How can this detail be achieved in slate

[Keeponsmiling]

Hi all,

I am a new member of this forum and really hoping someone can help / offer advice . I make craft mirrors from slate , mainly basic rectangular designs which I cut out using an Angle grinder and diamond disc , I would like to do some more detailed work as per the examples attached , however I have no idea of machinery / equipment I would need to get this type of detail , if anyone could offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated .

Best Regards
Andy

[pippin88]

Waterjet

[Keeponsmiling]

Thanks, I have done a quick google search of waterjet cutting and I can see why you are suggesting that as it does look like it would achieve this kind of fine detail , however the equipment looks very expensive and it would be very difficult to afford for low volume craft type work , do you think there would be any other way of doing this with more conventional cutting tools / equipment ?

Best Regards
Andy

[Kitwn]

There have been some DIY waterjet cutters built using a pressure washer as the pump. I have no idea whether the level of detail you're after is possible but it might be worth a few minutes on Google just in case.

This the first result of a search for 'DIY waterjet'...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=101&v=Lg__B6Ca3jc&feature=emb_logo

[Doddy]

Worth looking at something less esoteric (though I've spent an hour of my life watching the electric/petrol water cutters before realising the cutting costs!)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHyj_nbfILM

Last few seconds does show routing rather than just engraving.

[JAZZCNC]

Only water jet or high power laser can achieve that level of detail with such sharp corners etc. Routing will give radius in the corners even with small cutters and won't get close to that sharp of detail.

[Voicecoil]

If you're thinking of going the high power laser route, it might be worth doing a test cutting with the particular type of slate you're intending to use. We have a number of quarries round here and some types seem to be tough as old boots, others start to delaminate when heated.

[Kitwn]

You can buy thin wire, diamond coated scroll saw blades for cutting stone. How about a CNC controlled bed for a scroll saw? Obviously the size you could cut would be limited unless you plan to build the scroll saw from hell.

Where did your example picture come from? Any clues from that source?

[m_c]

You can buy thin wire, diamond coated scroll saw blades for cutting stone. How about a CNC controlled bed for a scroll saw? Obviously the size you could cut would be limited unless you plan to build the scroll saw from hell.

Where did your example picture come from? Any clues from that source?

I was thinking along the same lines, but with diamond wire.
There was a guy created a big CNC stone cutter over on the Dynomotion forum (might actually of been the Dynomotion board on cnczone)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfSzCMfCiQ

I mostly remember the KFlop servo tuning, as he had to resort to writing a C program to export the tuning data, as the servos moved too slow for the normal tuning functions to be any use. IIRC the servo plots had to be done over a few minutes, as the typical few seconds gave nothing meaningful for tuning.

[Boyan Silyavski]

One could build quite the pyramide using this CNC saw