All,
I heard about a guy in the UK (Birmingham) who is trying to get rid of a bunch of granite off cuts and is likely to dump them pretty cheaply. I'm going to his place tomorrow (sunday) to see what he's got and take an informal inventory.
I'm told that he's looking to get rid of ~3 tons of it (preferably to a single buyer rather than piece meal).
I don't need 3 tons of stone.
I only need four pieces; one 24"x28" and two 16"x19" and one scrap to practice my stone cutting/polishing skills on (aka ruin) in black.
But I thought that if others are interested in this, we could put together something of a group buy (well, kind of) to take [some of] this stuff off his hands.
Sorry for the short notice, but is there any interest out there? I'm in Watford so if you're closer to London, I could probably hire a van to drive it down to my place, but you'd need to pick it up from here. I'd just be looking to cover any costs associated with driving it down.
Note: I have no idea what sizes/colours he's got as I'm just exploring right now. But at the prices that I *think* he's selling this at, I suspect it's likely going to go quickly.
Cheers,
Dave.
I heard about a guy in the UK (Birmingham) who is trying to get rid of a bunch of granite off cuts and is likely to dump them pretty cheaply. I'm going to his place tomorrow (sunday) to see what he's got and take an informal inventory.
I'm told that he's looking to get rid of ~3 tons of it (preferably to a single buyer rather than piece meal).
I don't need 3 tons of stone.
I only need four pieces; one 24"x28" and two 16"x19" and one scrap to practice my stone cutting/polishing skills on (aka ruin) in black. But I thought that if others are interested in this, we could put together something of a group buy (well, kind of) to take [some of] this stuff off his hands.
Sorry for the short notice, but is there any interest out there? I'm in Watford so if you're closer to London, I could probably hire a van to drive it down to my place, but you'd need to pick it up from here. I'd just be looking to cover any costs associated with driving it down.
Note: I have no idea what sizes/colours he's got as I'm just exploring right now. But at the prices that I *think* he's selling this at, I suspect it's likely going to go quickly.
Cheers,
Dave.
I think that when you go to look at it, you may find that only 3 tons of granite is a far smaller amount than you are picturing! My recent ancestors made a living of the coast of Maine, by loading boats with ice, cut from lakes and rivers (before refrigeration), in the summer, and granite the rest of the year. I imagine they were in top physical shape!
I'm curious about granite acoustics. Wouldn't a granite block have a huge resonance spike? Act like a bell, or like a slab of glass?
Or do certain types of granite have acoustic damping (more like a lead bell than a bronze bell)?
(Also I've always wanted to try the N. Tesla trick: pump a few hundred watts into a granite slab and see if you can make it violently explode. Get on Mythbusters. Or perhaps The Darwin Awards.)
Or do certain types of granite have acoustic damping (more like a lead bell than a bronze bell)?
(Also I've always wanted to try the N. Tesla trick: pump a few hundred watts into a granite slab and see if you can make it violently explode. Get on Mythbusters. Or perhaps The Darwin Awards.)
Well, I had a look at it and loaded 4 pieces into the back of my Golf.
Absolute Black:
* one 915 x 650 x 40mm; 15mm was taken out of one corner so I need to cut it.
* two 635 x 610 x 40mm; perfect condition, polished on top and 3 corners
Star Black Galaxy (Copper):
* one 480 x 400 x 40mm; it's larger but it's rough cut on 3 sizes; it's stunning.
Total price was 50 quid which isn't that good. He said that I could take as much as I wanted for ~200 quid and, if I'd had a van, I would have paid it.
About 50% of what he had was black, 25% was grey/black and the rest was miscellaneous.
@ArtG - There is a lot of granite there. Quite a lot actually. The 3 ton estimate was just that; I'd say it's more than that, but there you go. Sadly, it's all 'rotting' in the sun/rain with lots of dirt & leaves and huge *** spiders all over it. A few had sink holes and notches cut out of them but the majority were just the left overs from jobs. I didn't see any 20mm stuff there; it was all 30-40mm.
As it turns out, I didn't actually get the piece that I wanted because I would have had to have lifted about a ton of granite off of it to get at it. So I "settled" for the beautiful specimens that I got.
Unfortunately, I don't have any friends that could help me move it all but if I did, I'd seriously consider building a granite rack in my garage and start cutting it into knife blocks for sale on ebay.
There was a piece there that was ~1350 x 900 x 40mm, rough cut on three sizes there in black. Again, there was at least a ton of stone on top of it so I couldn't see if there were any holes in it. I suspect that it was damanged in transit so it would likely need to be sectioned... but if it wasnt... oh god...
Cheers,
Dave.
Absolute Black:
* one 915 x 650 x 40mm; 15mm was taken out of one corner so I need to cut it.
* two 635 x 610 x 40mm; perfect condition, polished on top and 3 corners
Star Black Galaxy (Copper):
* one 480 x 400 x 40mm; it's larger but it's rough cut on 3 sizes; it's stunning.
Total price was 50 quid which isn't that good. He said that I could take as much as I wanted for ~200 quid and, if I'd had a van, I would have paid it.
About 50% of what he had was black, 25% was grey/black and the rest was miscellaneous.
