How to Order Stone: Fabrication
Fabrication will not start until the shop drawings have been approved by the customer. Additionally we must have the sink and faucet before we start fabrication. An additional (but optional) step is that the customer, home owner, and/or designer may come to our shop and layout the templates on the slabs to be cut. This is more of an issue with material with a lot of movement as opposed to materials with a consistent pattern. Actual fabrication will start with the cutting of the slab(s) on our bridge saw. Below is a pictorial tour of the complete fabrication process for a 2cm marble vanity top. Please note some steps shown are only applicable to marble or 2cm material (and not applicable or typical to 3cm or granite). Fabrication will take approximately three to six (2-6) weeks depending on the size and complexity of the job as well as additonal jobs currently in production in our shop.
Fabrication Slideshow
Squaring up slab on saw - 1 Squaring up slab on saw - 2 Laying out template Laying out build up strips Cutting build up strips Cutting vanity top Cut top and build up strips Grooves on back for steel rods Matching the veining of the build up strip to the countertop Removing the fiberglass from build up area Roughing up glue surface Applying mixed glue Spreading glue along surface Clamping build up strip to countertop Trimming to size Checking edge detail settings Roughing in the edge detail Hand shaping edge detail corners Start polishing with medium grit stones Start polishing with medium grit stones-2 Continue polishing with fine grit sandpaper Continue polishing with fine grit sandpaper-2 Finish polishing with buffing wheel and jewelers rouge Finished polished edge Grinding out scratches Checking for evenness of finish Finished polish Measuring template and countertop for CNC program Digitizing sink cutout (from supplied template) Screen shot of CNC program in CAD/CAM software Positioning vacuum pads to hold down countertop CNC programed and setup ready to run Holes drilled Cutting sink shape Finishing cutting of sink cut out (SCO) CNC program finished - ready to remove from machine Setting up to polish SCO Hand polishing SCO Finishing of hand polishing SCO Removing fiberglass at SCO Drilling the anchor hole Anchor pieces laid out Sink with anchor & stud set Anchor and stud set in hole Bracket set in place to hold sink Nut tightened down to hold bracket and sink tight Measuring for plywood subtop Subtop cut and fit Sink cutout traced & offset for rim being laid out Cutting hole in plywood for sink Spreading glue on stone to hold subtop Setting subtop in place and clamping down until glue dries
Some notes about this gallery:
- 3cm materials do not requrie a build up or lamination, nor do they require sub-tops.
- Most granites will not require re-polishing, however exposed overhangs (ie at upper bar tops) do get polished or honed on the back side (underneath).
- The anchor system shown is the Keil anchoring system to anchor sinks. The Keil anchoring system is a German mechanical anchoring system designed for stone facades and works extremely well for undermount sinks.
- Most of our edge details are run either on our CNC or the Pro-edge, though there are some that are still run with a special profiling wheel on the saw as shown here.
