating fences.
Stone processing may include the creation of a rough grinding surface, which has an even geometric shape, combined with a rough base. When using rough grinding, the material goes to the manufacture of building blocks, pavers, the construction of fences and fences, as well as the formation of steps of porches and borders.
Stone processing may involve the creation of a matte or polished surface, which can be achieved by polishing without removing the mirror. The stone is smooth, but not shiny. It is used in finishing and facing works.
For monuments, sculptures and in the design of facade elements a polished surface is used. If you resort to manual processing, then the implementation of the idea can drag on for several weeks and months of monotonous hard work. It would be more appropriate to use a power tool and available materials.
You can make a rough countertop or simple paving stones yourself if you are familiar with the characteristics of the breed and its structure. The easiest to process are:
- calcite;
- silicates;
- sandstones.
Their low hardness allows you to simply give the material the desired geometric shape. But such breeds are rarely further processed; they are usually ground in a semi-rough way. Cladding for the fence or basement of the building is easier to carry out from calcined sandstone, which is quite common and is also called a shepherd's stone.
The material got its name for its ability to split into even identical tiles, the size of which is several tens of centimeters. Tiles can be sanded with river sand to smooth out bumps. This allows you to use the resulting products for laying the yard of the house or ennoblement of the basement.
Methods and techniques of processing
Stone processing remains unchanged for many years. A standard set of technological methods provides for tipping and disassembling an array, layers, boulders and large blocks into light and small parts that can be transported, and then processed. This stage is difficult, and competent processing allows you to reduce cutting costs and eliminate splitting along off-design trajectories.
The processing of natural stone in the next step involves leveling the surface and squeezing the plane. In the process, stone-cutting hand tools or special machines are used. Wet or rough grinding is carried out with home-made sanding boards or heavy cast-iron plates, the first of which are made of bog oak or soft stone.
After this operation is completed, the finished product with a closed or unpolished surface is obtained. Stone processing at home may include polishing with subsequent polishing as an artistic treatment. At this stage, you can get a mirror and see the pattern, as well as the pattern on the surface.
Electric tools can be used for do-it-yourself processing, but sawing and grinding work is carried out under the hood, as the dust generated can affect the respiratory system. In confirmation of this, it should also be said that the crumb will accumulate on the brushes, gears and open gearboxes. The processing of artificial stone is also carried out according to the same principle.
Sawing and tattooing
The most common methods of dividing an array into smaller layers is tinting. For further processing, defect-free and flat layers are used, the thickness of which reaches 10 cm. In order to obtain such a piece, holes are drilled in the array in series. Their depth should be equal to the thickness of the chipped piece. Then, with a hammer and a hot chisel, it is necessary to break the cut line.
After some time, the material will crack. Additionally, you can use a diamond tool. Chipped layers are cut with cast iron discs that have diamond spraying. Using a grinder with a cutting diamond disc, the material should be cut along the line of splitting to a depth of 20 mm.
The plate is laid on two supports of oak timber, so that the groove is above the distant support. A pine plank is laid on the cut, and then a hammer should be struck along the separation line. When choosing a tool for processing stone, you may prefer a construction hammer with a victorious soldering. It allows you to split the stone into separate blocks from which paving stones or cladding is made.
Grinding methods
After the array has been divided into blocks and plates, it is possible to carry out the artistic processing of stone. It provides rough grinding. In order to make the surface flat, remove tubercles and protrusions, the stone is rubbed with a cast-iron plate, on which a thin layer of abrasive material is applied.
Methodology
First you need to apply a layer of coarse sand moistened with water. A cast-iron plate is laid on top, which will allow you to grind the sand layer on the base. In order to make the time-consuming grinding and grinding process more productive, you can use a home-made stone processing machine, which is a heavy steel table. A rotating cast-iron circle with a diameter of 70 cm is installed on it. The surface should be periodically moistened with water and an abrasive, then the processed plate or paving blocks are laid face down.
The choice of abrasive and peeling
For quartzites, limestones, marble-like materials and sandstones, basalt or fine granite dust can act as an abrasive during roughing. When you have to work with heavy and hard rocks, you should grind them with a special tool. In industrial processing, chipped cast iron shot is used for grinding granite. This processing depth will be sufficient for paving stones, step slabs and paving slabs. For facade elements, you need to finish lapping.
Final stage
Fine grinding is carried out using grinding powders with different grain sizes. More often these are calibrated powders of sintered silicon carbide or alumina. Processing is carried out by electric grinders, which are equipped with nozzles made of plastic or thick rubber. Abrasive material is applied to the surface . Nozzles rotate at high speed, which requires uniform and metered pressing of the angle grinder to the surface. Otherwise, the plane may be pushed, and local overheating will occur.
Finally
Finishing is accompanied by the formation of a large amount of dust, so the surface must be regularly moistened with water. Open areas of the face and hands should be covered with gloves and a mask. In order to give the lined plane a shine, use felt circles made of felt with polishing pastes.