Diamond Tooling: Shop Experience

Using diamond tooling extensively comes at a price – as in the cost of tooling. However, the extra output in cash is worth the extra output on the shop floor.
That’s not to say most will shrug off the incorrect use of a blade costing four figures, though. Shop owners and supervisors agree that a key component of successfully using diamond tooling is careful and thorough training of the people doing the work.
Most confess to shopping carefully to get the best price. Still, they agree that another important part of the diamond-tooling equation is having a good relationship with a manufacturer or supplier who can offer sound advice on what products will work best with a particular shop’s workload.

GOOD OLD DAYS?
Diamond tooling isn’t a luxury for today’s stonework – it’s really a must-have for any shop at any level. In fact, if there’s a downside to the whole issue of diamond tooling, it’s the universal acceptance that allows everyone to work faster.
John Lenzini, the shop foreman at Stone Craft Inc. in Denver, speaks from more than 15 years’ experience. He can still remember the days when solid-core blades weren’t available, and fabricators used belt sanders to bring out a polish.
“It’s made working stone a lot easier for everyone,” he says. “That’s why we have people also driving around working out of the backs of their pickup trucks. It’s improved things so impressively.”
It’s also changed Lenzini’s way of thinking about jobs, just as it’s changed Stone Craft into less of a custom shop and more into production runs.
“Having to produce so many kitchens in a day, you just have to go faster,” he says. Whether it’s custom or production, though, Lenzini has plenty of diamond options available to him. Once a slab is sawn to size, it may go to a hand station where a bullnose is applied using a diamond cupwheel. If the jobs go into the CNC machine, all the stations for shaping and milling utilize diamonds to process the stone.
About the only exception is when the shop is working with marble, where some of the initial polishing uses different abrasives.
Dave Dalrymple, general manager of Artistic Tile and Granite in Albuquerque, N.M., says that company went to diamond tooling about a decade years ago.
“It’s a little more expensive, but we get a better finished product for what we’re doing,” Dalrymple says. “The diamond tooling is much faster than the old silicone carbide.”
Unlike Stone Craft, Artistic Tile’s main emphasis is custom work – “We like to do the big houses,” Dalrymple says – although the company also does some production jobs. And, the general manager says he gets good results on all types of stone, including quartz surfaces.
“We do a lot of work with Silestone® and I use the diamond tools on the material,” he says. “It works well.”
Randy Burgans, CEO of Prestige Custom Stone Products in Crown Point, Ind., is another fabricator who’s been in the industry long enough to remember when a diamond tool wasn’t available for every job. When he started his own business almost five years ago, though, diamonds were the order of the day.
Prestige is strictly a custom shop that prides itself on its hand-finishing, and Burgans says he believes diamond tooling just gives his crew a little extra control over its edge finishing.
“There are a lot of shops that don’t have the skilled labor I have, and they’re pretty much locked into using CNC machines and other edge-finishing machines,” he says. “We have the flexibility to do highly custom pieces with custom curves and shapes that linear polishing machines aren’t capable of doing.”
Burgans adds that there’s nothing he’s seen that the diamond polishing pads can’t handle.
“It handles the job quite well, whether we’re doing granite, marble, slate or even refractory,” he says. “We also do the DuPont Zodiaq® natural quartz surface, and there’s a little different formulation to those pads because they’re subject to overheating and will burn and discolor. It takes a little more finesse to work with the quartz surfaces, but we’re still using the diamond pads for that.”

COST OF BUSINESS
There’s a price to be paid for such versatile products, and anyone who’s ordered supplies lately knows replacing a 20” diamond saw blade is an inexpensive proposition. As an investment that can help a shop earn more money faster, fabricators say it’s a good one.
Just how good isn’t always easy to tell on an objective basis, though. Take the case of Mark Scheibelhut, who with a partner opened Custom Stone Interiors in St. Cloud, Minn., two years ago.
When the two men were researching their business, the rule of thumb given to them by several sources was to figure $1 per square foot for diamond-tooling use. Instead the partners have found it to be closer to $2.50.
The number doesn’t upset Scheibelhut, though. Before opening his own business, he was an executive with an engineering background running a $30-million division of a large company, and remains keenly aware of production costs.
“I think most people don’t know that they spend,” he says. “A buck a square foot is a suspiciously easy number to come up with. It could also be because we use all-diamond tools (in the shop).
:We also could be higher because we tend to buy the top-end tools. I’ve tried buying the cheap diamond pads, but the guys practically mutiny on me.”
Larry Noyes, the shop foreman of Arvada Hardwoods, an Aurora, Colo. production shop, says the cost of diamond tooling balances out well against the extra speed and production generated. However, he acknowledges that some smaller shops may find it a little harder to justify a full diamond setup.
“It depends on how you want to prioritize things,” he says. “If I was doing one kitchen a day I might say we have to make a blade last another two weeks. You have to choose your battles.
“If somebody drops a 5” diamond blade, it’s not going to break me. I’d rather worry about a saw operator busting teeth off the 16” blade on the big saw.”
As his shop’s safety director, Noyes also expresses concerns about shops that may try to save money by running diamond tools beyond their useful lives.
“Dull tools create accidents and they create bad products,” he says. “You need to keep those diamond tools fresh constantly. Fortunately, you can clean the blades periodically by running them through sandstone once in awhile. We try to get our money’s worth, and not totally wear them out.”
In the meantime, the best way to avoid that tooth problem on the 16” blade – in fact the best way to make sure you get the best use out of all your equipment – is to make sure the people using it are properly trained.
For instance, Prestige’s Burgans says he’ll start a new employee hand-polishing on scraps before allowing the person to graduate to the complimentary breadboards the shop gives out with each kitchen-counter job. Only then does the person get to move onto backsplashes, eventually developing the skills to work on more-complex edges.
“It’s a long process,” he says. “With the saws, we don’t let people go on that until we know they’re comfortable with the machine and they really know it. We take training very seriously and we keep a tight control on it. We don’t let people loose until we’re very certain they can handle the responsibilities of that job.”
Noyes agrees; diamond tools are so aggressive that if you don’t have someone skilled to operate them, you can have problems. For instance, he says someone just learning the job will probably need to experiment with settings on a variable-speed grinder to find what’s right for a particular stone, while an experienced operator will just grab a grinder and go.
“It comes down to knowing your equipment, knowing your tooling and knowing as an individual what you’re capable of,” he says. “It’s patience and attention to detail. That’s the most important thing in setting up the diamond tools correctly. It’s a different way of doing things, but these people are still really artists.”

