How to help on soapstone counter install
What’s the big secret about installing soapstone counters? I have been trying to find some guideleines and good instructions on installing soapstone slabs, making the seams seamless, what type of materials, blades, bits and all I get are snippets and when I call a company it’s like this big secret they don’t want to share.
One guy will charge 50.00 square foot to install it, another guy wants 72.00 square foot to install it. I mean, I built my house, I build furniture, I built my kitchen cabinets, a woodshop, been in the trades and I can’t get good advice and how to…just to get started on the right foot.
Can someeone give me some ideas and where to get a tint for epoxy? if I need a diamond router bit? or will a strandard mason blade work to cut to width etc.
Shakerman
Replies
I can't help you much with the cutting tools other than to tell you I have cut the material with a carbide saw blade and turned in on a lathe with standard tools. They will dull fairly quickly, but they to work and give a smooth edge. It can be cut with regular carving tools and sanded with regular garnet sandpaper. It is done regularly be people carving chunks into art forms.
Tinting of epoxy can be done with powdered dye usually used to mix with water and used as a wood dye or to tint oil based stains. It can be mixed with a little alcohol to solubolize and then add to the epoxy to tint. More info available from Jeff Jewitt. Sorry, I don't have his email address, but if you have a Woodcraft store closeby, they carry the powdered dye in about nine colors. They can be mixed to get the color you want.
Hope this helps.
Try cutting it with a carbide router bit, it might work. I was told by a stone fabricator that they bullnose egdes on some types of limeston this way(beaumonier?)
There is a company in Anaheim Ca. that sells all the tools you need. They have routerbits and epoxy with tints. It's called "Rockhard" or "Rock Hard". They also have a kit for dry polishing. It's a hook and loop sytem that fits on a 4" grinder and they work great. Comes in both a "various "grit" system and in diamond
I am a homeowner who just installed a soapstone counter. I have never done this type of work before and it went fine, so I am sure someone with your skills will do even better. I got the soapstone shipped to me from a company called M. Teixeira Soapstone. Their website is http://www.soapstones.com. They have complete instructions on their website for the working with soapstone. Just click on the "Do it yourself" button on the left side of the screen or use the following direct link http://www.soapstones.com/index.php?page=doityourself
One thing that was very useful was a small handheld wet saw that a tile-setter friend of mine lent me. It has a 4 or 4.5 inch diamond blade. I believe the brand name is Workforce, it is yellow and was purchased at Home Depot for less than $100. I considered it well worth it versus the buying a separate blade for my circular saw, plus it being a wet saw minimized the dust. This saw easily cut the soapstone in one pass even though the type of soapstone that we purchased (Cobra) was the hardest that they offered. They recommended on the website that Cobra be cut in two passes. We started doing it this way but switched to one pass toward the end. One pass works much better since you end up with a smoother cut and less sanding.
They sell the stone epoxy so you can call them to see what they recommend. I ordered some with my soapstone. The brand name is Akemi.
Instructions are provided for edge finishing. We went real simple and just eased the edge with an orbital and by hand.
We also got a wholesale price on our soapstone (since my tile-setter friend could have ordered it through his business). The price was 30% less than what they were quoting for retail and their retail price was already lower than any of the other companies that I had contacted. Freight was about $330 from NJ to Wisconsin. This included residential delivery and a truck with a lift gate.
Hope this helps.
Mike
You can definitely rout it with a carbide bit. The neatest trick I've seen is to biscuit join the piecs. Use a regular carbide-bladed biscuit joiner, and nickels as the biscuits.
Andy
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