Slippery Rock Gazette

Peter J. Marcucci

Just when you thought tools for stone fabrication couldn’t get any better, they just did. Stone Pro, in conjunction with Braxton-Bragg, has raised the bar with the new Elipse polishing system, Stone Pro Seam Machine and Stone Pro Vacuum Template.  Getting it right the first time just got a whole lot easier. 

Stone Pro and Braxton-Bragg have a proven history of introducing tools and products that solve a fundamental problem facing fabricators and installers. We review these three new products that raise the bar for efficiency.

Above: There are plenty of seam setters on the market, but none match the features of the new Stone Pro Seam Machine. The arched design allows you complete access to clean up seams while it is still setting up, while holding the stone locked in place. Brilliant! Says inventor Barry Brandt, “Unlike all other seaming tools, ours has no obstructions to prevent you from cleaning. None of the other seaming tools on the market offer this. They will do the job, but not nearly as neat, clean and fast as this one.”

Above: Shown in a 2 seamer configuration, each Seam Machine has a 12 volt, integrated power source. It’s an independent, autonomous unit. There’s an independent vacuum pump on each unit, so there are no hoses to get in your way. Moreover, there is no power cord, because the power is also onboard. It will run for 10 hours, so if there’s no power at the jobsite, you’re still good to go. It also comes with a charging unit (wall wart), in case you need to recharge in the shop, or on a job site that has electricity (110v).

Above: “The Vacuum Template came about after seeing installers make clouds of dust in multimillion dollar homes, while dry coring fixture holes,” said Inventor Barry Brandt. One great bonus of this design– it can also be used vertically to core holes for stone shower fixtures, and even works on textured stone.

Above: Two features of the Stone Pro Vacuum Template design that make it superior to other machines are its ability to securely fasten to textured and even vertical surfaces.

How the template connects and works… Above:  1) Use the friction connect cone to attach a wet/dry shop-vac hose.

Above:  2) The Stone Pro vacuum template comes with several coring templates– just choose the size to match your job & core bit. No more angled hole start, where you have to guess if you have the bit centered!

Above:  3) Simply drill the hole completely through, allowing the template guide to keep your bit straight and centered. All the water, mess, dust, etc. gets pulled in by the shop vac. – reducing your on-site cleanup.

The Revolutionary Elipse 3-Step Dry & 6-Step Wet Polishing Systems are the New Kings of Cool!  

For over two decades, pads made of phenolic resins have been the de facto standard of the industry. They undoubtedly get the job done but are severely limited by two things: their ability to hold higher quantities of diamonds, and worse, “diamond dropout” renders them useless, often prematurely. This technology has been pushed to its limits, and, in the past few years, has gotten as efficient as current manufacturing technology can make it. To bring polishing pads to the next level, a technological leap is needed.    

Allow me to introduce “TrifectaMate Technology:” a physically and chemically different material far superior to conventional resins, and proprietary to the Elipse 3-step & 6-step polishing systems available from Braxton-Bragg. 

Put simply, the TrifectaMate resin allows a higher concentration of diamonds (more than twice as much, depending on the grit) than traditional technology has allowed to this point. Additionally, Elipse pads are stickier and, therefore, hold onto diamonds longer before being released, yielding more linear feet of polish per pad with faster results.  

Moreover, Elipse pads use polycrystalline diamonds (PCD)— the same diamonds used in oilfield drilling where a 100 percent duty cycle is required. They are little more expensive than conventional diamonds, but offer substantial gains in performance. 

One last point: due to the makeup of the patented TrifectaMate formula, the Elipse final polish pad will achieve a superior finish on all materials, even engineered stone, with no worries of color transfer from pad to material. 

Putting a New Spin on Polishing: The Innovative Elipse Backer Pad

Perfected and manufactured by longtime fabricator/tool designer Barry Brandt, the cutting-edge Elipse Backer Pad is the capstone of the groundbreaking Elipse Polishing Systems. 

What’s so great about this backer pad? Simply put, it rotates with an elliptical motion, and when coupled with Elipse 3-step or 6-step pads, introduces additional performance to the system, explains Brandt. “It flat out does a better job and also keeps the fabricator from fatiguing, because the polishing head is moving in an elliptical motion. The backer pad is offset and balanced with the pad, not just by itself, so you don’t get any vibration.” And that’s only one of the notable differences between the Elipse and regular polishing pads.

“Additionally, the scratch pattern you get on the material with the Elipse is always cross-hatched, so the polishing is twice as fast. You also don’t get any ripples because the head is constantly orbiting. It naturally does a better job, because you’re not counting on your hands and arms to keep you from polishing one area too long. You get a better polish with less fatigue in the field or in the shop. As a plus, any center water feed right angle tool will work.” 

