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Cutting live rock - help please

Mark_C

Mark_C

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Time to freak the clowns out.

Anyone done this?

I've got about 30 pounds of live rock currently in tank. As I'm using the tank to house zoas, I thought it would be cool to have a zennish tank of flat rocks piled up like steps with shelving for pockets of zoas.

To do this, I would have to cut my rock into slices, and rinse well, of course.
I do not want to send out to a countertop/quarry/glass company as I dont know what residuals they will have on their equipment.

So, options are:
1) Musclework and a diamond blade on a hacksaw
2) A diamond blade on a tablesaw (can this be done?)
3) Purchase of a 'wet' tile saw, which only makes 1.5" depth cuts so would require circumference cutting around some rocks

Thoughts, opinions, advice appreciated, especially if backed with experience.

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Mikeamadio

Mikeamadio

Take your time in the past I've drilled rock to fit over a pic frame and it shattered a lot of prices. I think the hack saw would be a good approach but it will be slow, which could be a good thing in this case. If you had a band saw I would say that would work well with a diamond blade.
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

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Yeah, the bandsaw was my first thought (as well as an excuse to buy a bandsaw), but max cut depth is usually 3-4". I'm looking to cut pieces at 5-6".
The box stores rent out paver cutters but will not provide a new blade.
 
myrjon

myrjon

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mark why not make molds out of ply or blue Styrofoam .make different shapes , but every one would be flat. texture the inside of mold with bits of rock ..ZEN AWAy..
 
Mark_C

Mark_C

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Chris, good idea. That will be fallback plan.
As we have to cut some floring I went out and bought a tile cutter, gave a test run on a few pieces of rock and seems to work quite well.
SKIL 7" Wet Tile Saw 3540
Gonna play about with it tomorrow and see how things go.

Bob, posted at same time. I'll look into the handsaw today to finish out the cuts and to cut some of the larger rocks. Probably go with the first one as the second has a 'coating' and I'm not sure I trust that. Thanks much.
 
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Jeremy Brito

Jeremy Brito

I know this is irrelevant but I once was on a fire company that had a chain saw design to cut cement we always joked about when we would ever use a tool such as that but here I am think it would work great
 
joe b

joe b

maybe you can make it from eggcrate and use some rubble rock along with either a cement mixture or pond foam.
 
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