Holding Small Pieces

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Linda,

I don't know if my way of working on very small pieces will help because I
almost always cut a flat bottom to any lump of stone that I want to use, but
here goes anyway.

First, I dress off the bottom of any lump of stone so that it will just
about stand up on its own.

I make or re-use a temporary heavy wooden base usually somewhat larger than
I would use for display, using a normal wood drill, drill holes through the
wood roughly in the pattern that you think will hold your work best.

I then use double sided adhesive tape to stick the wood to the stone, place
the wood on the stone so that holes are roughly in the right place and put
your masonry drill into the pr-drilled holes in the wooden base and drill as
deep as you want to into the stone. I then use expanding sleeve masonry
bolts that are long enough to go just about all the way through wood and as
far into stone as you have drilled. Note: choose the right size drill bit
that matches the masonry bolt manufacturers instructions.

Then drill larger holes in the bottom side of your wooden base so you can
countersink the bolt heads and everything will sit nice and flat on your
bench, now tighten up the bolts.

I either clamp the wooden base to my work bench or use a free standing vice.

Just a word of warning if the contact area between wood and stone is very
limited you will not be able to get stuck into the sculpture with real heavy
tools as you could easily shatter the stone around the bolt.

I use another trick borrowed from the wood carvers, I've two holes drilled
through one of my work benches, I place the stone between the holes and pass
a  length of webbing through these holes to make a loop, I actually use
adjustable tie-downs, I then place a wooden plank through the loop at the
bottom, when I want to hold the work tightly I put my weight on the plank.

Regards Clive