Marble bench

[Leigh Betsch]

Anyone ever inlet a bench with marble? I have a line on a 8 ft x 1 1/2 ft x 1 1/4 inch chunk of marble for cheap. I'm thinking about using it for a flat reference surface for workbench. The front 1/2 of the bench would still be maple with dog holes for chopping and pounding. The back 1/2 would be this marble surface and used mostly for planing, with dog holes in the wood surrounding it for plane stops. Any thoughts?

[george wilson]

When the famous violin maker,Jacob Stainer(or Steiner),the only person outside of Cremona who used Cremona varnish,was old,he became insane. this was in Germany. They chained him to his large stone workbench.

How's that for a thought?

[David Keller NC]

On a slightly more charitable note, marble is quite fragile - more so than granite, which is still not resilient. My guess is that everything will work fine until you drop something heavy on it (which will happen, eventually). The marble is very likely to shatter in a bunch of very sharp, heavy pieces. Not the safest worksurface around...

But it might make a really nice flat reference surface to assemble things on and flatten a plane sole or two.

[george wilson]

My reply was not meant to be uncharitable. I was joking with Leigh.Just a rather unique little bit of history. It shows that stone benches did exist. The Germans used stone for a lot of things. They even used large,completely unshaped chunks of stone as flywheels for their lathes in Bavaria Somehow,they figured out where their center of balance was,drilled a hole through the stone,and used it.

[Leigh Betsch]

Well I'm not sure I would want to be chained to my bench, but I wouldn't mind chaining people away from my bench. And being insane, I'm guessing that more than a few people think I don't ave far to go anyway. A marble workbench , that's pretty insane itself. :eek:

I imagine that I could get quite a windup with 8 ft of sandpaper glued to 8 ft of marble when truing a plane sole!

I wouldn't want to have it shatter. And stone around my chisels and irons seems to be inviting chips in either the stone of the blades, probably both.

Maybe I'll pick it up anyway, cause it's cheap, and use it in a wet bar some day. Or I could still inlet it into a bench and keep it covered until I need to flatten a plane sole. And take the cover off to impress people once in a while.:rolleyes:

[Jim Koepke]

If it is cheap and flat, it would be good to make it into its own bench top.

I have a hunk of granite that is a little over 4' long that is used with abrasive paper for lapping planes and flattening the backs of tools.

What is basically a large tall saw horse was made to hold it. The magnet is wrapped in paper to make it easy to remove the iron filings.

Here is a video with the stone and myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtmWSkD_fU

It was my first and only video so far.

jim

[george wilson]

Tis was the only instance where I could come up with a story about stone workbenches,Leigh. besides,I like to freak people out.:)

By the way,Steiner's violins were more highly prised than Strads in the 18th.C.. They had a tone that fit better into the music of the day. Light,fluty,not so powerful as today's music.

[Rick Rutten]

Jim, neat trick with the magnet. I never thought of that. How powerful is it?

Rick

[Dale Sautter]

Jim, neat trick with the magnet. I never thought of that. How powerful is it?

Rick

Big time dittos! I smile every time I use this trick... thanks again Jim. Rick, I use a ~quarter sized x 1/8 thick rare earth magnet, it'll darn near pull the dust out of your fingernails. :D

[Gary Herrmann]

That is a good idea for the magnet, Jim.

Once my back recovers from all the yard work and opening the pool today, maybe I can actually get downstairs and apply it. For now, I'm going to plant myself in my recliner and move as little as possible.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, neat trick with the magnet. I never thought of that. How powerful is it?

Rick

It is pretty strong. It is neodymium (rare earth) from an old hard drive. If it is on the top of my tool box it is hard to get it off. The magnetic pieces are about a quarter inch thick. Most of the new ones are much thinner and a single piece.

jim

[Adam Woznicki]

For the record, I loved george's response.:D

I would be worried about breaking it though.
They use granite for table saw tops, how strong is marble compared to granite?

[Leigh Betsch]

Well I went and picked the marble slab up this afternoon. It is 1 1/4" thick x 18" wide and 96" long, plus a few odd pieces. For $125. I don't really know what marble sells for but this seemed good to me. It's is used, and based on the newspaper that was stuck to the back of it, was installed in 1928. Looks like it probably was part of a bar in Sioux Falls South Dakota. If I can get the stains out of it I will probably use it as a bar top for my house rather than my original plan to inlet it into a workbench. But if I can't get the stains out then it will be part of the shop.
And he threw in 4 Bailly hand planes, 4, 4 1/2, 5, 5 1/2. A couple of them are pretty rusty and rough but heck they were free! After I get them cleaned up a bit I'll post a pic and get Obi-Wan Koepke to id them for me.

[Thomas Nye]

Cool Video, Thanks for sharing. It looks to be very effective, just alot of elbow grease. But in the end, its worth it. While going through my tools today, I found a nice stanley #8 I did not even know I had. It was like Christmas :D

[QUOTE=Jim Koepke;1429267]If it is cheap and flat, it would be good to make it into its own bench top.

I have a hunk of granite that is a little over 4' long that is used with abrasive paper for lapping planes and flattening the backs of tools.

What is basically a large tall saw horse was made to hold it. The magnet is wrapped in paper to make it easy to remove the iron filings.

Here is a video with the stone and myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtmWSkD_fU

It was my first and only video so far.

[Brian Kent]

Way to go Leigh! Great buy, especially with the extras tossed in.

[Jim Koepke]

Cool Video, Thanks for sharing. It looks to be very effective, just alot of elbow grease. But in the end, its worth it. While going through my tools today, I found a nice stanley #8 I did not even know I had. It was like Christmas :D


Don't you just love it when that happens?

It is a bit of work and I have learned a lot since making the video.

Check the sole often. The paper tends to wear in the center more than the edges. One needs to compensate for that.

I can actually get chisels warm on that set up when flattening their backs.

jim