Virtual Stone Mason (January 2007)
By Tom McNall
In this modern age, communication is everywhere. With the click of the button, you can get information on thousands of topics, including stone.
Category: Articles
Manual Production Centers
There’s a set of stone-fabrication machines in the market that might be called the Rodney Dangerfields of the industry … in that they really don’t get the respect they deserve.
While trade-show audiences gawk at the impressive automation of CNC production models, relatively few folks stop to look at their cousins: the manual-assist assist machines. And yet these machines can use many of the same tools and perform the same tasks –not automatically and not as quickly, but with relative ease – for a tenth of the cost of their robotic relations.
Lights! Camera! Buff!
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
Somewhere in the onrush of last year, I went through a gallery of fine stone in Southern California and came across several slabs of stunning exotic granite. “Nice, isn’t is?” noted someone on the staff. “It’s going into Sharon Stone’s kitchen. She came here and picked it out herself.”
A Sink For Every Style, Pt 2
By Jason Nottestad
While the wide variety of sinks in the market today can create headaches for the templater, fabricator, and installer, the basics of mounting one to a countertop remain the same. While some new sinks fall outside the norm – making installation a special situation – the vast majority can still be dealt with using time-tested methods of sink mounting.
Changing The Cheap Customer (December 2006)
By Tom McNall
We all hear the stories of customers so tight with the dollar that they could grab some coal and turn out diamonds. Do we just dismiss them as being tightwads and cheapskates, or do we try to understand their mindset and work with what we know?
Air Force Memorial, Arlington, Va.
By K. Schipper
Client: Air Force Memorial Foundation, Arlington, Va.
Architect: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, New York
Contractor: Centex Construction LLC, Dallas
Stone Contractor: Lorton Contracting Company Inc., Springfield, Va.
Stone Fabricator: A. Lacroix et Fils Granit Itee, Saint Sebastien De Frontenac, Que.
Stone Carver: Marcel Machler Inc., Twin Peaks, Calif.
Stone Suppliers: Granites of America, Esmond, R.I.; M+Q Italia S.p.A., Marina di Massa, Italy
ARLINGTON, Va. – Befitting the service it honors, the Air Force Memorial sweeps up to the skies … but its foundation is solidly in stone.
Responsible Stone: Quality Beyond Beauty
By Lloyd Henry
Child labor, slave labor and indentured labor seem like strange things to write about in the 21st century. However, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are as many as 12 million people in the world who are slaves and another 200-million-plus children and adults in servitude or working under abusive circumstance.
Match Up With A Mentor
By Aaron Crowley
Jim started his stone shop four years ago with a Skil saw and a pick-up truck, and most of what he’s learned since has been by the hard way.
A & M Stoneworks, Colchester, Vt.
By Cathie Beck
COLCHESTER, Vt. – Anita Socinski grew up knowing stone, cutting stone and installing stone. Working, literally, at her father’s knee, Socinski gleaned every aspect of her stone knowledge from her father – except the business end.
Polishing on the CNC Router
By Donny Taylor
It’s one of the biggest questions in stone machine purchasing today: Will it polish to my standards? Or, more importantly, will it polish to the standards of my customers?