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I may have an opportunity in the near futur to get involved in sandblasting marble tombstones. Good opportunity to do wooden and HDU signs at the same time. Anyone out there involved in this sideline?
------------------ Mario G. Lafreniere aka Fergie.
jnsigns@onlink.net Chapleau, Ontario home of "The World's Largest Game Preserve" Spring is upon us,in Shania Country. Farewell Mosquito here comes the Snow! "Go figure" got me 30 cords of wood and haven't seen a snow flake yet!
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I don't do tombstones as such but have blasted marble. Before you invest money in the equipment and supplies. Find out how much work you will be doing. Here in the states. some graveyards only allow stones from certain cutters. I thing it has something to do with greasing the palm as it were. also are you going to set them in place. Reguires a truck with a dolly hoist, and help. the blast equipment is a lot larger than for signs or rust removal. Big CFM in a compressor means big bucks. the couple of cutters in my hood have trailer mounted construction style pressors and hoses the nozzle for the flat not fancy work is about 1 to 1 1/2" dia large blast valve. they also use steel type pellets, fast and cheap removal of material at speed. The local cutter. owns two monument yards next to each other across from the bone yard. the blast resist is a lot heavier and cost more. they use a heavy sheet rubber as protection around the area they are blasting. You should be able to find a magazine for monument cutters or a web site for suppliers. check out the sign of the times web site for thier directory should have monument makers in it.www.signweb.com Ask a lot of questions if you are being approached by somebody else to get in to this. Also number of cutters in area and number of boneyards. the boneyards will answer questions regarding thier requiremts for stones. also pump them as to were there are coming from now ect. Good luck in what ever you decide to do.
------------------ PTSideshow been there, probally done that.
Posts: 120 | From: Mount Clemens,MI,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Its a die'in business. I have been on all sides of it over the years. Born and raised in a funeral home and setting stones with my dad as a child and then having a good friend in the monument business, and now in the sandblasting of glass and moving into the blasted sign industry. I myself would not go back to stones, but then I have a different agenda. I would think that the business would be hard to break into. If you should decide to, I would suggest your main customer base to be with funeral homes, and they will expect half the action. I doubt if you can work around that, but if you can, go for it. Bronzeo
------------------ Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801
Posts: 1549 | From: Joplin, MO | Registered: Mar 2000
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My brother will be buying the business and all I have to do is design and blast. No capital input on my part for the time being. Only business of it's kind in town and maybe will be able to serve the area, which comprises of 18,000 population, thru the funeral home people. The business itself involves digging holes etc. etc. and I don't have the gall to get involved in that but the sandblasting seems interesting enough. If anyone out there has definite experience in it please email me... Thanks
------------------ Mario G. Lafreniere aka Fergie.
jnsigns@onlink.net Chapleau, Ontario home of "The World's Largest Game Preserve" Spring is upon us,in Shania Country. Farewell Mosquito here comes the Snow! "Go figure" got me 30 cords of wood and haven't seen a snow flake yet!
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Mario, My family has been in the funeral biz since since the 1920's and we currently have a small chain of funeral homes just north of the Kansas/Oklahoma border. We've sold & set monuments in the past and I'll get an email on the way to you. We also subcontract the blasting of dates of death and names on stones that are already set in the cemeteries. They also do name changes & corrections etc. by using various fillers & then reblasting on site (hey, people make mistakes, get divorced,remarry, etc. or simply realize that having a monument lettered with "Hey You, Get this rock off my head" is not really what they wanted ) We just send in the order & when the blaster accumulates enough orders in an area he comes through with a portable rig & then bills us when completed. Seems to work well for everyone & he stays as busy as he wants to. Kind of a nice niche market that gives you some control over your schedule (unlike funeral homes....we just haven't had many clients willing to make apointments ) Anyway, Kathy's right about people dyin' to get headstones and your deal sounds promising. I'll be glad to share any info I have availablel cuz even though our business has been goin' in the hole for years, we're still the last ones to let you down Sorry, just tryin' to put the fun back in funerals
I just finised writing an article on this very subject featuring Bryan Schram at Oregon Valley Signs. Besides tombstones, his shop also does granite/marble signs and sandblasted wood and foam. The article should be coming out in the April issue of Sign Builder Illustrated.
------------------ Jerry Mathel Jerry Mathel Signs Grants Pass, Oregon signs@grantspass.com
Posts: 916 | From: Grants Pass, OR USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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My Grandpa Otto Nordby in Ada, Minnesota made headstones for a living. I always thought it was sort of creepy when I was small. But it is really just another form of signmaking. He died at the age of 98 a few years ago. Otherwise I would ask him for more info for you.
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Hiya Mario, PCN (Penn. Cable Network)just recently aired a program about a tombstone company. From what I saw of the business, I'd run in the opposite direction as fast as possible! But I'm a lazy person. The program showed a bunch of muscleheads performing back breaking work in what I would consider to be dirty and dangerous, sweat shop conditions. There was an old man doing the designing & applying the masks while the young guys did all the grunt work. The actual sandblasting was automated & time consuming. If It's broadcasted again, I'll try to video tape it. Havin' fun, Checkers
------------------ a.k.a. Brian Born Harrisburg, Pa 717.652.9073 members.home.net/sign-it/ This isn't Burger King, you can't have it your way.
) We just send in the order & when the blaster accumulates enough orders in an area he comes through with a portable rig & then bills us when completed. Seems to work well for everyone & he stays as busy as he wants to. Kind of a nice niche market that gives you some control over your schedule (unlike funeral homes....we just haven't had many clients willing to make apointments 
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