Fabricating Granite for an Island Countertop

[Roberts210]

I wanted a granite top for the kitchen island I'm building but the one I liked was $1,800. Not gonna happen. The island has rounded ends, so the granite has to be rounded too.

I went to the K.C. Restore and found they had 30-40 pieces available.
Got this monster for $5 a square foot.

I just dragged it back with a come-along until I could tip the end down to the ground.

It had been cut on, but was still wide enough for my counter top.

Using a diamond blade in my Milwaukee circular saw I cut the sides to spec.

Then I sliced chords from the end, using the Milwaukee circular saw until I had rough-cut round ends.
I used an old piece of butcher block to make a pattern for the router to run against. I put a piece of 16 gauge steel around the edge to smooth out the travel of the router.

Here is one end after I routered it with a diamond router bit. I cooled both the sawblade and the router bit with a constantly running hose.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Impressive, can't wait to see the end result.

 

[C91x]

Nice job! I've done 3 bathrooms and one kitchen and its not nearly as difficult as one would think. Still time consuming getting good joints and polishing the edge.

 

[rlitman]

Well done. When I did my kitchen, I bought a pneumatic grinder for the wet work, as I didn't feel comfortable using electric.

 

[larry4406]

Quite impressive!

 

[gte718p]

Awesome work.

It make me cringe just thinking about though. I guess I've been lucky. I just drop the slab off at my local water jet cutter. 30 minutes and $200 later I have the shapes I want. The edges still need polishing though. For me the time and cost of blades, it is almost a wash. When you factor in the risk of chipping the stone an ruining your piece it is definitely worth it.

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks guys. I was a little worried about using the Milwaukee's around the water too, but I've been careful. Unfortunately I don't have a water jet cutter available or nearby.

 

[frank001]

Nice job! Now that I have seen what you were able to do, if I ever need to cut granite, I would give it a try.

 

[2oolhound]

Nice job! Now that I have seen what you were able to do, if I ever need to cut granite, I would give it a try.

Me Too! Thanks for the write up.

 

[LXCam]

What a great job! How many hours do you think you’ve got into all that?

 

[Roberts210]

Not sure. It took about 20 minutes to saw each side of the piece. But dressing that first round end with the router took over an hour. Making the butcher board pattern took a hour plus. I need to polish the edges. Don't know how much time that will take.

 

[LXCam]

Not sure. It took about 20 minutes to saw each side of the piece. But dressing that first round end with the router took over an hour. Making the butcher board pattern took a hour plus. I need to polish the edges. Don't know how much time that will take.

Well that went way faster then I would have thought. Most excellent

 

[derek_m]

This is cool, looks like something I would be comfortable with tackling after seeing what can be used to do it. Thanks for sharing. Are you going to add a radius to the edges?

 

[Roberts210]

Well done. When I did my kitchen, I bought a pneumatic grinder for the wet work, as I didn't feel comfortable using electric.

Thanks Rlitman. After thinking about it I went on EvilBay and bought a used Dairex Assassin water cooled, pneumatic polisher and some pads. I'll still rout that one end with my router/hose set up, but I'll polish the edges with the pneumatic polisher.

 

[Roberts210]

This is the 3rd piece I've cut with my Milwaukee saw and a diamond blade. It's surprising how fast it cuts.

 

[rlitman]

Thanks Rlitman. After thinking about it I went on EvilBay and bought a used Dairex Assassin water cooled, pneumatic polisher and some pads. I'll still rout that one end with my router/hose set up, but I'll polish the edges with the pneumatic polisher.

If you have the air to feed one of those, you won't regret it. The advantage of that sort of machine (which is basically exactly what I bought) is the center fed water. More water means faster cutting. You want a LOT of water to keep the diamonds constantly in contact with the stone and not slipping in slurry, and a trickle from the garden hose is nothing like water coming right through holes in your router bit or out the center of your polishing pad.

I initially tried polishing with the same velcro diamond pads in my Dynabrade DA, and no matter how much water I poured on with the hose, the center of the pad always looked like it was coated in peanut butter.

I did a demi-radius on mine with a wet diamond router bit designed to work in that same machine. My countertops came out great, but I'll say that the cutting AND radiusing was maybe only 10% of the work, with the polishing the radius being the remaining 90%.

 

[Roberts210]

I don't have enough air, so I'll have to take my granite up to my buddy's shop and use his air. Thanks for mentioning that. Luckily he only lives a half mile away.

 

[rlitman]

I don't have enough air, so I'll have to take my granite up to my buddy's shop and use his air. Thanks for mentioning that. Luckily he only lives a half mile away.

Bring a trash bag to wear as a poncho.

 

[Roberts210]

Hahahaha. I guess I better do it before the weather gets too cold.

 

[rlitman]

Hahahaha. I guess I better do it before the weather gets too cold.

Exactly! Though in my later attempts, I made a skirt for my grinder that really cut down on the splatter. Mine didn't come with anything like that, but I see that some now do.

Regarding air, I know that they make electric wet grinders too, though all the cheap ones have air cooled motors, and I don't think I'd be comfortable watching the motor **** mist past the brushes.

As for a radius, it will look fine without it, but the radius makes the edge less likely to chip. You'd be surprised at how fast a 100 grit diamond pad takes down the corner. It's about the same speed that a similar grid sandpaper would take down wood, so knocking down the corners by hand and polishing isn't actually all that hard if you start with a gentle touch.

All in all, I did 25 feet of lineal demi-bullnose edging in my kitchen, and it seemed to take forever. The island top, edged all around, took all day. But I think a lot of the time was lost in polishing over the curve. The two sink sides that I left straight polished up very quickly in comparison.