sarabande
Well-Known Member
As one does in between lambing sessions, I spent an hour at a local monumental mason's watching her at work preparing some pink granite slabs.
One tool caught my eye, a water powered polisher. This device is about the size of normal battery powered drill or angle grinder, but is powered by a normal pressure washer, and uses standard floor polisher pads in various hardnesses, with some different polishing slurries.
Then the penny dropped. Shirley this could be useful for the dreaded hull preparation sessions. The tool is relatively lightweight, uses easily available disposable floor pads, and washes away debris as you work, and also enables you to see very clearly how the work area is progressing.
I don't have a clever phone, so no pics of the lady at work, but the polisher is very similar to this.
View attachment 31008
Apparently these tools are available for about £90 from Alibaba or somewhere (?) and are very long lasting as they do not run hot.
I asked about controlling the run-off, and the answer is lay a builder's plastic sheet under the work table, to channel the water to a settling tub. The clever lady sells the settled granite dust to a group of local sculpture artists, who incorporate it into cement, which (typically) is then made into those elegant highly polished mystical statues you see in shopping malls.
The mason (? masonette) has contact with a big tool hire company in Exeter, who sell her the old floor pads which come back on their contract hire floor polishers. A new contract goes out with a new pad, and the old one is thrown away or sold for a couple of squid to the polishing lady.
One tool caught my eye, a water powered polisher. This device is about the size of normal battery powered drill or angle grinder, but is powered by a normal pressure washer, and uses standard floor polisher pads in various hardnesses, with some different polishing slurries.
Then the penny dropped. Shirley this could be useful for the dreaded hull preparation sessions. The tool is relatively lightweight, uses easily available disposable floor pads, and washes away debris as you work, and also enables you to see very clearly how the work area is progressing.
I don't have a clever phone, so no pics of the lady at work, but the polisher is very similar to this.
View attachment 31008
Apparently these tools are available for about £90 from Alibaba or somewhere (?) and are very long lasting as they do not run hot.
I asked about controlling the run-off, and the answer is lay a builder's plastic sheet under the work table, to channel the water to a settling tub. The clever lady sells the settled granite dust to a group of local sculpture artists, who incorporate it into cement, which (typically) is then made into those elegant highly polished mystical statues you see in shopping malls.
The mason (? masonette) has contact with a big tool hire company in Exeter, who sell her the old floor pads which come back on their contract hire floor polishers. A new contract goes out with a new pad, and the old one is thrown away or sold for a couple of squid to the polishing lady.
