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Marble Quarry: Block Extraction, Vertical Cuts Marble Quarry: Block Extraction, Vertical Cuts From "Trade School" episode DTRS-111

Figure A

In this segment, marble quarryman Thomas Dagnan continues extracting a block of marble from the quarry. With the initial undercut finished, he now focuses on three vertical cuts along the sides and back of the block. To cut vertically, he utilizes a large track-mounted diamond wire saw (figure A). The wire saw works much like a band saw and features a loop of diamond wire mounted on a flywheel driven by a powerful electric motor. Water is applied to the cut to provide cooling and to flush the cut.

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Basic tools:
Korfmann saw
Pneumatic ratchet
Jackhammer
Hydraulic crimping tool
Wire saw
String
PVC pipe

After lowering the wire saw on tracks in front of the wall face, Thomas uses a jackhammer to create two 20'-deep holes into the back corners on top of the block (figure B). He drills straight down until meeting his initial undercut. This allows the diamond wire to be looped through to the back of the block.

Then he inserts a length of PVC pipe down into each hole and feeds a string down using water from a hose (figure C). When the string reaches the undercut, his co-workers fish it out from under the block using hooks on the ends of poles (figure D).

Figure B

Figure C

Figure D

Once the string has been captured, Thomas ties one end of the diamond wire to the string and carefully pulls it through the bottom of the block (figure E). Then he connects the two ends of the wire with a copper coupler and hand-crimping tool (figure F).

Figure E

Figure F

With the loop of diamond wire complete and connected to the saw, Thomas begins his two vertical side cuts. To free up the wire rotation, he and his co-workers manually work grooves into the marble by pulling the wire back and forth (figure G). Then he lets the saw do the work. Thomas makes sure to keep the wire slack even by slowly backtracking the wire saw (figure H). He continues until the wire cuts through the sides of the block.

Figure G

Figure H

With the side cuts complete, Thomas finishes by making the back cut. The wire saw is hoisted to the top of the block, with the wire looped around the side cuts and under the block (figure I). Again with the help of his co-workers, he works grooves into the block by manipulating the wire back and forth. Once the wire saw completes the back cut, the block is freed from the wall. The block is then tipped over using the track hoe (figure J) and transported out of the quarry with a front-end loader (figure K).

Figure I

Figure J

Figure K

In the next segment, we explore some of the facts and figures of the Colorado Stone quarry.