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Boulder Hunt!

grachman

Active Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2020
Messages
31
Location
vancouver
Rocks deposited by glaciers are pretty ugly at least around here. You need rocks that are weathered by a river or time. I live at the foot of mountain. Lots of rocks but not weathered enough. Nothing worse than rocks that have been split. Maybe make rocks out of concrete.
 

Pixie

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
373
Location
NH
Occupation
remodeling
Beauty is in the eye of the rock owner... I like them a little worn and showing some moss/lichen but having a flat side. Really dislike teeth marks !
Often river rocks are rounded and hard to stack into a wall and seldom sit flat.

A local contractor builds rock retaining walls out of rocks that were in a grinder and they are ugly !
 

grachman

Active Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2020
Messages
31
Location
vancouver
My rocks look ok with moss but if you clean off moss they look like crap. Definitely not eye of beholder. Nice rocks command good prices. Best to get opinion from professional.
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,040
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
Mine show teeth marks, or fire. I've never known what they are. I've asked a few geologists. They say it is some vague rock somehow similar to granite. I know it is HARD, harder than granite ever hoped to be.

I've wanted 36" squares 2" thick to make counter top. I've presented the idea to several stone cutters. All will only cut square stone.
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
That's kind of surprising @Willie B I would've assumed they wouldn't care so long as you were willing to pay for the waste cuts. Maybe even waste cuts on the bottom too, if they need to secure it to a bench or something.
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,040
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
That's kind of surprising @Willie B I would've assumed they wouldn't care so long as you were willing to pay for the waste cuts. Maybe even waste cuts on the bottom too, if they need to secure it to a bench or something.
Something about the shape of the stone deflecting the diamond saw sideways. I only somewhat understand the process, I think they would use rope saws.
The Danby Marble Quarry is a couple miles from here. The boss once said "Bring one up some Saturday, I'll see if I can do it." Bad luck for him & me, a week later cancer hit him hard. He died a month later.
I've cut marble with a 10" diamond blade on a 9" hand held grinder. It is VERY soft, easy to cut.
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
I remember watching some tv show where they were making huge cuts on random shaped stones and it looked like a crazy process but that's why I mentioned that it seemed possible. I don't remember the show name.
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,040
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
Today was rough. I kidded myself. The "road" I had built inside the wall had a few bumps. When I dig out a "bump" it usually is a 4' boulder. It takes a while, but I dig it out & fill the hole. The monsters I can pull, but can't lift, they slow the process. Sure enough, there were two! Now I have to go get wood.
 

Andy1845c

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2009
Messages
247
Location
Southern Minnesota
Occupation
Electrician
Something about the shape of the stone deflecting the diamond saw sideways. I only somewhat understand the process, I think they would use rope saws.

One of my pipe dream/who knows if I will ever actually get to it projects is so build a diamond wire saw set up to slab boulders. I have seen some used for garden paths and sidewalks and figure there could actually be a fun side income in that - but too many irons in the fire right now...
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,040
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
Where I live marble is the stone actually quarried. Danby marble was once claimed to be the world's largest underground marble quarry. The stuff is EVERYWHERE. I'm not clear why, but they used to dump millions of cubic yards off the parking lot at the mouth of the quarry. A town road runs along the base of that dump. Local people have always picked from it for projects. The quarry people frown on the practice.
Not far away are several granite quarries.
15 miles away are a row of slate quarries.

Still I know of no one who has built a stone saw. All that I know of have manufactured machines. To me marble (the most easily available) does not appeal. As kitchen counter top, it stains way too easily, is fragile, sensitive to hot stuff, and white.
As paving, it is slimy when wet, not the sort of thing you want for stairs even.
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
My boulder hunt is likely to hit the commercial side of things this coming Friday.

My lovely wife is building a patio off the side of the deck out back and she wants to build a low wall which will have the inside filled in to come up to grade. So she's hitting up a local rock store to see the offerings. I plan to go with her to look at the larger offerings, and to try to understand some costs at truckload volumes. Having never bought a truckload of big rocks I don't really know what to expect would fit in a dump truck, nor how much weight that is.

We've got a quarry of sorts down the road and she suggested to me that I should go try to get a part time job there in trade for rocks... Don't know the likelihood of that happening but I'd be willing.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
Good luck on tandem loads of rock from the "stone" quarry. Got a quote from a quarry in North AL for nice blue stone slabs 1-2' thick perfect for retainer wall building and they quoted $1400 a load of 100 SF of vertical wall. Yikes - $14 a SF.
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Good luck on tandem loads of rock from the "stone" quarry. Got a quote from a quarry in North AL for nice blue stone slabs 1-2' thick perfect for retainer wall building and they quoted $1400 a load of 100 SF of vertical wall. Yikes - $14 a SF.
Yea people often got a shock when they priced large rocks from the quarry where I worked. Thing is it takes lots more time to load a 10 ton rock than it does to load a 30 ton load of crushed stone in a dump truck. Plus most want to be able to pick and choose which rocks they want so there it also a bunch of time spent with loader sorting through a pile of shot rock to get to the "perfect rock" for the customer.
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
I can only vaguely picture 100 square feet of stone, but 1400 bucks seems like a fair amount, probably too much!
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,129
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Just remembered the time when one of the rich people on the lake near here was doing some landscaping along the shore and wanted some stones to keep erosion at bay. The contractor was picking out the stones and hauling them to the site on a lowboy trailer. Problem is one of the "perfect stones" when it got to the site was too heavy for his equipment to move and had to be returned to the quarry!
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
I can only vaguely picture 100 square feet of stone, but 1400 bucks seems like a fair amount, probably too much!

Think 10' wide and 10' long - 100 SF. Or more for a retainer wall 5' tall and 20' long.

Kshan at this quarry you don't get to pick and choose the actual rock. Pick the style you want and the truck shows up. All in all $1400 included a 1 hr one way trip so it's not that bad..

After I was quoted that price I started to separate the large slab rocks we haul to our dump and push them to the side... I've got $3K in a pile..:p:D
 

aighead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2019
Messages
2,541
Location
Dayton, OH
OK, 1400 bucks may be about what I would expect to unhappily pay at 5' tall and 20' long. A foot-ish wide?
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,250
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
OK, 1400 bucks may be about what I would expect to unhappily pay at 5' tall and 20' long. A foot-ish wide?

These stones would vary between 1-2' wide on average. The 100 SF is the "Face Footage" of the wall which is what you will see vertically looking at it.
 
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