Hi Guys,
Sorry for being slow with a reply but I've been shooting aligators ( Busy fixing problems) You know It's hard to remember that your main objective is to drain the swamp when your up to your rear in aligators!
Anyway The stuff on the web site and the photos posted are all done by hand. I am just starting to work this stuff on a CNC router. Had to finish building it. Alabaster can be cut with carbide tools, HSS tools will cut most alabaster but only a couple times before dulling, diamond tools are great but need water to lube and cool and are expensive. Alabaster can be cut dry or wet. Creates lots and lots and lots of dust dry, WEAR A GOOD MASK ALWAYS, wet creates a big wet mess, no dust, just a slick muddy mess. The dust it creates dry is like talcum powder, very fine, probably not good for the lungs so WEAR A GOOD MASK ALWAYS. I will probably be cutting at slow spindle speed on the CNC and multiple passes, because the more heat and vibration you create in the stone the more it tends to chip, split, crack and fall apart. Alabaster tends to be brittle, chips easily and will bruise. The most used tool I have is a 12 inch disk sander. If you don't like sanding don't try any Alabaster. All the parts cut by hand are cut big and then sanded down to size. I have had no luck at cutting angle cuts, like 45's for a box joint, I cut the stone square and then sand the angle in for the joint. A rotary rasp can be used to cut the stone but then you have to do lots of sanding to get all the ugly marks out. I will be trying a rotary rasp on the CNC where I will have a constant velocity in movement to help eliminate the course marks, we shall see if that is better. If interested I will post some photos of my newly completed CNC. I kind of built mine with a little outside the box thinking. I have less than $1500.00 invested in the complete CNC. I hope I answered most of the questions from the last couple posts, if not ask them again. Thanks for the interest and comments. Ron  |