Sawing VERY hard wood

[Fla._Deadheader]

  I don't think everyone is reading the post and THINKING. This is garranteed PETRIFIED STONE WOOD. Millions and millions of years old.

[getoverit]

Harold,
I spent years in the North Georgia area and sold tons of computers to companies that mined and sold granite. What they used for cutting it was a steel wire about 1/4" thick, coated with an abrasive and cooled with water. It was slow cutting, but was very effective and the cuts were straight.  I could see where this would work for cutting the petrified wood as well, but would just be extremely slow cutting.

There are also circular cutting blades for cutting stone, and I would think that one could either modify one to fit a Peterson swinger or have one specially made. Try THIS LINK for a little more info on how to cut stone and the blades and abrasive wire available.  I dont see why one of these abrasive wire cutters couldnt be run on a bandmill. It might take modifying the band wheel tires or running it without any tires on the sheaves, but I bet it could be done.

[SwampDonkey]

I was thinking, maybe not comprehending.  :  But, maybe it's a lead (previous post) to a solution. ;)

[Dan_Shade]

Harold, I have a cousin of some sorts that used to make headstones before he retired, now he just tinkers around with whatever he fancies, you two would really like each other.

I'll have to ask my dad if he knows what he used to cut the stones, but I think he just carved them....  I don't know how to get a hold of him myself, i only see him at reunions and such.

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Got any 'sperence to go with that info, Kcwoodbutcher ???  Can't believe this would not bring some big bucks from these pieces???

Just for fun I cut up some neat looking rock I had at the place I used to work.  I ran a machine shop that could do just about anything. I used a roll-in bandsaw with a diamond grit blade. Anything but a very low speed and lot of water would burn up the blade. I think the petrified wood is actually harder than the stone I cut.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Ah HA. I figgered you had an idea about what I was wantin to know. Thanks. I like to know WHY something will or won't work, before I decide what to do. Appreciate the input.

[Don P]

We worked for a rockhound a few years back. He took us into Teepee Canyon and we harvested chert nodules from what had been gas bubbles in a limestone face. Most were just solid chert (think arrowheads) a few like these had agatized. We took some back and sawed them on his rock saw. It was a wet diamond tablesaw setup with a sled on a counterweight for feed. I think this is about the same hardness and he did have cut petrified wood as well. I think his was about a 12" blade, not sure how the cost works out for one that could do 24" but have seen up to 10' blades in some quarry pics.


I used to drive by a monument maker's shop. It had a wiresaw setup with the bandwheels mounted on phone poles some distance from the shed and the lower wire going through the shop. I'm not sure why the tremendous length was needed  ???

We've cut some granite on my tilesaw for facing work, you better have some form of counterweight auto feed or the patience of Job. We toasted 2 blades when someone got impatient, it's maddeningly slow to a woodworker  :D. 

edit;
I found this while googling, real similar to the setup we cut the agate on.
http://prospecting.atspace.com/rocksaw.html

[Fla._Deadheader]

Thanks, Don. Somewhere, I rtead an article aboput a guy using a WM to cut stone or Coral, or sumpin ???  Wish I could find that article. Might have been a WM magazine from 2001, when we first started building "Homey".  : :

[gmmills]

Harold,


    The article you are lookig for is in the 2003 issue number 65 of the WM news. The article is titled Rock of Ages. The rock he was cutting is called Miami Oolite. It states that he uses a special diamond bandsaw blade.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Thanks. I knowed I seen it somewheres.  8) 8)

[ducknutt]

i was watching the show .'dirty jobs' and they were mining marble, or something like that.....they used a wire saw to cut the stone, but it was gonna take 14 hours(i think) to cut a slab 8' tall 4' wide..

[rvrdivr]

I've cut petrified wood before on small scale. I've got a lortone rock saw with a ten inch diamond blade. The piece sits on a jig which hold it firmly and it self feeds into the blade. I use al-mag oil (aluminum-magnesium cutting oil) as a coolant. All the differant wood I cut was very hard.
Rock cutting stuff can be found under Lapidary.

Good luck Harold

[Don P]

Have y'all seen the lady that makes granite hottubs? One boulder and she whittles it into a tub, talk about dirty jobs  :D.