Cutting Marble - Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts Message Board

utbva · 02-20-2008, 08:42 PM

I don't know if any of you have tired this or not, but I ran into a little problem last week where I needed to cut some holes in a marble mantle top. I am remodeling my bathroom and installing a spa tub in the bathroom and I needed to come up with something to surround the tub. My wife found a marble fireplace mantle and so we decided to see if we could make that work as the front of the tub. The problem is that I needed to cut some holes in the mantle top to install the faucet. I needed two 1-1/8 holes and one 7/8 hole for the faucet. I tried to find some carbide hole saws for the job but no one had any. I did find a hand held scroll saw with a carbide blade, so I thought that maybe I could cut them out by hand. After drilling pilot holes through the marble with a masonry bit, I tried it by hand and found that it was very slow going and I knew I wouldn't get very far. As it turns out, I realized that the carbide blade for the hand saw was 5 inches long so I wondered if it would fit my saw. Well it did and worked ok. It took about 10 minutes to cut each hole. Here are some pictures of the set up. I had to use a stand to hold one end of the mantle up. The mantle is about 1-1/8 thick and 5 feet long and about a foot wide. It weighs about 50 pounds.

I would like to hear if there are others that have tired this or not or if there are any other suggestions.

Pajaro · 02-20-2008, 08:51 PM

Holy moly what next. angle iron? What ever give you the idea to cut stone with a scroll saw. You going to use it for a medium for fret work now. I would have never tried that.

Bruce P · 02-20-2008, 09:40 PM

Pajaro,

Actually, an interesting idea, gothic window tracery fretwork in marble might look pretty good.

Utbva - Where did you get the carbide blade? Was the blade completely used up after cutting the two holes? How smooth were the kerf walls, would they need extra polishing if they were exposed surfaces?

Does anyone know if thinner marble slabs, < 1", are available?
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Bruce P.

utbva · 02-20-2008, 09:57 PM

Hi Bruce

I got the carbide blade at BORG in the tile department. I do know that you can get marble tile at BORG as well as LOWES and most tile stores. The marble tile is about 1/4 inch thick and comes in many colors. The marble tile does not have much strength so I really don't think it will stand up to thin sections or any abuse at all.

As for the finish, it is about like anything that is cut with a spiral blade. It is not real smooth but kind of wavey. Other wise, I didn't think it looked too bad, but of course I wasn't after a smooth finish for where this was going.

Oh, and the blade cut all three holes and it looked like it could still cut a few more.

Barefoot1 · 02-20-2008, 10:09 PM

Nice job! I cut tile backer board with mine for the same purpose, faucet holes for the tub. The board is kind of like concrete and I was replacing a small section of tile so the SS worked very well with a larger stiff blade. 1 per hole.

earlinjax · 02-20-2008, 10:47 PM

Stone? An extension table? I think you just rewrote the book on what you can do with the mighty Hawk.

Earl

Greenfield_Bob · 02-20-2008, 10:53 PM

That's pretty cool Bill, I wish I was there to watch.

Bob

jigsue · 02-21-2008, 12:12 AM

But didn't you need two small boys to move it around whilst you were cutting? We had to cut similar type holes in an old butler-type sink. My husband spent a whole day chipping away with stone-mason chisels. I would never have dreamed ...

Well done!

Sue

Wood Dog · 02-21-2008, 04:05 AM

Now that is thinking out of the box for sure.......nice job. Thanks for showing us your pictures.

Tor · 02-21-2008, 07:51 AM

Looks like you did well there. I have to say that I first feared this thread would be a question about cutting marble. As far as the tile goes, we have some of it, and yes, it is quite fragile. Maybe 3/8" or 1/2" if you can get it (don't bother asking me where, though.)

Tor