PRICE, PERFORMANCE AND MORE
Although diamond-tooling experts talk about things like impact strength, mesh count, diamond concentration and method of segment attachment when discussing their products, most stone fabricators don’t involve themselves in the minutia of the topic. When they shop for blades or pads, they tend to shop for price and performance.
Artistic Tile’s Dalrymple says he’s constantly researching the topic, especially when it comes to buying saw blades.
“I’ve tried a lot of blades over the last 10 years, but I stick to several brands,” he says. “They aren’t the cheapest, but they perform better and they last longer.
“What’s crucial to me is the way the diamonds are imbedded in the material. If you get one that’s too hard or too soft, then the blade will start bouncing and its use is pretty much over. I’ve found a couple medium-line blades that out-perform everything else, and on all types of stone.”
When it comes to pads, Dalrymple adds that when a new product comes out he will generally buy a set and do a test in the shop to see how well they hold up, and if they’re a product the men in the shop can work with.
On the other hand, Arvada Hardwood’s Noyes says he doesn’t do a lot of shopping around. Not only does he have a supplier he knows and trusts to provide him with his bigger blades, but he’s leery of trusting something so important to his business to someone he doesn’t know.
“There are very few times I will try to buy from somebody out-of-town, because service is very important to me,” he explains. “If I don’t see somebody and they call and try to sell me blades that are 20-percent cheaper, what’s my recourse if they’re crappy blades?”
Custom Stone’s Scheibelhut says he tries to take a pragmatic approach to the subject.
“We find a brand and a set of tools that work well for us and then we buy them,” he adds. “The end users shouldn’t have to worry about things like mesh count and diamond concentration. The tool guys should give us something that works, and by-and-large they do.”
In fact, if someone is having a problem with diamond tooling, or a particular diamond tool, the manufacturers and distributors are most than willing to work with shops to come up with workable solutions.
That’s certainly true if there’s a problem with a particular item, Scheibelhut says.
“Don’t buy something and then keep it if it doesn’t work,” he says. “I’ve probably bought 40 or 50 of the blades we use, and once in awhile we get one that’s flat-out no good. We’ve learned to spot it right away; we call the vendor and they say, ‘Pack it up.’ We don’t even have to pay to ship it.”
It’s also possible a manufacturer has changed something in the formulation of a product, and the company wants to know if users are unsatisfied with the changes. Beyond that, most manufacturers are willing to help a shop find the best fit for its particular product mix from among the manufacturer’s line.
Stone Craft’s Lenzini relates how he went to the company manufacturing the blades for his largest bridge saw because he was looking for a blade that would last a little longer cutting the countertops that are the shop’s bread-and-butter.
“You can work with them and call them and say that you have a specific need,” he says. “I said, ‘This is what I’m doing and this is what I’m applying it to. Can you come up with a formula for me?’ Most of the time they’ll say, ‘Try this, see if it works, and if not we’ll adjust the diamonds and the bond hardness.’”
While not all manufacturers and distributors are created equal, Prestige’s Burgans says it’s worth the time to do some research and find one that’s willing to go the extra mile to answer questions, even if they may seem silly.
“If you tell them exactly what you’re doing exactly and what ranges of stones you’re sawing, and if you still get a blade that doesn’t work well for you, most manufactures are willing to work with you to tweak those blades to get the best performance,” he says. “It’s a matter of taking the time to find someone who’s willing to work with you as the end consumer. Take advantage of their knowledge. It’s better to ask the questions than be disappointed in the performance of the product.”

This article first appeared in the August 2003 print edition of Stone Business. ©2003 Western Business Media Inc.