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How a Stone Quarry Cuts Perfectly Rectangular Blocks Using a Ride-able Machine
As industrial designers, most of us are keenly aware of how plastic, metal, wood and glass are manipulated into objects. But stone is a lesser-used and more mysterious material; how exactly does a quarry turn what’s in the earth into a slab, and turn that slab into rectangular blocks?
In this video shot at a stone quarry in Malta, we see that it requires first surfacing the top of the slab and then performing a series of “rip cuts” (we don’t get to see these two steps), then setting up a dolly track perpendicular to the initial cuts, something like the track of a tracksaw. Then a ride-able machine goes along the track making two cuts at once, while a trailing splitter separates the blocks and helps a second worker set them vertically:
More Examples of How to Work Stone:
How to Hand Drill Holes in Stone and Concrete
How to Quickly Carve Stone Using Cheap Tools
CNC Wire Machines Can Cut Stone Into Crazy Shapes
http://www.core77.com/posts/70129/How-a-Stone-Quarry-Cuts-Perfectly-Rectangular-Blocks-Using-a-Ride-able-Machine