So what prompted Brandt to think in this direction? “Well,” he continued, “for over 40 years, I’ve been infatuated with the stone industry, and I always made tools to make the job easier and improve quality. The orbital motion of an orbital sander sands a lot faster and cleaner with less motion from the operator, but the mechanics while trying to incorporate the center water feed through an orbital motion, one that would last, was a tough and expensive task. But when I got to thinking about it, it’s no different from a tire that’s out of round. You simply counter-weight it to keep it balanced. So that’s what we did! 

“Some natural stones are difficult to polish, especially the ones with both hard and soft spots, making it very difficult if you’re not moving the polisher fast enough. The elliptical motion of the Elipse Backer Pad takes a lot of the human error out of the process because of the crosshatch pattern. It allows someone with less experience to get professional results, immediately. That’s the key, allowing almost anybody to be able to surface polish, especially when polishing glued seams to make them virtually invisible. 

“This type of backer pad has been something needed for a long time, especially with engineered stone, where if you stayed in one area too long, you’d get a burn spot.” 

Curing the Decades-Old Problem of Seam Warpage

Stone Pro’s new and mighty Seam Machine will help bulletproof your installations

If you’re not fully confident about the way you’re finishing seams these days, take a good look at the Stone Pro Seam Machine. No, it’s not just a remake of the same old – same old — it’s a rethink of the standard, and by all criteria, it breaks the mold. 

How is the Seam Machine different from the others, you ask? Barry Brandt continues, “We’ve made seaming tools in the past, but they were all rigid and had rods that ran from one side to the other, and the only flex that you really got was if you were pushing and bending the stone. Unfortunately, by doing this, many times you’re pulling the cup loose from the stone, because the tool had to flex. 

“We made the Seam Machine so it pivots.  Each arm comes out independently, so when it lifts one side of the stone, it pushes the other side of the stone down, independently. Not only that. We put an arch design in it, so you can get your hand underneath to clean the seam while it’s setting up. 

“Unlike all other seaming tools, ours has no obstructions to prevent you from cleaning. None of the other seaming tools on the market offer this. They will do the job, but not nearly as neat, clean and fast as this one.” 

Each Seam Machine has a 12- volt, integrated power source. It’s an independent, autonomous unit. There’s an independent vacuum pump on each unit, so there’s no hoses to get in your way.

 “Moreover, there is no power cord, because the power is also onboard. It will run for 10 hours, so if there’s no power at the jobsite, you’re still good to go. 

“Also it comes with a charging unit (wall wart) in case you need to recharge in shop or on a job site with power. Typically, when working with granite and engineered stone, you can experience a 32nd to a 16th bow within a seam, explained Barry, but with the Seam Machine, which does both pieces at once, it will take out the bow better than any machine on the market. 

The Seam Machine is made with stainless steel and aluminum and even looks “space age” stated Brandt, adding, “It works just as well on textured materials as polished. Other companies do make good tools, but I think they missed the boat on this one. We definitely have engineered it be so much better, and because we use the tools we develop every day, we made it easy to learn and easy to use. Once you do, you’ll throw the others away.” 

A New Solution to Efficient On-Site  Coring: The Stone Pro Vacuum Template 

Speed and quality are in a delicate balance, and the quest to improve both in lock step continues to be the driver of innovation. In our industry, most times, the results of these innovations are fewer callbacks, higher profits and a grander bottom line. 

So what was the inspiration for this outstanding tool? “Necessity was the mother of invention for this one,” said Brandt. 

“The Vacuum Template came about after seeing installers make clouds of dust in multimillion dollar homes, while dry coring fixture holes. We were guilty of doing it too, by holding the bit on an angle to start the cut. But no one who starts a hole like that gets a perfect center. They’re always off a little bit, and it looks kind of hokey, definitely unprofessional.” 

Constructed using industrial strength polymer, the Stone Pro Vacuum Template is hooked to a wet-vac via a friction-fit cone which then attaches to the end of the unit. You select one of six different size bit inserts, place one in the unit, and then align it over your mark. Once aligned and the wet-vac is switched on, the Vacuum Template is sucked down tight to the stone. Then, according to Brandt, there is more than enough suction to hold the template in place, regardless if you’re drilling wet or dry. Brandt does, however, recommend using a small amount of water while drilling. 

“While you’re wet drilling that perfectly placed hole, every bit of that water is sucked into your wet-vac. The core will fall through, but there’ll be no water or dust anywhere. Best of all? It also works in vertical applications such as walls and equally well on textured materials. It’s a quick, clean solution to the problem associated with coring on site, and let’s face it, it’s the little details like this that make your company look professional.” 

So if your bottom line feels like it’s tied to an anchor, raise it by talking to your Braxton-Bragg representative about these great new tools, available from www.braxton-bragg.com. Call toll-free 800-575-4401 for more information.