Messages

perhaps this will help. In Philadelphia, many years ago I worked for a company that would repair concrete bridges and abutments struck by boats or large ships. These were structurally damaged and cracked concrete structures. The bridge engineers approved of an epoxy product that when dry would structurally pull the broken parts together and actually be stronger than the undamaged concrete product. It was an elaborate process where we would wax the cracked surface and along the surface make tiny openings where we would force the epoxy product into the cracks until the epoxy would come out at different ends. I suspect they are still using this process to repair cracked concrete structures. Perhaps a good high quality epoxy product could be used to bring these two pieces of stone back together. As we did when we repaired cracked bridge structures. The hot wax is used to prevent the epoxy from flowing out of the crack. Prior to using the hot wax place small pieces of tape vertically to the cracked surface when wax dries pull the tape off at the place that you are going to force the epoxy into the crack and one other place where you can visually see that the epoxy has filled the crack entirely.when the epoxy dries it should pull the surfaces together and as long as you true the stone you should have no problems except for perhaps slightly out of round and balance but it should run true. let us know how this works. and in thinking about this I would also use a clamp to clamp the stones together not too tight or too lose because you do not want too much epoxy or too little epoxy but just enough so that you can wet both surfaces and as it dries it will begin to shrink slightly hopefully bringing the stones back to the original form and dimensions.

After using a VB 36, The VB36
Master Bowlturner Lathe,
manufactured someplace in England, designed and developed by a gifted mechanic, there is really few machines better. Realizing this may cause controversy, I apologize. It is very similar to the Tormek sharpening system none better. So far. Sometimes controversial from a few who have never used the Tormek machine or calculated the real cost of sharpening improperly without it.
   
http://www.hegner.co.uk/pages/VB36_Lathes/vb36_lathes.html

Not sure British engineering is always the very best, this is a very effective Bowlturner Lathe that is fun and a real joy to use. Developed and accumulated my experience traveling around the world in the military and had the opportunity of using many different and varred equipment found, sometimes  home built and modified equipment is found to be very good also. Unfortunately, have not found any US-made wood lathe as well thought out with features and benefits like this one. Where extreme load carrying capability is called for, especially at low rotational speeds both forward and backwards, plain bearings are the natural choice because they effectively eliminate metal-to-metal contact at the bearing interface. If you can find one that has many of the features and benefits that this lathe has you will be pleased. In truth though the key to cutting beautiful products from raw wood is sharp tools, if your tool is properly sharpened you will experience incredible joy producing wonderful results with not as much effort as before properly sharp tools and, very little resistance experienced and less time spent finishing the products. You will properly cut and almost perfectly finish, ready to share with others. It is difficult to express because it is almost unbelievable. If we had not experienced it we would say it is too good to be true.