[russell taylor]

Hi,
 Just interested if any of you Members have tried Milling stone before, I use it for Rough  Sandstone and Slate using Htc Hybrid disc system, it gets about 4 to 5 mm out of the Stone.
   Milling also strips of any old Sealer, dirt, paint, cement deposits or grout haze, on top of that it brings out the colour of the Stone and it feels very smooth after being milled, makes it much easier to mantain for the future as well.
  Regards Russell at Tile Doctor
p.s check my facebook page to see a demo, its about halfway down the page.

[Jamie Pearson]

What sort of pad life do you get out of a DCS Hybrid when taking 5mm out of Sandstone?

What spec machine do you run these on?

[AshWhite]

Hi Russell, just saw the video on your website (the Victorian porcelain).

How long did that take you? And if you don't mind me asking, what price bracket would that job come into?

The only reason I ask, is that one of the very few hard floor jobs I've done so far was VERY similar to that one - and I completely cocked up the timing. I thought it would take me about 7 hours, it ended up taking me almost 15! It was caked in blobs of cement and underlay residue.

I was happy doing it as the final result looked so impressive in my Before & After portfolio.

[Jamie Pearson]

p.s check my facebook page to see a demo, its about halfway down the page.

Do you have a link?

I have this to do.....

[Jamie Pearson]

I already have a method in mind having done a few of these but open to suggestions if it means using less chemicals and greater productivity.

[Floor_Tony]

Come on you what would be the point in him telling you that! I should think you would have to go on a course for that information!

[Jamie Pearson]

I am curious as to the make up of the DCS pads having only used the green/white/yellows.

In my experience anything other than metal bonds get anhiliated by sandstone. Especially Caithness stuff found up my way.

If they can take 5mm out they are maybe worth a try.

[russell taylor]

Hi All,
So many Questions, I will answer them as they came in.
 I was expecting someone to correct me and say dont you mean Grinding, well it is Grinding but usually this is followed by Polishing, milling is just milling no Polishing afterwards and we use a Victor Airflow It weighs 45kg < thats the important bit > and its 300rpm.
We offer Part milling on Slate and Stone not full milling, full milling takes forever and you can go through  to many Black discs to achieve it, also you lose to much texture out of the stone and it makes them look to flat, by part milling you leave some texture in the stone and you dont have to kill yourself to get there.#
 If you miss a few bits we just put a sealer remover down to get it cleaned up, also and this is also importnat becaseu we leave a bit of texture in the stone it doesnt look amiss against the texture missed from the hard to reach corners.
  You do use very little chemical product this way, buts its worth doing a small test area first to make the customer understands the difference between milling and cleaning
Ref The Black Sandstone/Flagstone pics, Milling would work wonders on this and transfrom the stone back to its natural state, use a colour enhabcer afterwards to get the colour to come through, Sandstone always looks good with this sort of sealer.
Regards Russ at Tile Doctor
my website is  www.tiledoctor.co.uk

[russell taylor]

Sorry forgot to answer Ash whites question and clean it up.
The disc pads wear out after about 10m2 depending on the amount of milling required and the hardness of the stone, just done a sod of an Indian sandstone and this was down to about 5mm, and it only did 5m2, but when I did this on an English Flagstone just before Christams I managed about 15m2 before changing disc pads.
The Question about the Victorain Tiles, well that depends which picture you where looking at as we have several on the website, but normaly Victorain Tiles are a 2 day job, if they are true victorain Tiles then there wont be any Damp course fitted so you cant rush a clean and seal, we often use damp testers the next day < especially in winter > to make sure its fully dry before the sealer goes , otherwise the sealer will peel off after a week and you will end up with a call back.
Regards Russ at Tile Doctor

[Kev Martin]

I am curious as to the make up of the DCS pads having only used the green/white/yellows.

In my experience anything other than metal bonds get anhiliated by sandstone. Especially Caithness stuff found up my way.

If they can take 5mm out they are maybe worth a try.

Jamie

A levighetor fitted with a planetario and the correct Metal Sintered Diamonds will take down in half the time with virtually no diamond wear

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd

[Jamie Pearson]

Yeah I will be sticking with the metals on the Tornado I think. I still havent picked up those Levighetors yet. Maybe get them next week.
The size of this job I can see the DCS pads costing too much if they can only achieve 15m2.

How much are they Russ?

The metal bonds I have currently have done well over 1000m2 and have more than same again stil to go.

The edges on this one are going to be the fun part. That and the fact they want topical sealer to match all the other areas in the gallery covered in the stuff.

Getting it that dirty brown colour will be a challenge.

