Marble plate

[Woodlee]

I went to Darwin today for work purposes ,One of the places I went to had a stone masons' workshop just up the road ,so I called in to see if I could buy an off cut to use as a flat plate for sharpening .
The guy is a champion , give me a piece about 8" wide and two feet long .
I offered to buy it but he said no .Now Im pretty happy with that.

I'm thinking of going back to get a nice square piece 50mm thick to make a marking out/surface table ,this piece I will insist on buying.
I've also had thought of making a router table top from marble or granite ,biggest problem would be cutting the recess for the router mounting plate and a slot for a mitre track .
the fence could be clamped with u shaped clamp arrangements over the ends of the top.
I'll talk to him next time I go in.
It would be a very heavy ,but stable top.

Kev

[Harry72]

Why not!

[BobL]

I'm thinking of going back to get a nice square piece 50mm thick to make a marking out/surface table ,this piece I will insist on buying.

Crikey! what a brilliant idea - I have a 600 x 900 x 50 piece of marble in my shed and was originally going to make a dough rolling counter for SWMBO but there's no room in the kitchen for it! I really do need a bigger shed!

[Wild Dingo]

oooh once I also had a humungous chunk of thick granite... perfectly flat smooth as silk and heavy as buggary... gawd I clung to that chunk for some reason it followed us halfway around West Aussie from Mirrabooka to Carnarvon to Mandurah to Brunswick... then not long after we moved here it disappeared... just vanished never to be seen again and I miss my chunk of granite... I REALLY miss it... cause it was somehow going to be the top to my hand made router table

Now Ive no idea where to find another large sized chunk around here... mind you I have no recall of how it found its way into my shed all those years ago either... maybe it fell in one night to get out of the rain? maybe the gremlins of the shed gods took pity on me? whatever I sure miss it.

Hold tight to it mate... dont let it escape... mould it into something quick smart before it takes off!!

mmmm must see if I can find some around here eh

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I have a 600 x 900 x 50 piece of marble in my shed and was originally going to make a dough rolling counter for SWMBO but there's no room in the kitchen for it! I really do need a bigger shed!

Sometimes I'm asked whether I think I 'over-engineered' our kitchen bench by building an internal frame. "No" is usually the answer, "with that ruddy great slab of crinoidal marble on top, it damned well needs to be solid!" The slab is 1800x430x50mm (6'x18"x2") BTW and was a 3-man job to manoeuver into position..

I hadn't really thought much about it, but now that it has been brought to my attention - when we leave this place (soon, soon) I'm going to rebuild the benchtop with some MDF and throw the slab in the moving van...

[rsser]

Good score Woodlee.

Do check it for flat though.

[Chris Parks]

I'm thinking of going back to get a nice square piece 50mm thick to make a marking out/surface table ,this piece I will insist on buying.
I've also had thought of making a router table top from marble or granite ,biggest problem would be cutting the recess for the router mounting plate and a slot for a mitre track .
the fence could be clamped with u shaped clamp arrangements over the ends of the top.
I'll talk to him next time I go in.
It would be a very heavy ,but stable top. Kev

There are other threads here which point out that mitre slots on router tables are not needed. As to using it for a marking out table, what are you going to be marking out on it?

[Woodlee]

There are other threads here which point out that mitre slots on router tables are not needed. As to using it for a marking out table, what are you going to be marking out on it?

It would require a hole for the router mounting plate though and some way of fixing the plate to it.
The router table top and the marking out table would be two different items
It's just some thing I thought of , like a brain f*rt.There one minute gone the next .
Next time I'm in Darwin I'll talk to the guys at the stone masons' and see what they say .

I do metal work as well , a flat surface is nice for the vernier height gauge and other marking out jobs. A piece 18"x18" x 2" thick would be the shot.It would depend on how flat they can grind and polish the surface.

Kev

[scooter]

Kev, I can't see any logic in making a router table out of marble or granite.

The specialised tooling and difficulty of machining it, the excessive weight, awkward to attach to a carcase, risk of cracking by dropping something on it or stress applied some other way - these are some disadvantages, and major ones at that, over using more conventional materials & techniques.

The only benefit I can see is that the stone is (1) flat; and (2) heavy; and (3) stable. These objectives can be easily met by other means.

This is only my opinion, of course, and is meant purely to help.


On the other hand, I can definitely see the logic in using it for a lapping and sharpening plate; and for a surface plate for marking out, etc.


Regards & cheers................Sean

[scooter]

Discussion continued here.


Cheers.............Sean