Etching concrete in existing memorial

[Robert Lambie]

I guess it really depends how deep you need to etch into the stone and how hard a stone it is.
I bought a portable sand blaster, which i hooked up to my compressor. only cost about £35.
same as the one in this picture.

as i say, depends how deep etc. then i would imagine its how much pressure is required to do the job on the stone properly. you can keep doing more and more passes over it i guess.

i know for the likes of glass etching there is not a great deal of pressure and the sand is very fine.
you just just sand blast vinyl, cut a stencil and protect surrounding area and fire.

depending on pressure, your stencil may need to be a very think aluminium or even composite. im guessing here though as i have never done it on stone.

ive used ours on hard ground in rust on steel with my portable unit and it blasts it clean off very easy.

a few years ago a concrete company bought 1 inch thick MDF letters from us. screws put into the face of the letters. not sure exactly how they done this, but the letters we set into a huge concrete block. After an hour or so when the block was "setting", they removed the letters by pulling back out using the screws. then when the concrete had set properly it had these 1 inch deep letters in the face of the huge concrete block which was sat at the entrance to their building. it looked great and a very cheap made, impressive and different sign. anyway, not that thats of any use to you, just thought ide share as it jogged my memory. :smiles:

---

Attachments:

[David Hammond]

I think Rob is along the right lines. When I worked at the undertakers memorials were sand blasted, although that was usually granite or sandstone.

You could speak to a chap called Lee at the Blast Shop in Manchester, they supply masons, and I’m sure will know how to do it and what you need.

I think they use a plotter to cut the mask as they sell those & smart blades.

[Robert Lambie]

to be honest, you could just sub the work out rather than getting involved.
I say that because your actually adding to an existing stone and i would hate to think the cost in it if you make a backside of it.
As I said, it could be deeper than possible with a blasting unit anyway. you could maybe call the following to sub the work to or at least ask for advice?

Lida Cardoza-Kindersley
152 Victoria Road
Cambridge
CB4 3DZ
01223 362170

$this->BBvideo_pass(‘$8’, ‘$4’, ‘$7’)

.

[Warren Beard]

Awesome thanks and think it could be a good option. They are thinking of paint but I thought wouldn’t look great, go with existing or last as long.

I’ll look in to this and they have a sample slab we can test on so could be a possibility [emoji106].

Cheers

Warren

[Colin Bland]

I’m all for taking on the unusual but think I would sub this out to a professional stonemason put a mark up on top and move on