A different kind of sawing.

[Dave Shepard]

I went to my friends rock shop last night to move some rocks around. He has a big diamond wire saw that we built out of a couple of other saws, and a bunch of miscellaneous parts. I help him rig and move the big blocks around the yard and onto the saw table. He started to cut this big rock up, but it was full of shot cracks from the blasting. It started out at 30,800 pounds, but was down to about 12 tons in the photo. It is at least 3.5'x 3.5', and 10' or 12' long. It got set next to the saw, and will have a knuckle boom crane mounted to it to move slabs off of the saw.



 

[moosehunter]

That is cool! I always wondered how they cut rock. Does the process use water to cool the blade? How long does it take to make one cut through a rock that size?

[Dave Shepard]

Yes, water is used in just about every process when working stone. I think he said it took about 45 minutes to cut down one face on this one. He has several radial saws inside the shop that are used to process the slabs that come off of the big rocks. A piece this size, if it was not cracked might be cut into something thick enough for stair treads, or thinner sheets. The wire saw is a breaking down tool, with the radials doing the production work. Sort of like breaking down a cant on a circle saw and sending it through a gang ripsaw.

[uplander]

 Is the wire coated with a diamond abrasive or does it have Quartz sand slurry feed?

Here in southern Indiana, Limestone used to quarried with a wire saw and a quartz sand slurry.
These days they bolt a track to the quarry bench and use a track saw that has a belt with diamond teeth attached. Sort of like a big chainsaw that runs on tracks.

[Dave Shepard]

There are little bronze bits that have diamonds embedded in them.

[GDinMaine]

Fascinating!  I had no idea how those large stone slabs were cut.  I can make out what appear to be the likes of blade guide rollers and the large band/blade wheel. If you have more pictures please post them.  I don't suppose "hitting hardware" is an issue with that machine.