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My wife wants to sandblast slate tiles up to 16"x16" with designs. What kind of plooter/cutter works best so she can cut the vinyl she will use for sandblasting. Sorry for the rookie question.
For sand-blasting slate tiles, I'm not sure (are they softer than granite and other stone-like substrates?).
Depending on the thickness of the resist material you'll be cutting, your plotter needs can vary. Thin resist, for doing glass, can be cut on most brands of cutter. The real thick stuff, for granite, really should be cut on a flatbed (typically a bit pricey).
If you need to cut thicker than 45 mils, I'd suggest a flatbed (Graphtec has some nice ones in the 10K price range). If you need but can't afford one, you can outsource from a shop that has a flatbed and does wholesale cutting work.
For the 20 to 45 mil range, a higher end drum feed cutter (I'd like to recommend our SummaSign Pro Tangential cutter) is all I'd suggest you consider. Graphtec and Gerber also produce drum-fed cutters that are capable of reliably cutting matierals in this range ... albeit not as well as a Tangential cutter (forgive my bias).
Thinner than that, although I doubt you can do ceramic tile with the thin stuff (corrections anyone?), you're probably open to all but the very low end cutters.
Also worth noting, Hartco has a PVC (read: vinyl) that cuts easier than rubber(JSI Sign sells it, among others). Contacting Hartco could be a good first step (sorry, I don't recall their web address). They can suggest the right material for your jobs, which will then determine the level of equipment you require.
Best Regards,
-------------------- Jim Doggett General Manager, USA Yellotools, Ltd www.yellotools.com
Posts: 500 | From: Sherman, TX USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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I think you will find that slate will blast fairly easily. I assume these are not glazed as that will make a difference. I have blasted local granite and some sedimentary rock. We use a Gerber HS15 plotter to cut our blast mask. If I need thicker than what I can cut I run it twice an over lay the mask so it is twice as thick. Depending on how many slates your wife is planning on doing and how detailed the patteren you might be better off tracing the pattern on the mask and cutting it by hand. Just a thought. Plotters ain't cheap!
First, a note about slate: Being from Pennsylvania doesn't make me an expert in the use of slate (almost all slate comes from quarries in Penn Argyl, Pa.). When I went to school, blackboards were called slate boards and were, in fact, made of slate. Good billiard tables are made of slate. My brother has a fairly successful roofing business and he specializes in slate...you can get away with that if you're in the Northeast, especially New England, where a number of buildings are slate roofed. I have a table in my living room made of slate...a true ellipse, 60 x 24 x 1.25 inches that my dad and I made. We had the stone quarried, cut to shape and honed (polished) on one surface. It weighs well over 150#. Slate is heavy, is very soft, comparitevly speaking, scratches and chips easily, but is otherwise a very nice material to work with.
A note on blasting slate: It's a stone. Unless you're just frosting it you need to realize that it requires much more energy to effectively blast. ..much like granite. The preferred stencil is Hartco's monument grade stuff for obvious reasons, one of those being that it is PVC based material and much harder than regular vinyl or rubber. It absorbs more energy than rubber for that reason... It is also much harder to cut. Jim is right that tangential capability is a must. A typical mask will commonly go to 42 mils or so, but doesn't require a flatbed. Part of my sales demo includes cutting 1/4" Times Roman...a perfect "classic" font in Hartco, and the serifs come out absolutely perfect. The only factor that limits the size is the width of the minor legs of the characters. It is said that blasters scoff at the prospect of actually blasting that small. That may be so...but not because the mask isn't absolutely perfect..I don't say that no other vendor can do it, but I've yet to see an example. Another mask of considerable interest is Anchor's monument stencil with the split backing material that allows placing the weeded cut directly against the stone and blasting right through the thin mylar...no transfer involved. I still like Hartco though, for it's lack of stretch. Makes for a sensational job of cutting flourishes and filigrees.
-------------------- Howard Keiper Independent Contractor Benicia, Ca. thekeip@comcast.net
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my ol cheap plotter will cut Hartco in quarter inch and smaller letters - no prob - -if ya have a dull blade or it doesn't cut allway through with maximum pressure - then program your plotter to double -cut - problem solved -------Carl
[ February 04, 2002: Message edited by: Carl Wood ]
-------------------- Carl Wood Olive Branch, Ms Posts: 1392 | From: Olive Branch,MS USA | Registered: Nov 1999
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