Cutting an oilstone

Spideyjg · Feb 12, 2019

Got an old mystery oilstone with a gouge in it. Was considering taking it to the wet tile saw with a diamond blade and shaving it down below the damage, about 1/32", rather than wear my elbow out lapping it.

Any reason not to?

eKretz · Feb 12, 2019

Not really, other than you might not get a flat surface with the tile saw and end up lapping just as much to get it flat. If the damage is only 1/32" deep I'd just go at it with some loose SiC, although I have a tile saw.

REK Knives · Feb 12, 2019

Nah it works great... At least I cut up several stones like this

eKretz · Feb 12, 2019

We aren't talking about cutting stones here, we're talking about trying to shave 1/32" off the surface of the stone. Totally different situation. One, the blade is totally contained in the cut. The other, it's going to be touching on one side and in free air on the other - it will try to deflect away the whole time.

Diemaker · Feb 12, 2019

Set the blade the stones thickness above the table and make a bunch of passes so the bottom of the blade just cuts to the thinnest part of the stone, then dress the stone once it is relatively flat to finish the job. At least if your tile saw has the blade above a moving table.

eKretz · Feb 12, 2019

That would work better IF the stone is already parallel but seems like a lot of work when it could just be flattened with a little loose grit in a few minutes. Unless it's a big Arkansas or something. In which case I wouldn't want to lap 1/32" off of it with anything short of a diamond wheel.

jpm2 · Feb 12, 2019

There's a 6 inch wide belt sander at my workplace with a 6x10 flat platen for stuff like this. Belt grits range from 60 to 400.

Spideyjg · Feb 13, 2019

eKretz said:
We aren't talking about cutting stones here, we're talking about trying to shave 1/32" off the surface of the stone. Totally different situation. One, the blade is totally contained in the cut. The other, it's going to be touching on one side and in free air on the other - it will try to deflect away the whole time.

Reminds me of an old adage that anyone can learn from their own mistakes but a wiser man learns from the mistakes of others. Thanks.

Last time I tried loose SiC to lap Arkies I mainly just ground up the glass plate. Saw a pic of an old Washita, which is an Arkie anyhow, and that is what this could be.