Cutting, Drilling, and Shaping Dry Rock

[Left Coast DJ]

I'm about to set-up a new tank. And I want to create a scape that I want. So rather than relying on the random shape of rock (dry rock either from BRS or ArcReef), I'd much rather shape them myself with a chisel, hacksaw, and Dremel. And maybe even drill some caves.

Anyone who has done this before have any tips and tricks from experience?

 

[dbl]

My tip...wear gloves!!!!!!!!

You will find, at least in my experience, that depending on the rock you are using, there is a certain randomness to the cuts you end up with. I personally used a chisel, and although you can not get an "exact" cut, you end up with the "basic" shape you want and work from there. I then epoxied the pieces together in the shapes I wanted.

 

[KJAG]

Chisels are sort of a last resort in my opinion. They can easily remove way more than desired. I like hacksaws for large sections, then a dremel with tile grinder bit etc for cleaning up edges of a hacksaw cut. For holes a hole saw with a mandrel, only if the piece is rock solid with not much porous/ creviced area. Favorite tool for just removing smaller sections of rock(or caves on a lighter, creviced piece) is a step bit. These bits have stacked layers with a straight flute as opposed to masonry bits which spiral upward and cause significantly more vibration than a step bit.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

All the above. Lime stone is soft. You can chisel, drill, dremmel and shape. Very much like actual sculpting. The real trick imo is , each rock had a different density. They also have growth lines somtimes that may a weakness and cause the cut to run. Masonry drills can be bad as they’re not as sharp and are designed to grind out dense rock or cement.

I use a combo of very sharp chisels , hole saws, and wood drills. A band saw would be great but....

 

[cracker]

I have used hammer & chisel,an old chop saw with concrete cutting wheel for flat ends ( this works great for base pieces.) Depends on the density of the rock. I guess a hole saw would work for tunnels& such.

 

[Jlentz]

Pukani is really fun to shape if you get a big piece. First time I ordered brs sent me a 75# boulder.

For pukani, I used mostly a wood handsaw and a 1/4” chisel with a dead blow hammer.

The saw cuts through dry pukani like a hot knife through butter. Go slow with the little chisel and it works great. It can be pretty random but I figure it’s a bit more natural looking that way.

I did have to use epoxy to glue some pieces back together.

 

[chefjpaul]

.

 

[Flippers4pups]

.

I also had very good luck using hydraulic cement (quikrete). About the same stuff as the E-marco stuff. Sets up fast, so working in small batches is best. Drilling holes using a masonry bit and using fiberglass driveway maker rods works well holding pieces of rock together.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

I'm about to slice up a largish piece of pukani with a hacksaw for my aquascape. I looked at the way my tank was built, and had to reevaluate how i was going to scape, and no way would these large chunks fit as they were. Good to see my plan would work.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

I tried to cut some reef saver rock.... save yourself the trouble, that stuff laughed off and dulled 3 hacksaw blades and i barely made a scratch in it. This stuff even laughed off a regular drill bit. I'll have to get the legit gear to work with this stuff.