@ArtG - There is a lot of granite there. Quite a lot actually. The 3 ton estimate was just that; I'd say it's more than that, but there you go. Sadly, it's all 'rotting' in the sun/rain with lots of dirt & leaves and huge *** spiders all over it. A few had sink holes and notches cut out of them but the majority were just the left overs from jobs. I didn't see any 20mm stuff there; it was all 30-40mm.
As it turns out, I didn't actually get the piece that I wanted because I would have had to have lifted about a ton of granite off of it to get at it. So I "settled" for the beautiful specimens that I got.
Unfortunately, I don't have any friends that could help me move it all but if I did, I'd seriously consider building a granite rack in my garage and start cutting it into knife blocks for sale on ebay.
There was a piece there that was ~1350 x 900 x 40mm, rough cut on three sizes there in black. Again, there was at least a ton of stone on top of it so I couldn't see if there were any holes in it. I suspect that it was damanged in transit so it would likely need to be sectioned... but if it wasnt... oh god...
Cheers,
Dave.
And yes, I he really did say that I could have 'the lot' for 200 quid. The problem is, where would I put it and how much weight training would it take for me to be able to lift any of it.
Being practical, I can't take it on my own. But it's such a great deal that I really am considering whether the hernia would be worth that much granite.
Being practical, I can't take it on my own. But it's such a great deal that I really am considering whether the hernia would be worth that much granite.
@wbeaty - Granite is the second hardest stone on the planet (next to diamond). I suspect that the accoustics would be pretty awesome, provided that you didn't have massive faces for the speaker (and that you braced it).
I'd imagine that the challenge would be in ensuring that joins wouldn't move. If they did, it would ring like a bell.
On the way home, I had some cardboard between the pieces to prevent scratches (silly as I'm just going to polish them anyways), but i missed a corner. Every time I went over a bump two pieces hit and there was a high pitched "tink" sound but no "ringing". (I sorted it out with a 1" square piece of cardboard under the corner after 10 minutes of cringing at every bump).
Either way, I would imagine that you'd want to epoxy the inside of the enclosure anyways, so that there are a few different mediums that the vibrational energy would have to penetrate. But I suspect that it would sound pretty dead if you did the job right.
I'd imagine that the challenge would be in ensuring that joins wouldn't move. If they did, it would ring like a bell.
On the way home, I had some cardboard between the pieces to prevent scratches (silly as I'm just going to polish them anyways), but i missed a corner. Every time I went over a bump two pieces hit and there was a high pitched "tink" sound but no "ringing". (I sorted it out with a 1" square piece of cardboard under the corner after 10 minutes of cringing at every bump).
Either way, I would imagine that you'd want to epoxy the inside of the enclosure anyways, so that there are a few different mediums that the vibrational energy would have to penetrate. But I suspect that it would sound pretty dead if you did the job right.
Hello Dfidler, if only I was on your side of the pond! Unfortunately, I suspect that the shipping costs would make it prohibitively expensive.
In regards to using granite in audio, many have used it as a base for putting turntables, etc. on. And Nelson Pass and Co. build the Rushmore with a black granite baffle, he may have some good input. My former employer had an entire upper frame of a machine made from granite, and floated it on airbags. This gave great stability with very little vibration. It was necessary for accurate optical alignments. A very common technique for many years in industry when stability is needed actually.
Peace,
Dave
In regards to using granite in audio, many have used it as a base for putting turntables, etc. on. And Nelson Pass and Co. build the Rushmore with a black granite baffle, he may have some good input. My former employer had an entire upper frame of a machine made from granite, and floated it on airbags. This gave great stability with very little vibration. It was necessary for accurate optical alignments. A very common technique for many years in industry when stability is needed actually.
Peace,
Dave
@Dave - when I was living in the US (and less so, in Candada), I found it fairly easy to get good deals on granite/marble rough cuts. Over there, it seems like people are itching to get rid of it.
Over here though, it seems like all of the stone proprietors are greedy mofos who quote you 70-100 quid for a single piece like the ones that I brought home.
And that's what really gets under my skin. They've already been paid for that stone; it's just the refuse from other jobs and it's not like they bought those extras back from the customers who originally ordered it. Grrrr....
Capitalism sucks when it's not working in my favour.
Over here though, it seems like all of the stone proprietors are greedy mofos who quote you 70-100 quid for a single piece like the ones that I brought home.
And that's what really gets under my skin. They've already been paid for that stone; it's just the refuse from other jobs and it's not like they bought those extras back from the customers who originally ordered it. Grrrr....
Capitalism sucks when it's not working in my favour.
pix...
unfortunately, they don't do well to convey the scale. The last two pix are of a stack of stuff; the largest of them (at the bottom) is about 50 inches square (not to be confused with 50 square inches).
unfortunately, they don't do well to convey the scale. The last two pix are of a stack of stuff; the largest of them (at the bottom) is about 50 inches square (not to be confused with 50 square inches).
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Yeah, I am probably spoiled and don't realize it. Rock of Ages is headquartered about 35 miles from me. At least they used to be. And they have a good size granite mine in the same area, not surprisingly the town is called Graniteville, VT. They probably have a lot of cast offs available at the sheds down in Barre.
Peace,
Dave
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