[Kev Martin]

Yeah I will be sticking with the metals on the Tornado I think. I still havent picked up those Levighetors yet. Maybe get them next week.
The size of this job I can see the DCS pads costing too much if they can only achieve 15m2.

How much are they Russ?

The metal bonds I have currently have done well over 1000m2 and have more than same again stil to go.

The edges on this one are going to be the fun part. That and the fact they want topical sealer to match all the other areas in the gallery covered in the stuff.

Getting it that dirty brown colour will be a challenge.

Jamie

The edges are a doddle.  As long as you pay for the diamonds and transport I will lend you one of our Klindex Extrema Edge Grinders as its you!  

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd

[Jamie Pearson]

Looks lovely. In fact it looks similar to the new Kunzle & Tasin wood floor edger.

Doing a sample edge next week so will come back to you on this if I cant peel it off with remover.

[Floor_Tony]

Works with wood as well Jamie been around for a while.

[russell taylor]

Message for cleaning systems,
  Quite suprised how many different ways of doing all this there is really,
You speak to one guy on here and he will baffle you with names and choices of equipment etc etc, while its good to have a choice its also good to have a plan that keeps the tooling prices down as the Econmic climate is a bit cool right now so its best to keep the costs down.
Milling is not be confused with Grinding, grinding is usually follwed by Polishing like I said before, you would need a Plantetary machine for Grinding for all the corners and edges no doubt about it.
But the great thing abaout Milling is you only take off about 70 to 80% of the top surface as Sandstones and Slates can be all over the place when it comes to surface flatness, anything that is still left over you can go in with Remove and Go  < a dirt and sealer stripper > or something similar and this way you retain about 20% of the Texture, that way if anything has been missed, corners edges etc it doenst show, unless you get down on your hands and Knees and fell for the texture variation.
Will have to try the Tornado machine John Carden The Newcastle Tile Doctor has one and he wont go anywhere without it.
He has a Klindex machine < dont ask me which one > but he finds it over complicated to operate, does anyone else have this problem with Klindex as I was looking at one last year, and still havent decided yet.
  Regards Russell at Tile Doctor

[Kev Martin]

Looks lovely. In fact it looks similar to the new Kunzle & Tasin wood floor edger.

Doing a sample edge next week so will come back to you on this if I cant peel it off with remover.

Jamie

Just let me know and I will send you up some Aqua Mix Sealing & Coating Remover

Kev

[Jamie Pearson]

Thanks for taking the time to write the above Russell.
I have been restoring all types of floors for best part of 20 years.
In fact I have a Royal Appointment for it (I'm showing off I know )

You can see some of our work here: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-E_kkEblhs

I understand fully what you are describing and may well give it a try.
Although first time out it will be on my own riven slate bathroom as it gets everything chucked at it.

Specifics when it comes to equipment and products is what I personally find most useful on forums as there is a plethora of choice and help to filter it down is a good thing.

With regard to the Tornado they have now been discontinued but are a beast of a machine.

As for the Klindex machines I am not sure what he finds confusing about the actual machine itself as its fairly straight forward system.
Perhaps its chosing the correct tooling for the task he finds more of a challenge. I havent owned one for a number of years as for a time most of our projects were large area commercial maintenance rather than restoration so we sold it on an installation company and decided to build some equipment in house specifically for large area stuff.

In recent years we have gained a reputation for high level domestic work so have managed to source a couple of Levighators from an old associate to help on these smaller areas as the large machines restrict the stuff one guy on his own can do.

Kevin - Thanks for the offer of the machine. We still have some coating remover from our last order although we will no doubt need more. Will know better after the sample area.

Apologies to all for hijacking this thread but I think there is some good information included.

Hopefully they will allow filming on site of the job and I can let everyone see how things progressed.

[Floor_Tony]

I have never been told that a klindex is complicated to use, infact the most comments you get about a klindex is how simple they are then the tooling for them is just understanding.

Jamie what makes you say they have disc. The Tornado? Would be news to me And you think that is a beast you should try a Hurricane.

[Jamie Pearson]

When my engineer called DK for a Rheostat he was told that they were stopping production.

Its a T2 that we have which isnt listed on their site only the T10.

[russell taylor]

Hi Jamie,
  Like I say everybody seems to have an opinion About Techniques,machines, chemicals etc, I think its just a matter of discerning if somebody has an ulterior motive < i.e selling you something > or its just genuine advice with no motive other than to help other Tradesmen out in these tough times.
 As a self employed individual myself and im guessing everybody else on this site is the same, then I can only think that the members are smart enough to make their own mind up on this matter.
Regards Russell at Tile Doctor